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The best musicians, for me, are the ones able to live up to the broad artistic scope that such a title suggests. So many music makers, in their earlier days at least, hem themselves in by assuming unnecessary tags such as a pop guitarist or a rock drummer. Indeed, if you cloak yourself in the mantel of merely musician, artist or even creative, you allow yourself the freedom to evolve and develop from one sound or style, perhaps even from one discipline, to the next. And it is something that has certainly worked for Steve Alex.
If his other musical concern Four Star Riot leans very much into the anthemics and bombast of searing yet accessible rock music, his solo vehicle, Never Heavy wanders more sedate and spacious pathways.
As a precursor to his forthcoming sophomore album, Never Heavy Is One Full of Light “Anything More” is a deft and delicate piece, a gentle Elliot Smith -infused, hushed and dreamlike soundscape. It takes gently chiming and charming, folk-inspired acoustic guitars, slips an unfussy yet perfectly positioned beat underneath and Steve Alex’s poised pop vocals over the top to forge the sort of balladic brilliance that the late great Karl Wallinger would have wrestled you to the ground to have on a World Party album.
Lovely stuff, indeed. It’s an excellent introduction for those, like me (I’m ashamed to say), who are new to Never Heavy in particular and Steve Alex in general and it provides you with the perfect reason to pick up Never Heavy Is One Full of Light when it drops at the end of August.
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