Jared McCloud - Vacancy

Jared McCloud

Vacancy
self-released; 2024

​By ​Dino DiMuro​

Singer-songwriter Jared McCloud comes from Minneapolis, Minnesota and a storied roots-rock background. His newest album is called Vacancy, recorded by Kevin Bowe (who’s previously worked with Etta James and The Replacements). McCloud describes his music “…as if Bruce Springsteen fronted Janes Addiction and played Steve Earle and Tom Waits songs.” Because of various personal upheavals, this is his first new album in 10 years.

McCloud began his career in hard rock and metal bands, but eventually decided to focus more on substance and went solo. Releasing his self-produced first record, he grew from small venues to large music halls. In 2009 he released his indie label debut “Romance Of The Atlantic” and reaped tons of radio play, press notices and musical instrument endorsements. He toured extensively, sharing stages with the likes of Candlebox, Soul Asylum, Vertical Horizon, Griffin House and the Meat Puppets. Fast forwarding through more albums and bigger successes, we have McCloud’s newest release dealing with a decade of turmoil, featuring songs about personal hardships and being a new father. He cites as influences Tom Waits, Chris Whitley, Motown and Bruce Springsteen. 

“A Kind Of Love That Will Tear You Apart” begins with aggressive thumping drums, Bruce-like keys and prominent crunch guitar. Though McCloud didn’t mention the band Squeeze, I definitely hear a lot of Glenn Tillbrook or even Liam Gallagher in his voice. This track rocks hard with perfect backing harmonies and a pop rock sheen that reflects well on McCloud’s celebrity production crew. “The Score” feels very much like the opening track at first, but already I can feel McCloud’s roots-rock bona fides coming through with some terrific fiddle accompaniment. The track is packed full but it all works together, with even a blast of backward lead guitar. There’s a cool ending where the master track goes into fast rewind.

“Tramp Like Me” starts firmly rooted in acoustic guitar with a gentle synth backing and earnest lead vocals. There’s a touch of jangle to the electric guitars while those eerie synth pads continue in the background. “Mama” takes an Americana tack, delving deeper into folky acoustic guitar with a simple kick beat and fiddle drone. McCloud sings like he’s delivering an Irish Reel, and when the hard guitars kick in they stick to that machine gun triplet beat. A great mix of styles here!

“Hello, My Name Is Standing Joke” clearly has the best title of the bunch. It’s got a hard rock attack worthy of Badfinger’s “Baby Blue” crossed with the the prairie smarts of John Mellencamp. The title track “Vacancy Blues” is the most earnestly acoustic of the bunch, with ringing electric guitar and grand piano as backing. I can really hear the Minnesota in McCloud’s vocals here, and the icing on the cake is a Clarence Clemmons-like sax solo. “Landscape” features Abbey Road-like tremolo guitars (and a bit of Paulie in the vocals, too!). This track goes from quiet to blasting in the most amazing way! “Stars & Hearts” is the second song I’ve reviewed this week that features actual children’s voices at the conclusion (“I love you, Daddy. That was a great song!”) but before that heart-tugging moment there’s lots of killer, propulsive rock to take us to the finish. The stacked electric guitar tracks are truly a thing of beauty, the kind of sound Billy Corgan would appreciate. 

There’s a total of 11 songs and they all demanded my attention and delivered joy in equal measure. You’ll see!

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