Longtime readers of the DV know that I\u2019m a big fan of New York-based songwriter\/pianist Peter Cincotti. Living somewhere in the fertile ground between Billy Joel and Tony Bennett, Cincotti spins his songs accompanied by his ever-present piano, laced with an extraordinary ability to write songs that hit right between the heart and the gut.<\/p>\n
His latest album, Killer On The Keys<\/i>, is a love letter to those \u201c88 Keys\u201d (yes, that\u2019s one of the songs, and it\u2019s quite good) he makes a living on. A mixture of covers and originals, the album features a sound that\u2019s stripped down a bit from previous outings; less lush string arrangements, more keyboard flourishes. Production is tight; the sound is very, very good. Cincotti has something to say here, and he does it through a carefully chosen selection of songs.<\/p>\n
Covers include one of the more interesting versions of \u201cPoker Face\u201d I\u2019ve ever heard. Frankly, I\u2019m still trying to decide if I like it; it\u2019s got a touch of novelty about it, as if Cincotti was doing this just because he could<\/u> rather than thinking about if he should<\/u>.<\/p>\n
That aside, the other covers\u2014ranging from jazz classics like \u201cSweet Lorraine\u201d and \u201cThe Entertainer\u201d to excellent versions of Billy Joel\u2019s \u201cNew York State Of Mind\u201d and Ben Folds\u2019 \u201cBrick\u201d\u2014hit the nail on the head. Cincotti seems to have fun with these, which is a bit jarring when you consider what \u201cBrick\u201d is about. A version of John Lennon\u2019s \u201cImagine\u201d doesn\u2019t do much new with the song, but it\u2019s competent and pleasant, and Cincotti\u2019s version improves \u201cViva La Vida.\u201d<\/p>\n
His originals are magnificent. \u201cGhost Of My Father\u201d became an immediate classic of mine, and the title track is a romp through name-checking his various influences.<\/p>\n
Overall, Killer On The Keys<\/i> is a good album, but not a great one. There are just a couple of miscues that keep it from being genius, but it\u2019s still worth your time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":34879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6816],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-46746","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-peter-cincotti","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46746"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}