Rob Osenton has been part of the Tampa Bay music scene over the past two decades as a guitarist, band member, recording engineer, guitar-amp builder and songwriter. With the release of his debut solo EP Together Alone Osenton takes his turn in the spotlight. The four songs on the disc were written at different times (and for different groups), and form a preview to his upcoming full-length release Songs of the Apocalypse.
This is well-crafted guitar-based rock. Osenton cites Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Wilco and the Beatles as influences, and they shine through clearly. The lyrics ponder relationships, and the fractures in society as Osenton sees them. Broadly, Together Alone falls into that catch-all “Americana” bucket, but on the overdriven-tube-amp side, not the twangy Telecaster side. It’s engaging from the first strum of “Just Enough.” Osenton has taken all the guitar chords you learned in high school and put them into a unique order, almost like AC/DC does: there are no surprises, and yet somehow it’s his own. The track is catchy and well-produced. The harmony vocals and tambourine on the chorus are nice touches, as is the cowbell under the guitar solo. I would have liked a slightly different lyric on the chorus, where two stanzas ending with “need” left me a little flat. And that’s really the only nit to pick on all of Together Alone. “Say What You Mean” channels a Tom Petty vibe (as Osenton readily admits) with a prominent organ track gluing together complementary acoustic and electric guitar parts. There’s a bendy pentatonic guitar solo, and nice dynamics as the track peels all the way back before building up into a rousing finish. The title track introduces some cool square-wave synth and a little Dream Police-era Cheap Trick drama with higher-register guitar leads over a growly bass riff. “We’re together alone / Living out of our phones / Disconnected souls / Searching for home,” sings Osenton, and he’s not wrong. He flexes his songwriting chops with a few unexpected key changes, and his axe-man skills with nice outro guitar work. “Can we do one more?” Osenton asks at the start of “The Path Between” the final track. Yes, please, but make sure you’ve got fifteen minutes saved for this epic. It’s a heavier, driving jam with terrifically warm, overdriven, down-tuned guitars. Osenton caught this as a first studio take: it’s not perfect, but it’s not meant to be. “The Path Between” crackles with energy and with the musicians playing off of each other as they push, pull and develop the ideas in real-time. It would make a great concert piece. Osenton delivered a fine set with Together Again and it’s just the preview to the forthcoming full-length disc. I look forward to hearing that one, too!
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