Another band clogging up the highway from the past, queuing at the off ramp marked 'comeback'.
Only Rocco Fury's left at the wheel. The remaining passengers from the original band were jettisoned many miles ago.
Okay, enough of the dodgy metaphors.
At times
'Vanity' sounds just too generic to qualify as an American
Angel release, yet at others it comes over as a genuine eighties' artefact.
The problem is this: apart from Fury's voice, the new band - and most of the songs - have few distinctive features. Fury's warm, gravelly voice (and it still sounds damn good) may well be enough for longtime fans. Casual listeners I think, will be looking for something more.
Budget limitations (I assume) have given the production a flimsy, one dimensional feel. The almost total lack of imagination has given several of these songs a flat, lifeless sound, like all the colour's been squeezed out.
The album opens with a sample from the 'Green Mile' movie soundtrack...a moving John Coffey monologue. Its connection to the album wasn't clear to me, but that probably says more about me than the material. It's followed by the 8084/Tyketto like '
Pantomind', one of the album's better tracks, thanks to a superb
AOR hook.
Of the remaining songs, the only ones that work are the ones that don't try too hard.
Thanks to some simple but really neat fretwork over the verse, the unassuming '
In Perfection' works really well. Just a pity it has such a hackneyed chorus.
The way in which Eric Ragno's keyboard echoes the track's bright acoustic strum lifts '
Another Day' out of the rut. A decent hook too.
But '
Warm Inside' is the pick. It makes the best of Fury's emotive vocal tones and they've varied the production to give the guitars a bigger, fuller sound. Acoustic picking and piano frills fill the gaps, and surprisingly, this works particularly well.
Not enough to rescue the album, though it would be wrong to condemn '
Vanity' completely. It has its moments, unfortunately there's just not enough of them.
Written by
Brian Friday, July 27, 2007
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