Prepare to be Cleansed: Review of Cleanse by Rusty Dusty

By Aidan Bailey
Music Journalist

On March 1, Rusty Dusty came out with their second LP entitled Cleanse. The album includes 9 songs and is around 40 minutes long when played consecutively. 

I’ve been extremely excited about this new album and have been waiting anxiously to download it on spotify. Luckily, I had a chance to see them earlier in January at their live showing of the new album.

In the first moments of hearing this album, I was flushed with a powerful wave of emotion that almost brought me to tears. Travis’s angelic voice ties elegantly with the music and is, in my opinion, one of the best albums that has come out so far this year.

Thankfully I got to meet up with some members of the band, and got some insider info on the new album. 

One of the first things I wanted to know was compared to the first LP, what mindset did the band have when going into creating Cleanse. They explained that their main priority was to do better than the last album. They also added that because of their experience producing The No Good Serpentine Funtime Mosaic Experience, they were able to have more control while producing Cleanse; it even ended up being a positive experience for the band.

As the group recorded the album, they wanted to involve more voices into their music. In the songs “Moving in Moving Out” and “Hazy Eyes,” lead guitarist Bryce Brown takes position as the lead vocalist, giving the songs a new twist. Additionally, the band started incorporating a keyboard in this album, which is played by Quinn Decker.

The band explained that they’ve always wanted to incorporate a keyboard and have finally included it into their music. Now on the subject of music, I also had questions about one of my favorite tracks.

The song I was interested in hearing about was, “The World is Drowning.” Travis Roper, lead vocalist and guitarist, enlightened and explained to me that the song symbolized an epiphany that awakens one to the realities of life, as if the world is drowning upon you.

This also happens to be one of their recommended songs off the album, which also includes, “Open Closures,” “Walls” and “Moving in Moving out.” However, they explained that since the album has a short duration of only 39 minutes and 11 seconds, it’s worth going through every song in one go!

To sum up, I highly recommend this album to anyone who loves the local music scene here in San Marcos. Rusty Dusty worked very hard together to create a masterpiece of a second LP. If you want to see Rusty Dusty live, I have listed the next few show dates below. Make sure you go and show them some love!

March 21 @ Tantra Coffee House, San Marcos, Texas

April 2 @ Empire Control Room, Austin, Texas 

April 3 @ Martian Arts Festival, San Marcos, Texas

Featured image retrieved from Rusty Dusty.