Appropriately enough, the autumnal melodies of Singer/Songwriter Alex Church LP- Leaves in The River- will make their unveiling near the Autumn Equinox date. Coincidence? Under the moniker Sea Wolf, Alex Church, has created an album of lush arrangements and delicate earth tones that are truly, the perfect soundtrack for transitioning from summer to fall. Church then pens a labyrinth of lonely characters lost in unrequited obsessive love quests amidst these delicate audible soundscapes. I would say it’s comparable to being lost in a Red Wood forest and stepping knee deep into thick Moss.
The atmospheric title track begins serenely enough with raindrops and a distant train track thump, ambient noises that float in like a Cumulonimbus cloud slowly covering up a blaring sun and are followed by the most delicate of lullaby style Harpsichord keys. For whatever reason, it left me craving a granola bar and an organic green tea to wash it down with.
Sea Wolf’s coffeehouse intimacy is a result of a perfect melding of the electronic and acoustic. Church is a member of the digital singer/songwriter movement, akin to Dangerbird label mate Hrishikesh Hirway and his one-man band - One Am Radio. “Black Dirt” is a perfect example of the how electro-acoustic can be pulled off well- it begins with Church’s whispery vocals over delicately warm guitar picking which encounter frizzling synthesizers 30 seconds in and then expand exponentially into a full spectrum of electric guitars, violins and punchy drums.
Literary buffs will recognize SeaWolf as the title to Jack London’s sea voyage novel which depicts a despicable swashbuckler named Wolf Larson. The pensive and vulnerable characters that Church creates in emotive songs like the “Rose Captain” and the quirky “Middle Distance Runner” have much more in common with the book’s protagonist, the domesticated and frail Humphrey Van Weyden than the malevolent Larson, however. “You’re A Wolf Boy”, the albums most successful track, both lyrically and musically, is a wandering narrative tale about the struggles of fitting in, complete with a soothsaying, wine stained gypsy woman-“the one that you are looking for, you’re not going to find round here”.
Breezy and restrained as “Leaves in The River” is, this album is not suitable for every taste. It’s pensive and reflective, ambitious and beautiful, but surely not upbeat. One thing is for sure though, Alex Church, former bass player for LA band Irving, proves he is one hell of a multi instrumentalist.
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