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.

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.

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...

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.

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