Peter Cincotti - Metropolis (2012)

With its hard-driving beats, funky rhythms and stellar pop-centric sensibility, vocalist, pianist and composer Peter Cincotti s fourth album, Metropolis, might be perceived as a sharp left turn from the jazz-focused, boy-crooner sound that established his career a decade ago. But Cincotti sees Metropolis, for which he wrote all 12 songs, as more evolutionary than revolutionary, marking his continuance along a musical path that he started mapping as early as age three.

Though Metropolis was the last track completed, it drives the album s theme, which examines the joys and ills of the contemporary urban experience from multiple perspectives. The album is, says Cincotti, meant to be representative of how we live today. It s not one particular city, but the urban landscape in general. I wanted each song to feel like a neighborhood within Metropolis, and for the storylines within the songs to somehow seem as if they were occurring simultaneously.

The album opens with its set piece, the title track, strongly reminiscent of the Pet Shop Boys infectiously propulsive electronica. Later tracks Graffiti Wall, partially inspired by the twentieth anniversary of the Berlin Wall s demolition, and World Gone Crazy, with its condemnation of society s tech-fueled ferocity, further speak to the overarching theme. The remaining tracks focus more on personal tales within this urban jungle. There are, says, Cincotti, a few songs on the album about commitment, beginning with My Religion. It s polar opposite is Forever and Always. Both are about becoming someone else for the sake of a relationship, but the first comes from the dark side of commitment and the second from the light.

Ultimately, Cincotti would like listeners, who nowadays often approach music in terms of individual track downloads rather than complete albums, to listen to the album as an album. I m hoping people will press pause on the craziness of their daily lives and actually experience the entire record. It s a lot to ask in this day and age, but this album is all about creating another world the [quasi-mythical] world of Metropolis and I want them to feel like they ve actually been there.

TRACKLIST
01. Metropolis
02. My Religion
03. Do Or Die
04. Take A Good Look
05. Nothing's Enough
06. Magnetic
07. Graffiti Wall
08. Fit You Better
09. Madeline
10. World Gone Crazy
11. Forever And Always
12. Before I Go