A Town and Two Cities - An Underrated Forgotten Album

Your Vegas was an alternative pop rock band from the late 00’s, I had the opportunity to see them live in 2008 while on their American tour opening for Duran Duran in Detroit. After a memorable performance, my family decided to buy their debut album A Town and Two Cities which became my personal favorite album of all time, and here’s why...

The album opens up with an uplifting fade in which leads to the sharp upbeat intro of the song It Makes My Heart Break. The song is catchy and well written with creative use of dynamics and effects.

The next few songs include In My Head (also released as a single), Birds of Paradise, and Aurora.

Birds of Paradise is a song with the lingering sense that it was written to fit a singer-songwriter vibe; vocals with an acoustic guitar. Which is probably what lead singer, Coyle Girelli, originally wrote it as.

Aurora features creative use of synthesizers that add a special context and color to the music.

The rest of the album features fast, slow, and emotional songs with strong messages about love, post-traumatic stress disorder, and childhood nostalgia.

Salvador, which is the album’s closer, features a really emotional ending to the album through a long interlude in the middle of the song that leads to the climactic ending. A full listen to the album leaves the listener stunned in silence as it did the first time my family and I listened to this album in its entirety.

Despite the success of their debut album, Your Vegas dissipated in 2010 after concluding their multiple US Tours. This is unfortunate because this underrated album was proof that this band had a lot of potential. Although, the end of Your Vegas as a whole didn’t mark a stop to the songwriting. After their dissipation, four out of five members of Your Vegas got back together to form The Chevin and released the single Champion which received a lot of recognition when it was released in 2012. The lead singer and songwriter, Coyle Girelli (as mentioned in the previous paragraph), is currently working on a debut solo album due to be released later this year. I'm really looking forward to what the ex-front man has to offer because I've been waiting for a revival of some kind for a long time.

Even ten years is way too long a wait for new music from one of your favorite bands, is it not?