By Truman Martin – Entertainment Editor

“Loser on the Ropes” is Brian Dunne’s fourth studio album and it was released on April 14. The album features 11 tracks and is exactly 45 minutes long. Dunne has slowly been gaining popularity as a potential great in terms of songwriting in recent years. He has also worked with other amazing songwriters in a supergroup called Fantastic Cat.

Dunne has taken pretty obvious inspiration from artists like Bruce Springsteen and Bob Segar in the past with his songwriting and subject matter. His songs often talk about growing up or going through life in some way. In this album, Dunne is definitely focusing on the harder times of life. Take the song “Bad Luck” for example. In the chorus, he literally says “You can go ten for ten, but bad luck will find you anyway.” 

Even though his new album is focused on hard times, Dunne also focuses a lot on resilience in this album. For example, in the song “The Kids are all Grown,” he says, “My back’s to the wall, I’m not ready to go home yet.” This balances out the album so that it doesn’t feel too “doom and gloom.”

Dunne is one of those artists where you think “Why hasn’t this guy blown up yet?” On Spotify, he only has 60,000 monthly listeners. Despite having a small following, he has this energy that reminds listeners of Springsteen or Segar. This album is just another example of why he’s up next as a great singer/songwriter. 

Overall, “Loser on the Ropes” has 11 great songs and a great message of perseverance. 

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars