Hailing from Ruurlo, Netherlands, singer-songwriter Martin Kuiper delivers a captivating blend of ’90s alt-rock and grunge on his album “Prison Of Modesty”.We previously had Martin on our website before, but today is an exciting day as this sees his new album finally land.
The album is comprised of 10 tracks, of which seven were previously released. We are going to focus on some of the tracks that are new here—or at least new to us. I can’t help but praise the opening track, “Still I Promise”, as this is a fantastic gateway song to his sound, with plenty of Beach Boys-styled backing vocals laced upon a rather indie-rock-driven track, almost beckoning you into the 10-track album.
One of the new tracks is called “In Security”, and it’s quite the charming cut with some moody guitar tones that reminisce of those 1980s bands, such as Dire Straits. With that, his vocals really do come to light here as the song is rather stripped back in terms of its layering. It still has a punchy guitar tone, almost grungy at times, with simplistic percussion that will have you nodding in agreement.
Another standout track is “She’s a Story”. Perhaps my favourite on the album, it is a bit more of a radio-friendly cut, but it has strong vocal moments and charming guitar tones that will have any indie rock fan swooning over it (especially with the fantastic backing vocals towards the latter third of the track). Just be sure to stick around for the wonderful guitar solo, roughly at the 2:30 mark.
“You and I” is another one of the new songs, and this one is more of a slidey Americana cut, as you’ll be able to hear from the first 10 seconds. What it turns into is more of an upbeat Sam Fender-esque style track, with, once again, amazing backing vocals and a chorus that will have you adding the track to your upbeat playlists way before the halfway point even arrives.
Closing out the album is the track “Leave It”, and this might be an absolute masterpiece as far as I’m concerned, because it’s quite an alternative track in terms of the songs preceding it, with echoes of the early ’90s in places (and especially a deep and grungy guitar line that enters the fold way before the first minute even arrives).
As the track “Leave It” steadily progresses, it becomes a pure nostalgic trip at the 3-minute mark, with an epic guitar solo that will make you reconsider giving this track another play. As I found out once I got to this point, I clicked on repeat and gave it a second spin because this is an understated track on the album. The final third of this song is filled with scorched guitars and will have you hooked on more from Martin.
This album is a fantastic offering from Martin and is a perfect insight into the sounds he is developing. I will give this an incredibly solid 8.5 out of 10. The only thing I wish is that it was longer, with plenty more tracks, so I could stick around for more.