Notofu.com: Rocky Votolato
Published by: Notofu.com
Date: February 23, 2010
Format: Web (www.notofu.com)
Type: Music Review
Rocky Votolato – True Devotion
It’s fitting that there’s an anchor on the cover of Rocky Votolato’s latest effort, True Devotion. For years Votolato has been releasing records, but they’re all generally the same, as if he’s got some big old anchor holding him in the same creative place for all of this time. If that’s too far of a stretch, there are other, more literal, factors that point to Votolato’s stagnancy, one being in the middle of the record, on “Sparklers,” when he comes right out and sings, “I’m a pendulum that swings/trapped in the disappearing.”
Though a swinging pendulum he may be, swinging back and forth, always in the same place, the songs that come from the swinging, while similar, aren’t bad folk songs. That said, if you can get past the fact that while listening to his discography on iTunes it’s sometimes hard to tell when one record ends and another begins, there is some material in there that’s worth hearing.
True Devotion has some worthwhile, even enjoyable songs, from the album’s moody opener, “Lucky Clover Coin,” to the second track, “Fragments,” where things pick up a little bit of speed, to “Sparklers,” a song that is reminiscent of one of his absolute spot-on moments in “White Passing Daisy,” the opener to 2006’s Makers.
One major problem with True Devotion, though, is that Votolato, while confident and competent with only his voice and his acoustic guitar, shines in a different light when accompanied by other instruments, as was the case with 2007’s The Brag & Cuss. On that record, he was accompanied on nearly every song by at least some form of a band, and that little bit extra is what set the record apart from his previous work. There are drums that move the songs, and there is a slide guitar that adds a depth. On True Devotion, though, the band is mostly gone, with the exception of “Sun Devil,” and it’s a shame. The mostly vocal/acoustic-based songs on True Devotion tend to blend together, and before you know the record has slipped by and Votolato is singing about ending where he began on “Where We Started.”
Aside from steadfast fans who were simply looking for a typical Rocky Votolato record and who got one, many listeners will be let down by this slightly uninspired offering. In the end, while not bad, the songs aren’t great and aren’t anything that we haven’t heard before.
2/5