Back in May we wrote about ‘Been A Long Year‘, the first single from Alex Nicol‘s EP, Been A Long Year Vol. 1. It was a song which matched personal losses with those of the surrounding environment, written in a time when the pandemic only underlined years of chronic neglect and saw once bustling towns pushed further into decay. The result was a song which accepted this state of things, viewing honesty as the first step towards moving forward. “I wanted to express my frustration at running from my feelings for so long,” as Nicol explained. “It felt like the world was crumbling at the same time as I was pretending everything was fine, but I really wasn’t, and I finally expressed it. It feels like one long exhale for me.”
Alex Nicol has now released the EP, and the rest of the songs build upon this mission. From the slow country croon of ‘An Eye for an Eye’ and its examination of complicity within unjust systems, to the sleepy ethereality of ‘Fabricated Hedonist’ and its acknowledgement of desire. “There’s a lot to learn / From the voices you ignore,” goes one of the verses on ‘Sit Around and Wait’, “how to be respectful / How to breath new life into this broken home.” Another track which presents the present as a kind of failed state, but furthermore urges us to take an active role in its recovery.
This sense of (re)building a home is central to the EP. “I’ll never go to Hollywood / I’ll never be a star,” Nicol sings on ‘Hollywood’. “I’m washed up and my home is here / Between the highway and the corner store.” Here Alex Nicol steps into the shoes of a regretful dreamer rueing their imagined acting career, though the ideas resonate more generally. The track is typical of the EP’s tone, where haunting melancholy is leavened by the small glint of playfulness, as if beneath the weight of any situation persists a wry humour. Not to mention a fondness too, because in addressing the push and pull of home, the track counters the needling sense you should leave to become something else when the things which make where you come from so nurturing. A silver lining far away from the silver screen.
Been A Long Year Vol. 1 is out now and available from the Alex Nicol Bandcamp page.