Back in September, we brought you ‘Going to Sleep‘, a song from Settle Down by Boston’s Alexander. Led by Alex Fatato, the outfit balance the intimacy of bedroom pop with rich rock, introspection lifted through a sound equally comfortable with tinkling warmth or noisy energy. “With elements of ambient, folk and the even slacker rock of Nap Eyes,” we wrote in our piece, “this is bedroom pop made vivid, the intimacy of the genre retained even as a richer palette develops.”
The album, which was released jointly by Disposable America and Forged Artifacts, served as an exploration of the relationship between light and darkness, the often morose lyrics offset by warm, bright instrumentation. However, as ‘Going to Sleep’ highlighted, this juxtaposition was more sincere than incongruous.
The dissonance between style and content is no dissonance at all, rather a considered effort to find light within all things, as though a widened view on the possibility of strength, wonder and joy might allow more opportunities for these features to come to us.
With this in mind, we are delighted to be able to share a brand new video from Alexander, and one which reinforces the band’s earnest and thoughtful sound. Recorded and filmed by Ty Ueda at Mount Misery in Barrington, New Hampshire, the video features two tracks from Settle Down in live session, opening with the aforementioned ‘Going to Sleep’ and leading into ‘Capable’. Both tracks are marked by a sense of care and warmth, opening with an almost hesitant gentleness and growing more assured and urgent as the songs unfurl, as though strength and confidence can be conjured from the simple act of opening up.
Settle Down is out now on Forged Artifacts and Disposable America and you can get it from the Alexander Bandcamp page. Also, Alexander is hitting the road this spring, so check out the dates below if you are anywhere on the eastern side of America in March.
March 1st – Philadelphia, PA @ Super Wimpy Punch HQ
March 2nd – Harrisonburg, VA @ Crayola House
March 3rd – Charlotte, NC
March 4th – Atlanta, GA
March 5th – Nashville, TN
March 6th – St. Louis, MO
March 7th – Chicago, IL
March 8th – Akron, OH @ Kling Thing
March 9th – Syracuse, NY @ Otro Cinco
March 10th – Boston, MA @ O’Briens