Alexander - Alexander (2011)

The only word to qualify an artist like Alexander Eberet is “Amazing”. This guy has been in music for more than a decade and has participated in several bands, two of them still active, those two bands being Ima Robot and Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros, with the Magnetic Zeros he’s been getting special attention and has been very busy; for that reason, seems incredible he got the time to start juggling with a solo project and specially a solo project turning out to be good.

The debut couldn’t have any other name than Alexander and shows a lot of sides of Ebert that we’ve never seen before, specially his multi-instrumental abilities. For Alexander he made absolutely every sound, percussions, strings, wind, clapping, backing vocals, the sound is very full and still doesn’t loses the intimacy. If you Know Alexander’s past work you’ll definitely will want to come check this out, specially if you’re more into Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros.

With Edward Sharpe, Alexander has done exceptionally good joined work with the band members, and the song structures here is very similar but have that intimate sound and less band touch taking notice that Alexander is doing everything, that’s why it seems to present a more aesthetic performance and less a sort of musical experience that can be Edward Sharpe, but this doesn’t take away the effort, this doesn’t mean that the concept or intention of the record is not clear, because the only thing that is clear is that is a personal journey through life and spiritual search.

The money makers on this record are the sing along kind of songs, cheerful tunes with joyful spirit, but for me the slow songs create another level of intimacy needed to get a glimpse of the true nature of Alexander the joyful and Alexander the pensive, both in songwritting and in composition the result turns out to be absolutely stunning.

It might be a little protective to have a 10 band member band playing with you, and for a lot of artists of many bands, as creative as they are, don’t show solo material for fear of being too intimate or fear of sucking, a fear that Alexander might have had specially with the notoriety of Edward Sharpe. He even tells the story about never touching violin and wanting the bridge of “Glimpses”, and in the end, instead of calling someone to do it he took the risk and the song turns out to be Alexander as vulnerable as he can be, a very slow ballad, tender singing, echo that give a sense of church touching music, and then the bridge grows stunning in with a shy violin on the back adding simple charm. This little detail makes the album an even more honest one.

The sounds tend to have more awkward charms like with the plays of clapping and mouth sounds in “Let's Make a Deal to Not Make a Deal”, and in general the album is less crowded and more intimate than what you can find with Edward Sharpe.

So yes, Alexander is amazing, and the word to describe this album is “stunning”.

Alexander Ebert :: "Truth" by NaturalBeardy

Tracklist:

1. Let's Win!
2. Awake My Body
3. Truth
4. In the Twilight
5. Bad Bad Love
6. Old Friend
7. Million Years
8. Remember Our Heart
9. Glimpses
10. Let's Make a Deal to Not Make a Deal

Rate: 8.6/10

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