Mina Caputo Takes You On A Beautiful Journey With Her Latest Album, The Mones

There’s something about the feeling music provides that’s more important than how it sounds. Of course, they go hand in hand to a degree, but the stuff inside your soul that connects you to what you hear is the stuff that’s truly important.

On the latest solo release by Life of Agony frontwoman Mina Caputo, The Mones delivers that feeling your soul longs for when digesting music.

The Mones, released on November 12, 2020, is a record that could exist anywhere in time yet feels perfect for this specific year because living through a pandemic, who couldn’t use a journey to escape to?

With lyrics written by Mina, and music by Mina, Andy Kravitz (who co-produced the record with Mina), and Rob Mastrianni, The Mones is an eclectic, 12 track trip that takes the listener to places both familiar and brand new. Songs like the acoustic ballad (and lead track) “California” reimagine elements of Led Zeppelin III while “G.L.O.M.S.” provides a frenetic, “I’m Afraid of Americans”, David Bowie vibe.

“Phyllis” sounds like something off of Mina’s previous solo effort, Love Hard, as she reminisces about the beauty of past days. In what is a departure from the rest of the record, “TV Babies” is a slightly chaotic and dark, spoken word piece that will lull you into a dream-like trance if you let it..and you should.

As I mentioned earlier, Mina Caputo has the innate ability to provide feeling and atmosphere to her music that too many artists fail to do. Songs like the aforementioned “California” and the somber “All the Wild Horses”, are dripping with atmosphere and clutch your soul like a long embrace.

One of the consistencies in Mina’s solo work is her fearlessness towards being inconsistent. The songs on The Mones do not follow any formula or style. The song “She” has an experimental DNA which reminds me of “Sleight of Hand” off of Binaural by Pearl Jam with its texture, low end, and pulse. It’s one of my favorite tracks. The very next track, “Single Leaf”, features a raspy-voiced Caputo over a jazz/lounge vibe that transports you to an outdoor dinner party with your favorite poets.

The most inherently fun song is the album closer, “Brand New Skin”, which seems to bring out Mina’s inner Bob Dylan. With its upbeat tempo and rhythm, alongside Caputo’s whimsical yet meaningful delivery, it’s the perfect cast-off to the journey that is The Mones.

Power, energy, and purpose don’t always have to come from big drums, loud guitars and screaming vocals. Mina Caputo is a 30 plus year veteran of the hard rock scene with her band Life of Agony and she knows how to bring it with volume and fury. What’s so impressive about her solo work and specifically The Mones though, is that Mina still delivers that power, energy, and purpose but in ways that don’t require tons of volume. It’s a record for the soul and it’s bound to make you feel!

Check out The Mones at Mina’s Bandcamp page here

Produced by Mina Caputo + Andy Kravitz (‘A to the mf K’)

All lyrics by Mina Caputo. All music by Mina Caputo, Andy Kravitz + Rob Mastrianni.

Mixed and arranged by Andy ‘A to the mf K’ Kravitz at Studio4 West Venice Beach.

John Norwood Fisher (Fishbone) plays bass on Summer in Wolf’s Bean.

Rick Boston (Joe Cocker) plays bass and piano on “Brand New Skin.”

All songs ℗ by Moth Frog publishing (ASCAP) & A to the K Music Publishing (BMI) 2020

Mastered by Joey Zampella at The Nest Studio, Long Island, NY

Track sequencing by Maya R. Odinezenko • Layout + Artwork by Alan Robert • Photo by Michael Anthony Alago