I’ve known of Keith Caputo for years – he was the vocalist for Life Of Agony, a band who soundtracked a great deal of my late teens – but I was completely unaware that he had a subsequent solo career. Having just listened to his latest album, A Fondness For Hometown Scars, I think I understand why that career slipped under my radar: his solo stuff isn’t very good.
Kudos, of course, for not resting on the laurels of past glory; the easy route for Caputo would be to keep churning out replicas of his old material, and that’s most assuredly not what he’s doing. After all, it was principally Caputo’s voice that made Life Of Agony such a stand-out act from the then-diversifying New York hardcore scene, in that he was the only singer who actually, y’know, sung. Place him down firmly in rocky singer-songwriter territory, however, and he’s nowhere near as exciting or intriguing a proposition.
It might help if the songs were a bit more exciting, but A Fondness For Hometown Scars doesn’t show much evidence. Caputo’s not phoning this stuff in, granted, but nor is he doing anything much out of the ordinary for the solo songwriter… with the possible exception of using wildly different styles to the extent that they clash rather than contrast.
The bulk of A Fondness For Hometown Scars is mopey piano-lounge balladeering as typified in “Sad Eyed Lady”, with downtrodden and suicide-prone lyrical themes that those familiar with Caputo’s earlier work will find vaguely familiar (should they actually decide to stick out the entire album, that is). But there are a few metal-lite tracks thrown into the mix like grenades into the punchbowl, too. “Troubles Down” sees Caputo trying his best to be Scott Weiland, which - given Weiland’s own repeated failure to deliver - may be a remarkably astute move. More astute than this uninspired Stone Temple Pilots homage, anyway.
Later on Caputo pulls the same trick again, splurging the button-pushing radio rawk of “Devil’s Pride” into the flow, only to have it followed by the shimmering keys and jazz-brush drumming of “Bleed For Something Beautiful”, meaning the few significant dynamic shifts on A Fondness For Hometown Scars are jarring and misplaced.
Maybe it’s the association with his former career, but I can’t help but be hugely disappointed by A Fondness For Hometown Scars. I wasn’t expecting River Runs Red Redux, but there’s none of Caputo’s old fire on display here, and it’s a sad state of affairs when the most distinctive track on an eminently forgettable album is something like “Son Of A Gun” - a moody shambling cliché of a country rock track that makes Kid Rock sound like an innovator. Recommended for completists only.
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Posted in Music reviews |
Tags: A Fondness For Hometown Scars, acoustic, alt-rock, Caputo, rock, solo
August 25th, 2008 at 8:10 am
That was an unashamed bias review, on so many accounts.
Try listening through ears that are little less cynical.
You might enjoy yourself a bit more.
August 25th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Of course it was biased - just as biased as your comment. Bias with respect to art is a function of being human, and I’ll not apologise for that. If we all liked the same stuff, it’d be a pretty boring world, after all.