SCOTT MERRITT The Detour Home (MapleMusic/Universal) Rating: NN Rating: NN
Scott Merritt’s first solo disc in over a decade, The Detour Home is inoffensive and unremarkable — a quirky marriage of folkie and techie that aims for innovation but ends up falling flat. Merritt uses loops, canned beats and digital editing to slice typical acoustic guitars, restrained drums and gruff vocals into folk-pop snapshots that provide a sorta road-trip diary of where he’s been. The lyrics are great, cryptically blurred impressionistic portraits, but they’re done a disservice by his voice — a flat, banal bray that serves as a sieve for melody. Scott Merritt launches The Detour Home at the Rivoli tonight (Thursday, September 12).
