Cleopatrick: Bummer Album Review

By Christian Villarreal
Music Journalist

Rock music has gone through many changes and has adopted several subgenres since its creation, but rock music itself has been relatively unchanged. Cleopatrick has set their minds to breaking the mold surrounding rock music and is renovating the rock genre altogether with their debut album Bummer.

Fuzzy guitar riffs and catchy beats are the least that the Canadian Rock-duo Cleopatrick can do. The band released their first studio album Bummer on June 4, 2021. The album takes rock in a new direction as the garage band writes songs about personal conflicts that come with the beginning of adulthood. Songs like “The Drake” and “2008” showcase guitarist and singer Luke Gruntz’s emotional honesty in songwriting. Gruntz tackles issues of a changing world as one enters adulthood with the album. “2008” not only portrays his honesty but taps into raw emotions that anyone who has been in high school has felt. 

“The Drake” and “Family Van” tell the story of Gruntz’s traumatic experience confronting his bullies, both new and old. There is a refreshing level of realism in the lyrics rather than writing about love and heartbreak, Bummer is a reflection of the changes everyone goes through at the end of their teenage years and the beginning of their adult life. 

The songs take you with the lyrics and let you release frustrations with the sounds of crashing drums and a loud guitar. Ian Fraser on drums takes the reins in songs like “Pepper’s ghost” and “No Sweat” through tight precision in the beats to untamed chaos. A distinction is not something this band lacks in any way, and Fraser’s drumming is a big reason why. He is able to give a unique sound in his beats that you don’t hear with many other drummers.

Gruntz has been influenced by more than classic rock, he draws lyrical inspiration from other sources like hip-hop. In songs like “Great Lakes” and “Victoria Park,” the deviation from the standard rock and roll formula becomes more evident, especially when he specifically mentions it in the songs. Gruntz and Fraser are a rock duo, but when they play, they become more than that. The music they make is redefining the genre.

Cleopatrick is at its core a rock band, but they are taking the genre in a new direction. The music they’ve made in their album Bummer is pure untamed emotion. It’s real and honest, but most importantly, it just sounds amazing. Through combining lyrical style from hip hop and the loud music of rock, the band has created something really special that is more than worth checking out.