Vinnie Caruana

City By The Sea EP

Written by: PP on 25/03/2013 03:02:44

You might know the name Vinnie Caruana from various seminal punk rock projects from the last decade or so, because his golden throat has been the driving force for The Movielife, I Am The Avalanche, and more recently hardcore band Peace'd Out. Like many other charismatic frontmen before him, he has decided to explore a more mellow realm of his songwriting capacity, and finds himself releasing an EP called "City By The Sea", which falls firmly within the traditional singer-songwriter category.

Opening track "Somehow The World Keeps Turning" recalls early Frank Turner in that it sounds pretty much exactly as you'd imagine a veteran punk rocker to sound like when armed with an acoustic guitar. In this sense, you can sensibly compare him to Lagwagon's Joey Cape and the late NUFAN frontman Tony Sly, because essentially "City By The Sea" sounds like the product of his main bands, just slower and more acoustic. Indeed, the sound is driven by his scratchy voice, classical piano, and laid back acoustic guitar, resulting in pretty much the standard fare punk rocker-turned-singer-songwriter style songs. It's a different side to Vinnie than we're used to hearing, but it's an entirely another debate if it's a better side. This scribe's opinion is that it isn't. It's good to hear that Caruana can convincingly pull off a singer-songwriter type of record as well, but would we honestly not rather hear him scream the chorus to "Amsterdam" by I Am The Avalanche instead?

Otherwise, "City By The Sea" is a decent, if somewhat unsurprising and completely predictable record within its style. Those who worship Caruana's voice as their favorite amongst all vocalists should definitely get this, though, because it puts his throaty style into spotlight even more so than his other projects do. Everyone else might find this a mere curiosity and an expansion on his repertoire, nothing more, nothing less.

7

Download: Somehow The World Keeps Turning, Boy You're In Heaven
For the fans of: Frank Turner, Joey Cape, acoustic punk singer-songwriters
Listen: Facebook

Release date 05.02.2013
I Surrender / Run For Cover Records

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