On June 27, 2025 Rusty Shipp released their new concept album “Capsized Empire” to continue the story of their previous 2022 album “Dark Side of the Ocean.” Described by the band as “by far our longest, most ambitious, thought-provoking, epic album to date,” the concept album continues the tradition of their previous releases by using sound effects and ambience-creating interludes to paint a fiction story and bring the listener into this world they’ve created. But the new album introduces many firsts for the band, including a band theme song (“All Aboard!”), the exploration of new genres, narration tracks (to clearly tell the story), vocal samples from their fans interjected throughout, goofiness never before seen by the band, and (on a serious note) a singular message that all the songs’ lyrics contribute to – in this case to address the philosophical problem of evil in the world.
LISTEN TO IT at linktr.ee/RustyShipp
The artistic, nautical world the band has been building progressively since 2014 is on steroids in this new album, laced throughout with oceanic sound effects and sailor/pirate voices. Pushing beyond their self-imposed boundaries of Nautical Rock ‘n’ Roll – the band is finally comfortable to dabble in the goofy fun they have joked about for years (and their fans have longed for). The song “Tough Guys” is basically a parody of AC/DC as if sung by pirates, and the traditional sea shanty “Spanish Ladies” is given the full Rusty Shipp treatment of grungy, ghostly guitars and sung by rowdy sailors in a pub.
Other firsts for Rusty Shipp are new genre experimentations with blues (“1882”), jazz (“On The Docks”), swing (“Scallywags”), orchestral piano Brit-rock (“Nefarious”), and the Nautical Rock group’s first-ever instrumental, classic, surf rock song (“Aquamoto”). This album is also the group’s most overtly story-centric effort with full-on narration tracks, many provided by the band’s fans, called Shippmates, as a perk for the album’s crowd-funding campaign.
“We’re excited to finally have an album whose main artistic imagery and ambience is more beach and shore-focused, as opposed to our typical deep sea motif,” explained frontman Russ T Shipp. “Especially being released at the onset of summer, it’s such a thrill to think that this album will become many people’s “Soundtrack of Summer 2025” with its oceanic, beach theme inevitably making it a go-to album for people’s vacations and beach trips, naturally becoming the background music to the memories that will form.”
Beyond all the fun nautical ambience and puns, though, lies the real thrust and message of “Capsized Empire.” The artwork that comes with the physical CD explains: “The other story is the more covert one that’s told through the philosophical lyrics of each song, creating a parallel undercurrent to the surface-level fiction story. This story addresses the problem of evil in the world. Each song responds to this problem from a different angle – as we hear from the voices of those grappling with the painful consequences of evil, as well as from those inflicting the pain…”
The album has already spawned three successful radio singles, including “Neck Breaker” which rose to #7 on Christian Music Weekly’s Rock Charts and spent ten weeks in the Top 10, as well as “All Aboard” and “Espionage” (released a month ahead of the album).
LISTEN TO IT at linktr.ee/RustyShipp
BUY THE PHYSICAL CD/ART/STORY at https://bit.ly/rs-webstore
This is the first Rusty Shipp album to have a more in-depth story and message written out in the artwork that comes with the physical CD. If you’d like to read the story, get a physical keepsake to remember this album release, and also support the band monetarily (10x more than through streaming services), you can buy a physical CD (AND get it autographed by the band!) on RustyShipp.com here: https://bit.ly/rs-webstore
Physical and digital albums also available on Bandcamp at RustyShipp.bandcamp.com
For more info on Rusty Shipp, visit the JFH Indie Artists Database.
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