Singer/keyboardist Joe Darone, once the teen drummer of Totowa, NJ’s The Fiendz and later for New York City’s The Rosenbergs, has moved from NYC to Hoboken; now in his 19th year as Suit of Lights, he follows up 2020’s fifth LP Hide and Seek with this spirited two-song digital single. Aided by guitarist Arun Venkatesh and drummer James Kluz, “The Empty Vault” adopts the pattern of Hide’s baroque pop, prog, and rock opera inspired gems “I Spy” and “King of the Hill,” opening with a Hindu-tinged raga melody before morphing into a full-scale symphonic onslaught that nearly overwhelms Darone’s earnest, winsome vocals and foreboding words.
On the reflective, Beatles/Colin Blunstone-esque ballad “Disintegration,” Darone croons tenderly about an unfulfilled life gone astray, backed by sorrowful, wafting beds of programmed strings. It might be selfish to crave more than six minutes of this orchestral allure, but if Darone ever envisions a Who/Tommy-conjuring double LP in this vein, I wouldn’t object. (suitoflights.bandcamp.com)
