Album Review

Vinnie Caruana – City By The Sea

• 25th Jan 2013

Vinnie Caruana’s debut solo EP ‘City By The Sea’ will be well received by fans of his bands I Am The Avalanche and The Movielife (now disbanded). It’s a six track record with plenty of sing-along choruses, sentimental lyrics and loveable guitar chord changes which takes an acoustic look at Vinnie’s strong rock songwriting. Some will liken him to an American Frank Turner, a gravelly voice, hardcore roots and rousing rhythmic strumming. However, part time bar tender Caruana’s EP stands out as a personal tale spanning sadness, death, love, friendship and hope which has an unmistakably New York sound.

The EP opens with ‘Somehow the world keeps turning’, a guitar led track which lays down the image of a musician battling with himself, whose voice crops up throughout the EP. The low key acoustic sound introduces gentle percussion, strings and piano which add a feeling of sentimentality and romanticism, creating a really interesting juxtaposition with Caruana’s undeniably ‘rock’ vocal. The track also includes reverberating sound recordings of what sounds like a New York music venue, which taken into the mix have a dreamy quality and affirm the record as rooted in memory and place. ‘Boy, You’re in Heaven’ then ups the tempo, and becomes a celebratory ode to lost friends. A similar theme echoes in ‘To Be Dead and In Love’, which is a beautiful song despite a confusing exercise in childhood rhyming poetry in the chorus lyrics “burn my body into the sky, and put my ashes on a fly, back to herrrrrrr”.

The title track of the EP ‘City By The Sea’ is a multi-layered, angsty song which has great melody and more musical complexity than some of the other tracks. A metaphorical, guilt-ridden therapy session, this track moves the record towards its hopeful finishing note with heavy metaphorical love for New York City. With a few things off Vinnie’s chest, the EP draws to a close on a reflective, thankful and hopeful note. “If I’m a battleship, then you’re the northern lights (Thank You)” has a delightful and surprising pop feel to it, with 60’s style call and response backing vocals and thoroughly upbeat boppy undertones. ‘Kingwood’ is the most cheerful toned track yet, with a great celebratory feel to it that anyone can relate to their own hometown and oldest friends.

Vinnie Carunana has made an EP which plays around cleverly with a rock base and an earnest sincerity which could as easily have come from a teenager in their garage as a musician with over a decade of success. The use of more traditional and at times pop acoustic instruments works far more successfully than you would imagine, and ‘City By The Sea’ looks set to mean as much to Caruana’s fanbase as any of his previous work, indeed so accessible that it’s bound to draw a whole new audience to the Brooklyn rocker.

Venue: City By The Sea
Support Band: Surrender/Run For Cover