That old joke about the singer going solo has bandied around the music world for longer than sound. For the most part, this is a lightly dismissive way of keeping that notorious frontman ego in check, keeping their mind focused on the task in hand.
Within any collaborative musical framework, someone will always want to work on something lighter/heavier/electronic and so on, that isn’t what their band is doing or can do.
Alex Sears is the frontman and vocalist for popcore merchants Decade, who have done themselves proud in recent times; touring, videoing, successfully arseing around for the camera and so on. Their videos show a band of notable ability within their field, giving it plenty in a live context. However, for all the shrieking, pogoing and crowd excitation, Sears looks uncomfortable playing the ultra-masculine punter control machine, stood between two significantly manlier guitarists.
This fragile, exposed wiring is endearing. Not content to sing and tour with the ‘Cade, Sears has knocked out 3 releases of his own material since December 2012. The Blue EP is the longest by some margin, showing a growing confidence from this young writer. A significant step forward from the less adventurous Teller EP and a giant leap from the single track effectively-your-day-job Company, this 5 track downloadable EP is available in the nifty CD-as-LP format, which is encouragingly sold out.
Lead track Young Adult contains more than a sliver of Decade’s brand of popcore, but with less machismo and some well-realised harmony work. This is expertly executed, and shows the singer is capable knocking out his parent band’s material unaided. This audial trend continues into Caged, which resonates with a similar, if more b-sideish feel.
The EP really comes into its own on House Spider, where Mr. Sears begins to spread his wings. Cheekily soaring into hitherto unexplored realms of charm, the ability of our protagonist to make the most of his bedroom production comes to the fore. There are elements here of Texas Is The Reason (if they had a sense of humour) and the Get Up Kids, if they weren’t busy hand wringing.
There is a lot to be commended here; the production is extremely good for being done at home, the songs are strong and confident, and belie a great deal more about their creators true nature than his work in Decade. This is to be expected on some levels, as it is the work of one individual rather than a collective, but too often are singers-turned-solo-artists simply acoustic facsimiles of their main creative outlet. This is a good record, and one would hope that by receiving such praise for his solo material, Sears will go on to follow his instincts to create yet more quality EPs. Purchase!
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