Classic rock’s influence over pop culture and all of music grew exponentially in the 2000s, and this season it’s having a hand in giving pop fans a bit of the attitude that they’ve missed in the genre for decades back via Young Man’s Eyes, the latest LP from Rob Alexander. The decadent doctor of pop is back in the spotlight this June with what could be his most diversely-appointed album to date in Young Man’s Eyes, and while it’s got all the trappings his fans expect out of a Rob Alexander LP, it feels a bit more accessible to the casual pop listener than past releases have.
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The reflective parts of this album, found predominantly in “The Kids Don’t Play Anymore,” “Black Widow Rising,” “Like an Angel,” and “Black and Blue,” aren’t lost in the chaos of the other material in the tracklist, but instead, feel a little more noticeable because of the juxtaposition here. I think there’s a lot to learn about a musician through the contrast he’s willing to put onto a record, and if there’s any truth to this statement it gets a heck of a lot of evidential support from content like Young Man’s Eyes – an LP centered on the duality of its artist.
There’s no getting around the passion seeping through the play in the title cut, “The Soul or the Skin,” “Freak Show,” and “We Can Be Winners,” and whether these songs were performed acoustically as opposed to electrically, I think they still would carry the same heavy tonal presence they do in this instance.
That’s all compositional muscle coming from Alexander, and I would even go so far as to say that this is probably the most conservative flexing he could have done in a new record given what he’s been known for in albums like Long Road Coming Home.
Cutting instrumental corners wasn’t something this artist ever considered when recording Young Man’s Eyes, and that’s clear listening to “Get Over Yourself (featuring Gigi Worth),” “Sometimes We Fall Apart,” and “Pillars of Hercules (Davey, Nigel, & Dee)” alone. The collective push this guy can create when he’s firing on all cylinders is left entirely intact and unaltered in the master mix, which invites both atonal edging and residual veracity where there would otherwise be nothing but unutilized space – or worse yet, synthetics. Alexander doesn’t have any room for that kind of B.S. in his music, and this is indisputable in his most recent studio offering.
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There are a lot of exciting records out in alternative rock this year, but of the pop LPs I’ve been spinning this summer, Young Man’s Eyes is far and away the most complete and the most enthralling. In all thirteen of these songs, Rob Alexander goes off as no other bands in his scene have in ages now, and although he’s going to have to work just as hard in the future to maintain his place in the underground hierarchy, this is confirmation that he hasn’t lost his edge in the past year at all.
Loretta Kim