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Rating: These days, I've lost myself in listening to the first solo album by that small great personality named Keith Caputo. To most, his name will say little or nothing; to some, it will remind them he is the vocalist of a band with Metal-core origins from New York, the "Life Of Agony", somewhat of the younger siblings of the more fortunate "Type O Negative".
Released in 2000, it represents the first solo album of his career, followed by three more releases, taking advantage of the disbandment of the main band, which returned in 2005 and remains active. In his solo works, Caputo completely distances himself from the sound of the New York band, favoring acoustic and intimate sounds. Therefore, few guitar riffs but many melancholic and often minimal ballads with frequently autobiographical lyrics.
Keith Caputo is the product of a childhood one wouldn't wish on anyone. The son of parents destroyed and defeated by heroin, Keith had to build his life on his own strength, and in music, he found an escape and a response to his existence. Gifted with one of the best voices rock has produced in the nineties, Caputo vents his anger and existential thoughts in these twelve mature and never shouted songs.
With Life Of Agony, Caputo shouts his anger; as a solo artist, he tries to delve into the soul, producing pearls like the stunning "Razzberry Mockery", a song that deserved more. A ballad that gets imprinted in your mind with the bitter description of his sad childhood denied by certain things that, in adulthood, you either embrace with resignation or keep away with all your might, especially if these things took away your parents' lives.
There's little rock in this album, as I was saying, just the opening "Honeycomb" and the concluding "Lollipop" and "Upsy Daisy"". Songs with a strong grunge flavor and the only ones where electric guitars appear. Dedicated to a martyr of grunge is the almost jazzy "Cobain (Rainbow Deadhead)", almost as if to liken his life to that of Cobain. But Caputo would never compromise to such an extent with life; his desire to exist emanates from all the tracks, and seeing him, one cannot but feel admiration and sympathy for this small and almost funny man gifted with a unique voice.
Listening to the album, certain Caputo's loves for the Californian west coast surface, as in "Selfish", "New York City", "Home", or for the psychedelic Beatles as in "Just Be" and "Brandy Duval", where the use of string instruments and orchestrations make their appearance. An entirely intimate album that gradually gets inside you, performed with passion from start to finish, banning the use of electronics in favor of real instruments to make everything warmer and more enveloping.
Released by Roadrunner, also the label of Life Of Agony at the time, it went almost entirely unnoticed, much like the almost unknown Keith Caputo, an unrecognized talent. However, his musician friends remembered him. Therefore, we can find Caputo in the backing vocals of the successful Bloody Kisses by his friends Type O Negative (from whom Life Of Agony will snatch drummer Sal Abruscato) or dueting in the single by gothic metallers Within Temptation "What have you done". Roadrunner has not forgotten him either, calling him along with dozens of other artists for the compilation celebrating the label's 25th anniversary. Caputo wrote the lyrics and played the piano on the song "Tired'n'lonely".
Now it's up to you to discover him if you don't already know him.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Honeycomb (03:27)
We love each other
I'm sick in the head
We hate each other
I'm out of my head
I'm out of my head again
I'm out of my head again
Honeycombs and cinnamon untied again
It's the greatest greatest honeycomb a child should hold
What are your secrets?
You make it something it's not
Cast away whatever
Wrapped up and tied in a knot
I'm out of my head again
I'm out of my head again
Honeycombs and cinnamon untied again
It's the greatest greatest honeycomb a child should hold
03 Selfish (03:46)
Destined to be everything
A wilderness of despair
I see a true heart in clumsiness
So are you fit to be scared?
I need to touch,
I'm the whore out of luck,
and I don't know what to say to you,
and I'm selfish with myself
Hope passes, hope looks,
can you cope, do you suffer, do you suffer,
and I'm selfish with myself
I'm selfish with myself
I'm selfish with myself
What comes around goes back round
I was rejected today
I came from nowhere, smell it in the air?
So can you live with yourself?
I need to touch, I'm the whore out of luck,
and I don't know what to say to you,
and I'm selfish
with myself
Hope passes, hope looks, can you cope,
do you suffer, do you suffer,
and I'm selfish with myself
I'm selfish with myself
I'm selfish with myself
Lights are out now
Shout it loud now
Memories they fade
I'm selfish with myself
06 Cobain (Rainbow Deadhead) (04:09)
I used to be so serious
I used to be such a fool
Rediscover a sweet blend hunger
Did I do something wrong?
Screaming people enjoying funny
Who got their piece of the pie?
Romantic love, hot suicidal
Cobain was murdered by you
Cobain was murdered by you
Cobain was murdered by you
Cobain was murdered by you
Cobain was murdered by you
Rainbow deadhead knew nothing
Chasing glass, the ground is kicking
You get me really sick, really sick
Run away and save the earthlings
So wound up within you
We talked about growin' up with some comfort
The crow is eating my eyes
Deadhead blew me some pink and some yellow
Cobain was murdered by you
Cobain was murdered by you
Cobain was murdered by you
Cobain was murdered by you
Cobain was murdered by you
Rainbow deadhead knew nothing
Whatever kind of sex you're into
I was screwing in the zoo
Romantic love, hot suicidal
Cobain was murdered by you
Cobain was murdered by you...
Rainbow deadhead knew nothing
11 Upsy Daisy (03:46)
Do you have to cry?
Were you pulling Christ?
Grinding roses, flowers and servants Rubies are fine!
These mutants are mine!
Upsy daisy, the program this evening
Your life is a crime
Frogman I'm dying
Arrogant hard-on borrow your own goat
Your life is a crime
I'm a quitter
I'm a cheater
I'll do the murders
If you be the witness
You're quitting again
I'm hurting my friends
I'm puzzled and senseless, reckless and peachy
At zero degrees I was soft in a dream
Burn, I will get you, I'm sick of the doubtful
I'm joking blood jokes I'm slime from a snail
Laughter and stabbing, but not to mention
I'm joking blood jokes
I'm a quitter
I'm a cheater
I'll do the murders
If you be the witness
Memory sweet
It feels awkward to be
Drowning and digging, bloody and sneaking
This may be too much I think
I slaughtered my touch Upsy daisy,
Christ you be the angel
This may be too much
I'm a quitter I'm a cheater
I'll do the murders
If you be the witness
12 Brandy Duval (08:20)
Laughing with your heroin chic
She's gonna do it again
It's the turn of the century and anything goes
I'm after heroin chic
That junkie shit made my poor family sick
Rest assured on in the art world, my past life grew old
The brink of madness, life is love
My head is down, somebody pick it up
Saturday morning, and my tear drops fell
Brandy Duval
I died last year of a heroin overdose
In memory to my sweet mom, she was strawberry blonde
It's the turn of the century, and anything goes
Sometimes light behaves like a monkey
Sometimes light behaves like a torch
Fashion faith is entirely striking, ode to Kate Moss
The brink of madness, life is love
My head is down, somebody pick it up
Saturday morning, and my tear drops fell
Brandy Duval
My fairy tale junkie,
you make me wanna cry
My fairy tale freak, I think I'm gonna die
We're like two cats in heat, my fairy tale junkie
Can I nurse on your feet?
It helps me just fine
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