Music Review // Alexander Gallant "The Prince Of Birchy Head"

 https://alexandergallant.bandcamp.com/album/the-prince-of-birchy-head

When listening to this album by Alexander Gallant you are going to hear a lot of acoustic guitar sounds.  Other than the vocals, I believe this is all created using an acoustic guitar.  What is fascinating about that is if you really listen to the music you'll notice these slight changes- even within seconds in a single song- where the music shifts from one sound to another.  These intricate details added within the music just make this album feel so special because some artists who play acoustic guitar and sing wouldn't even use this many complexities within their whole album that Alexander Gallant does on one song.

On "The Prince Of Birchy Head" there are songs which sound like Elliott Smith, only not as sad.  In fact on the song "Me And Filly" Alexander Gallant even says: "I'm not miserable now / In fact, I'm better than I've ever been".  These songs have that sort of mellow way about them, somber, where you can listen to them while relaxing on the beach but before the end "Everything You Need" picks up the pace a little and "Silver Chip" feels more like a higher pitched Beach Boys type of song as well.

These songs tell stories and in the way that they are delivered they are being told in the most blatant way possible.  Instead of leaving you guessing, Alexander Gallant tells these tales in ways which seem so neutral, so easily appealing that it feels impossible to not want to pull up a chair and listen if you were to hear these in the wild somewhere.  They make me feel like Jack Johnson to some extent because they may not be made for kids, but they have that same idea where they can be enjoyed by everyone.  

With an instrumental number on "Morley's Cafe Rag", which follows a bit of the ramblin' sound on "Since I Started", Alexander Gallant has lyrics you can easily appreciate such as "I lay my burden down / So don't you put that weight on me" which comes out during a song about "Fortune Teller's Kids".   The way that these sounds can come together to feel so simple on the surface can truly bring in anyone who wants to listen, but then the way the sounds are made up of all of these smaller pieces will have true lovers of music sticking around for repeated listens.