Donald Cumming
Out Calls Only
WASHINGTON SQUARE
5/10
It seems that people have wanted to like Donald Cumming for a long time. For two albums with The Virgins, he was talked about as a potential New York rock-and-roll savior—a diamond in the rough lacking nothing in style and personality, and, oh, he’ll figure out the music soon enough. Well, here we are, seven years later, and on his solo debut Out Calls Only, the music paints much the same picture as before. Cumming’s charm shines through on this album—that much is undeniable—but songs with actual substance are simply outnumbered by soft-rock cuts fit for use as coffee shop ambience. It’s a shame that more of the effort doesn’t sound like excellent opener “Game of the Heart”—a well-executed slice of four-chord Americana that would make Tom Petty proud—but as it is, a good chunk of Out Calls Only is just airy guitar work and metaphors about storm fronts. Sorry, New York: looks like your savior is still lost in transit.
