REVIEW: Vincent Covello — Torchlights (LP)
Vincent Covello is unusually modest and well, normal, in an era where more is more. On his website, he is self-described as “a Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter originally from Michigan,” and a thirty-five year music industry veteran who has worked as “an artist, songwriter, and premier music industry vocal coach, working with top-line producers, record labels, and companies such as Red Light Management, Disney, and Nickelodeon, and having hit songs with an extensive songwriting catalog”, plus a member of ASCAP and Kobalt Publishing, and a collaborator with indie auteur BT on Loving You More with Warner Bros. Records, in the year of 1995.
WEBSITE: https://vincentcovellomusic.com/
He’s very much a student of a time when a bright smile, pitch-perfect looks (usually digitally manipulated), an over-modulated sound, and production value over inherent quality was still reserved to pop stars, not the music world as a whole. He’s very much indicative of a time when the term ‘singer-songwriter’ actually meant something, specifically someone whose act leaned more in the version of being a musical storyteller, rather than the music being an extension of a tailored public personality. Thus, this makes his new album Torchlights something of a breath of fresh air in an era where the latter dominates headlines, markets, promos, and consumer choice. It’s somewhat of a gutsy move to boot, given everything that was just said. But in an era where hitting commercial beats is starting to become a one-trick pony the public are wise to, Torchlights proves quality wins.
Jacob Aiden for JamSphere described the listening experience for Covello’s Torchlights as an invitation to “reflect on our own journeys, to find the light in our darkest moments, and to cherish the connections that make us human. This album is a gift to all who listen, a reminder that even in the midst of loss and uncertainty, music has the power to light our way forward.” I couldn’t agree more. Torchlights is something of a musical journey through something that feels deeply personal.
There is an emotive arc in the way the tracks are structured, starting melancholic, turning decidedly melodic mid-way through, and then going back to a more melancholic place again, albeit with a slightly more conclusionary, sardonic self-awareness. Wit isn’t quite the right word for what Covello incites here, but it’s something on the way to wit. Music is difficult to make a multilayered experience from a literal standpoint, in many ways effective incarnations of it with distinct genre beats depend upon calibrating certain gut reactions. It’s a whole new level of the illusion Fincher once described as making people feel the same thing, at the very same time.
But Covello is able to do so, and that’s because it’s clear he approaches the creation of each song as a genuine storytelling experience. Something not just a case of solid, easy listening, but something to puzzle over, to push play on time and time again. Something in which you’re always discovering something, where you want to hear it again and again not just because of its entertainment value, but because there is always something else that might inspire you. Might attract you.
That’s rare. And the fact Covello has nailed that quality so well shows he’s a talent who, while perhaps not on a level as a Josh Groban or Norah Jones commercially speaking, will likely be working for the rest of his life.
Colin Jordan
