“MILK RIVER” BY LUKE ROUNTREE: A CAPTIVATING ALBUM THAT TAKES YOU THROUGH LIFE’S MOMENTS WHILE KEEPING YOU ENTERTAINED
5 min read
Not many albums comes off good, sometimes you get a song or two which are good and then the rest turns out okay. But have you had an album where everything ok it is just amazing and captivating, like you can’t even skip a song, and the way the album has been arranged makes it soo intriguing to skip any track. You’re in your toes, waiting for the next track to consume you and get you intoxicated with it content and that’s exactly what Luke Rountree’s “Milk River” album is. An the most amazing thing about the album is, it’s Luke Rountree’s first music project after 12 years of hiatus lands him on the music scene, emerging from the shadows with a full-length debut album. So just imagine how that will sound like, nothing we’ve ever heard before and my goodness this “Milk River” album is indeed a river filled with milk, cos I love every track on it and trust me you gonna love it. It’s a 10-track album recorded in 33rd Street Studios, Edmond, Oklahoma.
When you take a look at Luke’s personality, you’d know he’s not a man of many words but how can such a person infuse deep heartfelt lyrics of life, love, death and God into each track? Now the fun part is not only for he do it all alone but he got local talents like Ryan McGuire on drums, John Freise on bass guitar, and Randy Sanders on guitar, and man when you hear those beats and melodies , you feel the difference between talent and someone who learned the talent. The way every note of each element is heard is marvelous and how they blend in together to give the listener an orgasmic feel is wholesome and unmatched. Lemme just cleanse the face of three tracks for you and find out how the rest pans out and come back here to give me ma flowers. Setting the tone for the rest of the EP to follow suit is the opening track “All We Ever.” In this song, you hear Rountree talks about the nature of time’s influence and life’s fleeting moments. Like those moments in your life where you ask yourself questions, wondering how everything is the way it is, then you realize all we ever do is procrastinate things and make it worse. We never fix anything and even when we do, we fix what was damaged yesterday but what about the future? What are we doing to stop what happened yesterday from repeating itself? What about what about years ago? The chorus becomes a sing-along piece that the listener ponders on it and resonate deeply with it. It’s like everything just comes back at us, it moves in cycles and there’s never a fix. We are always looking for something but do ever do anything about it when we find it? Cos all “All we ever do is say someday, all we ever fix is yesterday”. Such an amazing way to lure listeners to sit tight and see how the rest of the album pans out. It’s intriguing and let’s the listener reflect on their past and some choices they made, then realize how things could have been different. What I love about this track is, it has some elements of country and blues infused in here, the way the beats pans out, gives you the feel of country yet rocky and all you gotta do is sit tight and enjoy it.
Then you’re transported to track 6 titled “Kings and Queens Wait in Line”. This track lures listeners into the world of existentialism and introspection. The track starts beautifully with some nostalgia western cowboy strings that just catches your attention, keep you hooked with Rountree’s gentle yet chilling vocals, then those soothing melodies just calms your nerves and glues you to the track. The track talks about the pursuit of purpose and identity and mortality. Imagine if Kings and Queens are waiting in line? Is that not lost of purpose and identity? How can a king wait in line? This track is deeper than you think, if a king is waiting in line then they’ve lost their identity and purpose in life, so they’ve got to discover themselves and live alike. It paints a clear image of venerability and power, laying emphasis on how sometimes we loose ourselves in the pursuit of our dreams, forgetting who we actually are and living like a disappointment. It’s a song of resilient and self-discovery. The song want you to understand your purpose in life, no matter the uncertainties life throws at you. Another track that just makes you wanna stand and enjoy it is track 7 titled “Clear Blue Morning”. This track just does it for me, in world filled with chaos and struggles, you would want to find someone who can understand you, someone you can share your ideas with, someone with a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on. You need that zeal, that power, that person to be around you, to calm your chaos world, and is that too much to ask? The emotional depth in here is crazy and you can feel the pain in the vocals, the stress, the anguish and moans and groans, then the more you listen, the beats and melodies just fills you with tears and you can’t even control the emotional depth of the song. I just want you here with me, so come home.
Well Milk River Album by Luke Rountree is the definition of creativity at its best, the lyrics, beats and the vibes and feel of a genre mixture in here is just phenomenal. See whatever you’re doing, just stop and go put on this album on repeat and jam to it all day throughout the week. It’s the perfect album for your weekend getaways, your camps and something to bless your afternoon. So what you waiting for? Go ahead and give this Album a listen and enjoy the rest of you week with a Luke Rountree masterpiece. ENJOY!! Make sure to check him out on the links below for more;
https://www.instagram.com/lukerountreemusic/
English