Wylie Hunter & The Cazadores isn’t the first band to trace the footsteps of Bruce Springsteen.
There’s a long tradition of men with guitars warbling through history, lamenting lost loves and lonely sojourns.
On the band’s debut self-titled EP, the Chapel Hill outfit retreads this timeless format with effective — if inconsistent — results.
To be fair, there are plenty of differences between the Chapel Hill frontman and the Boss.
Hunter’s voice is a polished, sanded version of Springsteen’s heartbroken rasp, and even on the album’s most potent tracks, it doesn’t transmit the same degree of weariness.
But this isn’t always a bad thing. On “Jordan,” the most arresting track on the seven-song EP, Hunter delivers a convincing glimpse of young heartache.
It’s the frontman and band at its most pared-down, and the result is like a bubble of air trapped in amber — a momentary pocket of despair captured eternally.
It’s when Hunter and company veer into overproduction that the EP loses steam.
Tracks like “Always Be Alright” and “A Lot Like Summertime” transmit like a jam gone wrong, obscuring the band’s strengths in favor of excessive gloss and inadequate innovation.
There are few instances on Wylie Hunter & The Cazadores on which Hunter and company cover new territory, but when the local band peels back the varnish in favor of intimate, acoustic storytelling, the results are compelling.
