Review Summary: Endearing singer songwriter debut
The album ‘The theory of absolutely nothing’ is the debut album by Australian ‘alternative singer-songwriter’ Alex The Astronaut.
Based on this album, does my compatriot make great music or is she average? Or worse?
Well, firstly, the album title is a bit misleading, it sounds like the title to something very cynical, but Alex is more sincere and friendly than that. The other thing I noticed immediately was... that voice... especially on the opening track, where she’s rattling off many lines in quick succession, a cringe is in order - in fact, you can’t help but cringe. Stay strong though, because it gets better from there.
If one side of Alex is her strange voice with weird vowels, the other side is she’s a talented songwriter. She’s even quite a good lyricist. ‘Alternative’ is such a vague term, that could mean anything these days, so I would describe Astronaut’s music as indie folk rock with a coat of late 60s sunshine pop. The arrangements are very good, with lots of little instruments almost unnoticeable chiming away in the background, adding to the overall atmosphere of the music. Alex and the session musicians are all fine musicians.
The opening of the first song is, like I said, too many words in a short space of time, but the chorus is kind of warm and cheery catchiness. Songs like ‘Lost’ and ‘Caught in the middle’ are decent singer-songwriter, with melodies that feel like you’ve probably heard them before, but still not bad songs.
In amidst all the cheery sunny songs is the agonisingly painful 'I like to dance’ which just sums up the pain of being in an abusive relationship so well, with powerful imagery such as ‘I don’t want your pity, I wanna run through rivers and smile, I wanna sing right through the night’.
Considering her voice and some of these songs being a bit forgettable, I would probably write her off as average, and then comes the joyous ode to finding love, ‘Christmas in July’ with it's equally cheerful lyrics ‘The Grinch has come to dine, with all the mood, got all the presents I was hoping to, because I love you’, and she wrote a very good melody for this lovely song. If I was thinking that was the highlight, the ‘Banksia’ song is has an even more effective melody and chorus, where Alex’ arranging skills pay off well with perfectly timed backing vocals. This is followed by the energetic ‘I think you’re great’ which is anchored by excellent drumming and a catchy, 60s pop-rock inspired guitar riff.
Her lyrical skills really work on ‘San Francisco’, as she sings ‘I’m just a traveller passing through, riding my spaceship to the moon, looking down at the hope and the pain, but the colours are all going to change’ over colourful music that deliberately aims at sunshine pop.
This last slew of strong tracks definitely raises the enjoyment of this album. Then you realise that even if her voice is weird, she doesn’t sound ‘just like everyone else’. Then I try to remember a bad song, and I can’t. Sure, some are a bit ‘average’, but nothing is really bad. So it’s hard not to consider a good rating for ‘Theory of absolutely nothing’.
