Pretty Rude - Ripe (2025) [Hi-Res]

James Palko may be known for his mathy Midwest-emo project Perspective, a Lovely Hand to Hold, his work with the edgier post-hardcore band Taking Meds, and his recent solo foray into yacht rock as Jimmy Montague, but his latest release manages to maintain plenty of distance from each of these unique projects. Pretty Rude’s debut album Ripe could best be summed up as a concept album about self-grifting, played with a blend of the slacker-grunge attitude of Weezer (the project was mixed by Jake Sinclair, who worked on 2016’s White Album) and the more theatrical classic-rock feel of Queen.

Out this Friday via SideOneDummy, the final pre-release single also incorporates the playful flair of Jarvis Cocker and a noisier take on power-pop, as Palko explains. “‘The Caller’ stems from my love of those big theatrical choruses on records like This Is Hardcore by Pulp, mixed with slacker-rock verses and amp noise dropouts from bands like The Rentals, pulled together with call-and-response style vocals from classic rock bands.”

As for its lyrics, Palko notes that it’s the simplest distillation of the aforementioned theme of self-manipulation as it applies to one’s creative life. “It’s a conversation with yourself—your past self, maybe, personified as a grifter who conned you into continuing on in a career in music based on false hope,” he elucidates. “That sort of ‘Wait a minute, you told me this would all be fine’ realization that you’ve been lying to yourself through it all. When you’re feeling up, you convince yourself of all these great things coming your way, and when you’re down, suddenly that optimistic voice is long gone, and you’re left holding the bag wondering how you let yourself be duped. The conversations between myself, another version of myself that I can blame for all my shortcomings, appears across the record, ‘The Caller’ just felt like the best opening to the theme. Sometimes it’s nice to pass the buck.”