Dru Cutler - Hometown (2017)

OFFICIAL: http://www.drucutler.com/

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/DruCutlerMusic/

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/drucutler

Written by Frank McClure, posted by blog admin

Hometown is the newest release from musician/vocalist/songwriter Dru Cutler and the title song alone makes it worth your time. Cutler obviously has a design for this brief release and there’s little question you can make a case the second song is a continuation of themes and concerns first brought up in the title song. Cutler’s collaborators and cohorts come together with him to make this one of the year’s more memorable indie releases regardless of duration. The two songs aren’t unfinished drafts or padded out with filler to hit some arbitrary running time. There is, instead, a feeling that every note and line is focused to a specific goal and Cutler inhabits the center of each track with vocals more than capable of exploiting each song’s promise to the fullest.

He’s particularly effective on the first song. “Hometown” will likely make more of an immediate impact on listeners thanks to its direct line of attack and transparent construction. You can hear how Cutler put this one together, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable and there’s no visible stitching. The interlacing of glittering, even elegant, piano lines with the persistent acoustic guitar is a basic fundamental Cutler and his band approach with total command. They play and sing with confidence, but the song’s tempo never becomes strident. The song, instead, sounds filled with purpose without ever straining for that effect. It, undoubtedly, makes Cutler’s job as vocalist all the more easier, but his lyrics also take a lot of the burden off him as a singer. Instead of vesting this familiar topic with a carousel of tropes all too common to any listener, Cutler grounds his songwriting in concrete imagery and distinctive point of view that make this song more enjoyable than most.

Hometown’s second track “Infinite Moons” shifts gears in a memorable way. There’s a strong Pink Floyd/Beatles influence on this song, but it’s never so pronounced that the track lapses into some weird imitation or tribute. There’s a plethora of harmony vocals in this song, much more than the opener, and they provide a nice contrast with some moments of pure dissonance that come during the performance. “Infinite Moons” dovetails nicely with the preceding songs and listeners can certainly hear how this song, at least emotionally, carries on the character and mood heard in the earlier track. It’s a much more musically atmospheric number, but never self-indulgent. These two songs show, without a doubt, that Dru Cutler is far from some one trick pony and has both the talent and fearlessness to follow his creativity wherever it may take him. We, as listeners, are better \off for the experience and Hometown will reward you more with additional play.