Tony Scimeca - Kite

Tony Scimeca

Kite
self-released; 2014

3.5 out of 5

By Ted Rogen

If you are going to give Tony Scimeca’s recent album Kite a spin the first thing you should do is throw your expectation of consistency out the window. Over the span of fourteen songs he attempts everything under the sun from melancholy acoustic songs to hard-hitting dance tracks you might hear on a Saturday night at the Jersey Shore. Some of it works and some of it misses but in order to get the most enjoyment from this album treat each song as if a separate entity.  This album is hard to talk about broadly since it’s so varied so lets take a gander at some of the songs.

The first track “Starry Night” revolves around heavy alien like synths and guitars and ends up sounding like an intro to a song you would hear on The Wall by Pink Floyd. It does serve as a segue into a song but this is no Pink Floyd. “Come On” sounds like a 2014 pop song to the likes of Lady Gaga or Bruno Mars. The song is one of the catchiest on the album and has a couple of solid vocal performances. 

The third track “Annie” takes a complete 180 and has more in common with Maroon 5 while “Nothing Real” (a personal favorite) has production similar to that of a Postal Service song. As solid as this song the rap/scat Scimeca attempts taints it. 

Scimeca covers “Stand By Me” with nothing else than his vocals and an acoustic guitar. There’s nothing wrong with covering a classic. The song he gets right from beginning to end is “Kite.”  It’s a sprawling, atmospheric song that contains his best vocal performance. The song moves slowly but works because it’s emotionally resonant. The other song that impressed me was “Free Me Up,” which successfully builds a hopeful, triumphant feeling that is built with electronic elements.

Kite contains more victories than failures but I can't but help but think Scimeca may benefit from narrowing down his creative output to one style. If not than at least release an EP with music that contains some sort of uniformity.

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