Melbourne’s own Alexander Biggs is a 23-year-old who produces emotional-melodic-philosophical songs that are also wonderful. Debuting two songs last year, he managed to stay as a secret pleasure of ours. That is, until the release of his debut EP this year. In this, he sounds like the voice in our conscience, the times when we are truer to ourselves, and to our pluses and cons, and feel great about it. That said, Still Your Sharpen Your Teeth is an obligatory EP. One we will treasure forever. Just like if we had written a poetry book. And these are the whys and hows:
I’ll Go My Way is constantly high felt, with a certain traveling sound to it all. The story-telling vocals on top of the simple drums and the melodic acoustic guitar, are the reason for this. Not only a nice introduction to the EP, but also a great mix of the modern types of music we love to hear everyday.
Now I Leave You Here sounds more honest and from the heart, and is even of a more melodic composition than the previous one. It brings back some of the greatest tracks from bands like The Weepies or Death Cab for a Cutie, in both the vocal and lyrical tendencies. A song for all times. But definitely a song to make us feel accompanied.
Figure It Out builds on the premises of the first two songs, but adds a rocky feeling to it all. For anyone hearing to Alexander Biggs for the first time, this must be the easiest way in. It is probably impossible to not like these tender 3 minutes of song. And even if we focus on the pessimist lyrics we can still feel some very hopeful calling in it. Probably because of the perfectly mixed vocals and the way everything sounds like a tender trip back home.
It’s is the name of the fourth song of the EP and probably our most favourite one. It certainly comes from a deeper place than all the other songs on this extended play. It also sounds a bit over-emotional but with a simplistic instrumental reflex. Vocals sound like our conscience, or the voice of not letting go something we treasure beyond ourselves. And the lyrics do talk a bit of something like that. And the way it sounds both Spoon-ish and Local Natives, is the best complement we can give to it.
New York sounds like a tender ode to a busy life-style, or the act of slowing down. The way it resorts to the simplistic chords of a pair of acoustic guitars provide the tender-dramatic vocals with the necessary amount of contemplation. And even the repetitiveness of the song sounds pretty magical or with the right amounts of melancholism.
Gone Again is the final breath of this beautifully crafted EP, and one that provides it with a graceful goodbye. It not only gathers all the previous song’s tender-holic feeling, but also that pushes it forward. Reminds us of Mark Kozelek melodic declarations, but at the same time sounds original and never tiring. Gone Again goes perfectly with life, it makes us softer, honestier, richer, and overall better persons. Like the whole EP really.
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