Survivor's Guilt - Vinnie Caruana

The famously personable, charismatic, “too-nice-all-the-time,” Vinnie Caruana, is in all aspects a survivor.

Arriving on the scene fronting a Drive-Thru emo band in the early 2000s was certainly no guarantee of longitudinal success, as hundreds of others in the same boat can attest to. And as good as The Movielife were, Vin took an even greater step in 2005 with the post-hardcore I Am the Avalanche, a superb, sonic, melodic outfit that has proved its merit by the mere fact that they are still touring and making music more than a decade later, which can hardly be said for any original emo bands, much less side projects.

Then, Caruana splintered again in 2013 with his first solo effort, City by the Sea, a landmark among emo-frontmen side projects. Largely
acoustic, coupled with shuffling drums and pump organ, the EP contained all the great attributes of what could be expected from Caruana: scratchy shouts mingled with melodic runs, fractured time signatures, sing-a-long choruses, insightful albeit sometimes clunky lyrics, and augmented chord progressions.

And despite standing firmly on its own two feet, it is also the perfect segue for what would come three years later.

“Survivor’s Guilt” was predated by the typical pre-release routine: a summer tour announced, pre-release on CD, vinyl, and merch/media bundles, social media hype. But with Vinnie Caruana, it feels more like a friend than an artist is releasing this music. This adding to the fact that Vin was engaged to his longtime girlfriend, inspiration for songs such as “Kingwood” off City by the Sea, the same week the album was released…it is evident that much of Caruana’s heart is put into the record.

The album’s leading track, “Burn It Down,” despite being an excellent punk song, is in many ways a “psyche.” Though it bristles and sneers in classic I Am the Avalanche fashion, it does nothing to prepare the listener for what is to come, which is more in the vein of City by the Sea, but yet so much different. “Heavy Weighs the Summer” steers closest to “Burn It Down” in ferocity and punk-heritage, but even this seems to pay more homage to the maturity in sound Caruana has found. And this is where the remainder of the album falls.

The album ranges from fantastic alt-rock flavoring in “We Don’t Have To Die Alone,” the title track, “Gem Street,” and “I Don’t Believe You” to sentimental, acoustic, loving numbers such as “Under My Side of the Bed” and “Roll Back To Me,” to the surprising yet fitting avant-garde closer “Your Religion Is Killing Me.” A true standout is “Angel of the North” in which the listener not only is introduced to Vinnie’s knack for creating a fine love song but also to the different loves he has: Liverpool Football Club, the UK in general, people, and Morrissey and other ‘80’s alt acts. The lyrics, though sweetly clunky, offer the personality that adheres fans so to this artist.

An artist’s solo work should differ distinctively from his main body of work, and on “Survivor’s Guilt,” Caruana is sweepingly successful. Where elsewhere he is bitter, here he is softening. In “The Gravedigger’s Argument” he is burying his ex-wife in the yard, and in “Under My Side of the Bed” he is buying his girlfriend a ring. On Forty Hour Train To Penn he is punchy, punky, and poppy; on Survivor’s Guilt he is pensive, ponderant, and powerful.

Ultimately, the record itself only displays survivor’s guilt in word…the deed displays an unabashed turnout of Caruana’s strengths in musicianship and song craftsmanship, something for which Caruana, public and personal survivor that he is, can be rightfully proud.