Although they’re ten years into their career as a band – and on what seems like their tenth lineup – this is the first time I’ve delved into Cuff the Duke’s catalog. On Morning Comes, they approach their Canadian brand of Southern Rock from a pop perspective, building catchy hooks and lyrics from note one. That catchiness oozes from nearly every chorus, and the energy that the band encompasses on the record is impressive given the sometimes run-of-the-mill nature of most Southern rock in general.
Morning Comes has now been nominated for a 2012 Juno Award in the Adult Alternative Album of the Year category, and I suppose that “Adult Alternative” is where I see the most issues with the album. It conforms very cleanly to what we’ve come to expect of Adult Contemporary music, replete with relatively shallow lyrics paired with predictable melodies. In particular, on “You Don’t Know What It’s Like,” Cuff the Duke reference an old Bee Gees song (“To Love Somebody”) that has been covered so many times over the past 50 years by artists from Nina Simone to Eagle Eye Cherry. This is all to say that, while Morning Comes is certainly able to hook itself firmly to my brain with its pop appeal, it conversely seems to lack a considerably amount of originality.
Some of the most redeeming moments on Morning Comes revolve around vocal delivery by Wayne Petti – in his distinctive Colin Meloy-esque timbre – and the CSNY inspired harmonies by the rest of Cuff the Duke. “Count on Me,” the album’s third track, is the perfect example of this, in which the rich harmonies bring the song’s peak as high as any other on the album. Morning Comes is a mixed bag, that’s for sure, with high highs and low lows, but after a few listens, I’m glad that Cuff the Duke will now be on my radar for the foreseeable future.
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