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By : Georgia Moore
7 min read
Lucky Life, Alexander.
On April 7th friends and family gathered for the Lucky Life kickoff release show at State Park in Cambridge, joined by Community College and Night Moth. An album that has been much anticipated by this reviewer, Lucky Life by Alexander did not disappoint. Digging deep into his signature lyricism, the result is a record whose narrative is as meticulously considered as its construction.
“Certainty,” “Good Guy,” and “Bare Minimum” are all standout favorites, all put out as singles prior to Lucky Life’s April 5th release. “Certainty” debuted with a write up in Allston Pudding, the song and the article both highlighting the all-too-familiar dialectic of what’s lost and what’s gained by moving through this life. The simple earworminess of “Good Guy”’s titular refrain “on a bad night, I’m a good guy” has gotten so stuck in my head that it’s morphed into a kind of indie rock contemplative mantra. This plays against the rawness of a jubilant confessional like “Bare Minimum,” which bleeds into other heavier tracks like “Ribcage” while both maintaining their introspectiveness. As much as the songs strike conversation between listener and lyricist, they speak to each other, picking up and doubling back on themselves as vignettes uncover new revelations or wayward ways. The complete product is a meditation on the conditions of its own creation, a poetic synthesis of the profound and the routine.
Her Computerized Machinery Complex, Lily Piette.
Detailed within a review of the single “Sister!” a few months back after a bustling 5-band bill at O’Brien’s, Lily Piette established her place on the BCN radar with a performance described simply as “good, clean, FUN.” In the weeks following the release of the full project, no other description could be more appropriate.
Her Computerized Machinery Complex steps between the worlds of straightforward softly moody riffs and the unknown, breaking out in loud cacophony and overlapping whispers at a moment’s notice. Another single from earlier this year, “Coloring Book,” bridges this gap with ease, lifting the listener in with a lilting and ghostly intro before breaking down into sonorous chaos of beeps and five-dollar-word jargon concluded with an apologetic “sorry, I mean -.” Her Computerized Machinery Complex’s push-and-pull of unexpected turns keeps us on our toes, serving up a collection of candid truths and whimsical mysteries.
“Manbird” is the album’s opener and another personal favorite. Finding a space between the punchiness of “Sister!” and the softness of other tracks, “Madbird” brings a recognizably shoegazey haze to a song following the theme of vulnerability projected on two parties; “I’m a bird” becomes “You’re a bird” and mirrors “I’m just a girl” / “You’re just a girl” in closing track “Inside Hand,” a conclusion that seals the record’s feedback loop into a self-fulfilling pact.
—Georgia Moore
Originally published in-print in Boston Compass Newspaper #169 May 2024
Check out all the art and columns of May's Boston Compass at www.issuu.com/bostoncccompass