Laurens Vernot clearly has big dreams, and seems to
cast the net of his songs wide enough that he might
just catch one. Easily beguiling enough to appear in
the opening sequence of a PG movie or an after-school
Disney Channel TV show for the “Tween” market,
his songs also maintain just enough edge to cause older
fans of late 80s and mid-90s radio rock to take notice.
Track six, “Can’t Keep Me Away,” recalls
Pat Benatar’s “Hit Me with Your Best Shot” in
its opening and chorus, yet with smoother guitars and
warm harmonies that might also please a fan of certain
modern indie pops. The album’s second song, “The
Sign,” finds Vernot projecting his mass-market
fantasies into a moment of synthesized stadium audience
cheer sounds set to a marching-rhythm snare, some lone
power chords followed by a few wanked-out notes of
solo guitar, and then the chorus: “When the time
comes / I will not require the sign / I’ll remember
my lines.” Vernot’s clear, doubled vocals
and easy-access melodies have a universal quality aimed
to please, and might just be the perfect airwave compromise
for a road-trip family vacation.
Favorite: Track 6 “Can't Keep Me Away ”
Steve Gunn is a hard-boiled suburban New Yorker with
a PhD in rockology and the propensity to point with
full-throttle moxie up to his ears and unflinchingly
declare, “Hey! These things ain’t garbage
cans, y’know!” sisterray@myway.com
