Music Review // Alex Southey "Athletes"

 

While the song "Athletes" begins with these acoustic notes it can shape into a much larger sound than you would think before the end.   With these delicate acoustics, Alex Southey has a sound similar to both Simon & Garfunkel and Elliott Smith, but at the same time the overall aura of this song reminds me of when the Foo Fighters went acoustic for "Skin and Bones".

At first I thought this entire song might be about "Athletes", but that title just comes up in the lines when we are told to "Learn to sweat like athletes".   There are many lines like this in the song, with different characters doing different things and the comparisons to them.  I especially enjoy that there are the lines "Learn to love like poets / You can write it".

One of the terms which keeps repeating throughout this song is "silver skin".  I like to look for the meanings behind songs, even if it's just a fun dance number, but in that regard "Athletes" can be a bit abstract and open to interpretation.   When the idea of "silver skin" comes in, I think of robots and so in that sense I think about how many of these acts which the lyrics suggest we learn to do are that which a human can do (For example, robots cannot sweat)

I'd even be willing to go one step further into this song and as much as it kind of wants to make humans feel more human and less cold and robotic, there is also perhaps another message in the lines about writing because with the way AI is now, yes, it can write you lyrics for a song or a story but the love isn't behind it.   With a big, grandiose type of finale this song has a strong presentation and depending upon how deep you want to go, you can get buried in it.