Alex the Astronaut - The Theory of Absolutely Nothing (Review)
Alex the Astronaut - The Theory of Absolutely Nothing (Review)
8/21/20
DISCLAIMER: As a fan of Bright Eyes for nearly as long as I can remember, I would usually jump to review their new album. Though, I want to construct my opinions more on that and perhaps do it after the upcoming "Fanboy Roundup" on the 24th. Also, this review is very subject to change as I listen to the album more in the coming weeks. That's what happened with Phoebe Bridgers, and I give Punisher a 9/10 now.
Ever since her breakout Australian gay anthem "Not Worth Hiding", Alex the Astronaut has since proven to be another gay indie icon. Her style can only be described as "indie"; it never really crosses into true rock and it's just barely too heavy and fast to be considered folk. She's stood on this confusing yet lovely line for a while, and it's going to be very exciting to see how she makes this style into an album. Artists like Mac DeMarco have done this many times before, but even despite her strong accent, Alex the Astronaut has a distinct and profound style that will hopefully work great in this more narrative format. Leading up to this album, there were an astonishing seven singles taken directly from the album, leaving us with three new tracks. Naturally, I could give this amount of singles a pass if the narrative was switched up, but it doesn't yet look like it is. This album, at first look, doesn't seem to be following any sort of story, which gives the singles much more of an excuse. Personally, I enjoyed the singles, so I'm excited to see how well the album treats them, and how well the new tracks live up to them.
The album opens with three decent singles, but it's to call them anything better than decent. Each song's songwriting is pretty good, and the themes, instrumentals, and styles stay consistent which is where this pack shines. Next comes my personal least favorite track so far "I Like to Dance". This must have been one of the singles I missed, because when they were all released, I wanted to avoid the entire album being spoiled. The instrumentals in this song are where it shines even though they're nothing amazing in the slightest. The lyrics are pretty good, but with such boring and bland execution for a lot of the song, it makes the content fade and the bad parts shine. Next, we have "I Didn't Know", which is interesting and one of the better songs on this track list so far. Afterwards, we see the beautiful ballads "Caught in the Middle" and "Christmas in July"; one mainly on piano, and the other on guitar. After a couple more certainly promising tracks, we see "San Fransisco", which was worth talking about because it was the final real song on the album. This song started out decent, but perhaps nothing special compared to the good parts of this album. Though, throughout the song it grows into this somber, loud, and extravagant-feeling masterpiece. For the final eighteen-second track, Alex just talks us out and thanks us for listening.
The first thing that was clear to me throughout this project was that Alex did best projecting somber and emotional lyrics through sometimes gut-wrenching ballad instrumentals. The first four songs on this album, though, feel like relatively generic pieces of indie pop. While they're lyrics were fine, the lower-fidelity instrumentals came off sort of bland. Though, these types of instrumentals were reworked into tracks like "I Think You're Great", and somewhat in "I Didn't Know". Despite most of the first half of this album and the second half were very differing in quality, the themes and feeling stayed the same, which is something to admire. If I were to describe the great lyrics in this album in one word, it would be "true". The album, from start to finish, feels like the artist is honestly expressing emotions and executing them almost exactly the way she felt them. It's tough to commend the execution of these songs too much, simply because of this albums undeniable mediocre parts, but a lot of it was done very well.
While this album doesn't warrant a perfect score, it was still very great. While instrumental quality may have differed in a few songs, the lyrical themes stayed very consistent, which is the highest point I commend this album. So many albums, especially indie pop, are brought down by either inconsistent or boring themes. Alex the Astronaut's main themes of love could be pretty generic songwriting on paper, but they're executed and written in a very astute manner. My favorite track at the moment is "Banksia". This is very subject to change, because it was very close to a tie with the last four full songs. "Banksia" is very interesting in not only its lyrics, but it lets the most beautiful parts shine well over the powerful and emotional instrumentals. My least favorite track is "Lost", because this song is simply uninteresting. Like most of these songs, the lyrics are where it shines. Though, this one is particularly lacking in every other front. Giving this album a 1-10 using half numbers, I give this album a 7.5/10 with the five-word description of: "some indie for the feels."
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