Empty Country by Empty Country

Over the course of four increasingly assured albums, New Jersey’s now-defunct Cymbals Eat Guitars embedded stories of confusion and dread within swarming guitars, shadowy vocals, and crystal-clear melodies. Empty Country, the solo project of Cymbals guitarist-vocalist Joseph D’Agostino, is just as anxious as his previous work, but this time around, Agostino’s troubled tales are funneled through crisp acoustic arrangements; think DSM-5 meets *Led Zeppelin III*. “I say awful things/’Cause it makes you smile,” he sings on “Diamond,” a deceptively rollicking number with gorgeous pedal steel guitar and a dark denouement. Then there’s “Becca,” a lovingly put-together ditty—complete with strings and whistles—about a troubled woman who sells fake glasses during an eclipse, knowingly blinding her customers.

7.6 / 10

Former Cymbals Eat Guitars frontman Joseph D’Agostino’s solo debut is rangier and more intimate than his former band, but taps similar wells of grief and pain.

9 / 10

Over the course of ten years, New York-based band Cymbals Eat Guitars evolved from a Wrens-worshipping group into a crowd-rousing rock band...

8.5 / 10

Former Cymbals Eat Guitars frontman Joseph D’Agostino’s solo debut as Empty Country has had a circuitous route to release. He had planned to unveil these songs while supporting Purple Mountains last fall.

70 %

86 %

4.7 / 5

Empty Country - Empty Country review: "I spent a decade playin' chicken with oblivion".