Rhett Repko - About Last Night (2017)

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Written by Jay Snyder, posted by blog admin

Rhett Repko’s debut offering About Last Night a wonderful introduction to the singer/guitarist’s lush world of sound where pop meets rock and marries happily ever after.  Despite a couple of slightly awkward moments, Repko’s sound is fully-formed and in control of delivery, songwriting and texture in a way that renders each jam catchy and complete. 

“Were You Ever Really Mine?” starts things off, using acoustic guitar as the base and allowing Repko’s gliding vocals to melt like butter over bluesy bass lines, thumping percussion and a groovy, sonic guitar workout.  It’s not so tough as to deserve the label “hard rock” but it’s above cut and dry “pop” by a few millions miles.  This natural, organic flow keeps the EP afloat and consistently engaging; well-worth the listener’s time and energy to explore its depths.  “She loves me” and “On the Run” cull a lot of influence from country (primarily) and blues/folk (secondarily) in terms of the 4/4 rhythm figures and juicy bits of amplified guitar riffing but Rhett’s smooth voice and locked-on acoustic melodies put the songwriting in a more spacious realm; favoring brains over pure brawn.  “Inside of Me” is completely out of left field, but not if you check out Repko’s bio.  He’s a big Beatles fan and here he takes their scraggly psychedelic rock shades and decks out the chassis with modern pop flair.  It’s the most retro sounding track on the EP, although it avoids the trendy throwback syndrome that too many artists now use as their meal-ticket.  “About Last Night” and “Bye Bye Baby” are the album’s two balladic moments; the former being the stronger of the two thanks to mountainous vocal melodies that are always ascending and a lush string section grafted onto the choruses for epic intentions that are not only met but exceeded. 

Though a couple of the songs would be even more awesome with clearer chorus hooks (really only 2 and they are still great overall), the majority of this EP showcases a songwriter finding, developing and pushing his gift to the limit.  We are going to be hearing some exciting things from Rhett Repko in the future.  This EP is a fantastic start and spotlights a singer/songwriter elevating a genre of music that’s long since fallen into a musical wasteland.  He’s not afraid to invigorate pop with gutsy rock and bravado, enough to please the rock n’ roll purists that like their pop to walk the more aggressive side of the tracks.