Alex Izenberg & The Exiles

極上のポップ・ミュージックを奏でるSSW、Alex Izenbergによる最新アルバム!!

70sレジェンドを思わせる、どこか浮世離れしたシンガー/ソングライター、Alex Izenbergが〈Weird World / Domino〉よりフルバンドとしては初の作品『Alex Izenberg & The Exiles』をリリース!通算4枚目となる11曲収録の本作で彼は、シンプルな目標に集中した(長持ちするものを作ること)。メロディーはロマンティックで温かく、アレンジには魅惑的な拡張性があり、新たに編成されたアンサンブルが巧みに活用されている。また、ミックスにはベテラン・プロデューサーのPhil Ek(Fleet Foxes、Father John Misty、Built to Spill)を起用。出来上がったサウンドは、彼のこれまでの作品と同じくらい親密でありながら、神秘的で、共同体的な輝きを放ち、これまでにはない真新しさを感じさせる。中心となるインスピレーションには、哲学者Alan Wattsの頭脳的な考察があり、King Crimsonの幾重にも重なるストーリーテリングがあり、Fleet Foxesの幻想的な風景がある。そのテーマは難解に感じられるかもしれないが、Izenbergがバンドと共に奏でる音楽は心地よく地上を漂っている。

In preparing his fourth album, Angelino Alex Izenberg returned to familiar inspirations such as philosopher/writer Alan Watts and the literary tendencies of King Crimson as well as vintage psychedelic and Baroque pop. Whats a little different this time around is that its his most collaborative album to date, with expansive, more improvisational-sounding band arrangements featuring a wide array of contributors. Among the crew was Phil Ek (Built to Spill, the Walkmen, the Shins), whom he sought out to mix the record knowing that Ek had mixed Fleet Foxes Crack-Up (2017). Injecting poetics before listeners even hit play, he titled the album Alex Izenberg & the Exiles, with the cover art featuring a solitary Izenberg adrift in a rowboat. As if tuning up before the orchestra concert, it begins with 40 seconds of wind chimes, various homespun percussion, vocal warmups, and the like before launching into "The Gospel of Exiles," a warm, All Things Must Pass-era-evoking track that sets the tone for the psychedelic AM pop atmospheres of the rest. While not quite orchestral, the songs layered design includes a horn section, impromptu rhythm piano, slide guitar, lyrical lead guitar, soft-focus backing vocals, and more, including continued percussion clatter. Dreamy, relaxed tempos are another feature of the album, as are poetic titles like "The Wraith Behind Our Eyes " and "As the Dawn Serenades the Dark." While the set plays more like an album than a series of songs -- theres an absence of foot-tapping playlist material, for instance -- subtle standouts include the partly group-sung, strings-enhanced "Only the Moon Knows," which is brightened by harmonic guitar riffs and romanticized by lyrics like "The iron hand of death in a velvet glove" and "Talking to the wind through the smoke." Searching to the end, Alex Izenberg & the Exiles is an album for late nights, back porches, and lonely weekends, and another intriguing entry in the growing catalog of a distinctive music personality. ~ Marcy Donelson