Iron fist in a velvet glove, hell. RPM, who has with one CD
\nascended to my Personal Pantheon Of Coolness, is more like a
\ntitanium fist in a sandpaper glove with little spiky bits all over
\nit. She’s mean as fuck, she’s smart as a whip, and she’ll be only
\ntoo glad to kick your ass if you need it or if you piss her off.
\nShe has punk sensibility, in-your-face songwriting, an active
\nsocial conscience, and there are _string hits_ on
\nIrrational Anthem<\/i>, her debut CD.. In short, she’s damn near
\nperfect. So’s the CD.<\/p>\n
Sure, It has PARENTAL ADVISORY stamped all over it. (And if you
\nthink the lyrics are bad, you should read the liner notes. Gotta
\nlove an artist who tells Clear Channel “Fuck you.” It’s
\nrefreshing.) But under all the vitriol and attitude is some tight,
\ntight singing; brilliant lyrics; and generally great rock and roll.
\nThis is great stuff — and best of all, it’s not posturing
\ncalculated to sell CDs to teenysomethings. April Lavigne only
\nWISHES she was half — no, hell, a sixteenth — as much a riotgrrl
\nas RPM.<\/p>\n
The production (courtesy of Frank Gryner, who has worked with
\nRob Zombie, The Crystal Method, and A Perfect Circle) is adequate
\nto good; there’s occasional fuzz in the mix, but nothing that RPM’s
\nvocals can’t blow through. Musicianship is good to excellent;
\nthere’s some snarling guitar throughout the CD that counterpoints
\nthe anger and passion really well.<\/p>\n
In some ways, though, the music is secondary (though filled with
\noccasional surprises like the aforementioned orchestra hits). The
\nheart and soul of Irrational Anthem is RPM and all the things that
\npiss her off — and it’s exhilarating. In forty minutes, she
\nmanages to flip the lyrical bird at organized religion
\n(“Goddamnit”), average sheeplike people (“Don’t Be You”), the
\nmainstream media (“Girl Next Door”), false friendship (“Unlike
\nMe”), and as a piece de resistance tells a persistent suicide to go
\nahead and jump (“I Won’t Stop You”). You may not agree with
\neverything she says, but you can’t fault her passion, her fire, or
\nthe depth of her feeling. Something is rotten everywhere you look,
\nand RPM’s apparently tired of ignoring it. It’s easy to call this
\ncynicism; but is it cynicism if it’s really this fucked up?<\/p>\n
Halfway through
\nIrrational Anthem<\/i>, RPM neatly summarizes herself in two
\nlines: “Am I making you nervous? Well, I should”. Frankly, I think
\nwe could use some more nervous, ’cause the emperor is out of
\nclothes. If you’re tired of media hype and fake rebels, do yourself
\na favor and check out the real thing.<\/p>\n
For more information, check out
\nhttp:\/\/www.rpm.tv.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":26580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6959],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-37825","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-rpm","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37825"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}