Rocky Votolato: Makers : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Formerly of promising Seattle angsters Waxwing, singer-songwriter Rocky Votolato is proof that you can take the boy out of the emo band, but you can't take the emo out of the boy. Not all the acoustic-guitar strumming and harmonica blowing, nor all the rootsy shuffling in the world, could camouflage the unmitigated emo-ness of lyrics such as "I'm a punch line who's punch-drunk with my fist in a broken mirror." Nonetheless, Votolato is more Ryan Adams than Chris Carrabba, and his fourth LP, Makers, demonstrates his increasingly nuanced command of the folk idiom. Songs such as the title track, "The Night's Disguise" and "Wait Out the Days" are delicately woeful, understated and sung sweetly enough that they keep the focus on his keen, compact melodies. This way, even when Votolato's sentiment is maudlin, it might still inspire a singalong. And what's more emo than that?