Alicia Blue
Inner Child Working EP Pt 2
Magnetic Moon Records
Raw and Intimate Songs With Fabulous Melodies and Punchy Arrangements
I’d actually planned to write a review of a much more uptempo album this morning; but ….. and not for the first time over the last month, was drawn back to this short and very sharp EP by Angeleno, Alicia Blue.
While, if you were sitting in a cool coffee shop and when any of these songs came on the playlist you may well find yourself tapping your toes and even asking the barista who it was …. then when you get home you’d buy the download (#BuyDontSpotify) then play it to your hearts’ content until ….. the penny dropped one long and lonely night.
That’s the gag here; Alicia draws you into a false sense of security with her fabulous melodies and punchy arrangements; which actually shroud her stories of depression and its side effects.
The guitar as a heartbeat intro to opening track; Best Hands will definitely capture your attention, then as Alicia slinks in the bass follows then drums and what sounds like keyboards building and building while Alicia sings a very dark tale that will let a lot of people know that they are ‘not alone’ out there with these ‘feelings’.
This is followed by the exceptionally clever Picasso Blue; which is beautifully deep and sensitive … using Picasso and his ‘Blue period’ as a metaphor for her darkest feelings.
Alicia’s aren’t all doom and gloom; but they are intense and need several plays to get the very best out of them; which is how I’ve been with I Want It Faster which is one of the rawest and most honest songs I’ve heard in years; with Alicia sounding quite theatrical in her delivery.
Oddly enough the biggest surprise here is the finale Believer which which dabbles in electro-pop giving it a windswept backing to Alicia’s soaring vocal parts on a story that punched me in the heart and forget to breath the first time I played it through headphones.
With only 5 songs to choose from, selecting a single Favourite Song hasn’t been easy as there’s nothing here that couldn’t fit into that category; but the co-write with John Paul White, Young; is a very special and intimate song indeed. While about and aimed at the other end of the age spectrum from myself; there’s enough here to mirror my own feelings when I had my own ‘wobble’ back in November …. opening with…
“Everybody tells you don’t grow old
I’m so tired of feeling so young and all alone”
then later;
“I thought I was going to the dark-side
But my baby’s feeling fine
I don’t wanna life forever young.“
There’s no getting away from the fizzy guitar breaks and haunting bass/cymbal combo that make this scintillating song even more intense than you’d expect from something that’s almost poetic in construction.
Surprisingly this hasn’t been as ‘hard a listen’ as you’d expect as the songs actually err on the side of being commercial; but there is always a message in the lyrics that really needs to be listened to ….. the Devil really is in the detail.
Released 17th March 2023
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The Rocking Magpie 