Pittsburgh pop singer’s EP swings from love to anger

Pittsburgh has a reputation for encouraging musicians and providing strong musical backgrounds to locals. Tino Coury is no exception… Page One

Tino Coury

Eleventh Records

Rocks like: The Black Eyed Peas, Far East Movement

B+

Pittsburgh has a reputation for encouraging musicians and providing strong musical backgrounds to locals. Tino Coury is no exception.

The 22-year-old’s six-track EP, titled Page One, provides some great dance beats and intriguing teasers for future work. With several singles already making their way up Billboard and Top 40 charts, his first release mixes pop with electronic music.Each track tries to take on a different emotional journey, from looking for casual fun, to love and eventually on to anger.

Coury’s first song, “Up Against The Wall,” is set to a fast beat that’s hard to ignore and easy to dance to. It’s the very definition of a party song: a rhythmic pace about dancing in a club and looking for lighthearted fun.

“Diary” sounds a little bit like  Owl City. Coury mourns the fact that the woman he loves doesn’t feel the same way — although it’s a little bit off-putting to hear the lyrics, “I read your diary.”

“Circles” provides a decent interlude featuring a fantastic electronic orchestra moving the music along and an uplifting, albeit average, chorus with lyrics like “Sometimes you gotta live and you gotta let go / Cause I know your best is about to show / Life is just a circle, circle.”

The other songs are “I F***in’ Hate You,” “Memory” and “Leave Me My Pen,” which finish up this emotional musical journey with hurt feelings, sadness, strength and longing.

Still, there’s a bit of a teenage angst sort of tone that didn’t feel quite as present on the first half of the album.

With this EP playing out like a very emotional day in the life of a very young person, it will be interesting to see how Coury continues to grow musically with future releases and time to continue to test out his style and see what audiences want from him as a musician.