Steady and strong, the melodies echo an unpolished sound as stunning as it is affirming on all fronts in Rob Alexander’s honest “The Kids Don’t Play Anymore,” and while the instrumental edge in this track is endearing to the honest pop in all of us, it produces but half of the charisma the song will embrace listeners with this June. Alongside the other twelve tracks on the new album Young Man’s Eyes, “The Kids Don’t Play Anymore” sees Rob Alexander getting back to the business of doing what he’s been doing for years now in making some of the purest pop around and rejecting the parameters of the label every single chance he gets.
“Merry Christmas in Heaven” quickly drifts into emotional classic pop/rock before ripping us through a bluesy verse structure as hypnotic as the strut of “Pillars of Hercules (Davey, Nigel, & Dee)” is. “Get Over Yourself” howls at the moon with a little help from Gigi Worth as heartily as the strictly-solo “Like an Angel” does, and whether these players are beefing up for a sonic brawl or mercilessly making love out of pop balladry in a way only its most loyal student could they always sound like they are cultivating a very special connection with the music and each other.
“Fly on the Wall” is a beat-focused swing anthem that doesn’t try to indulge in any department, which somehow makes it the beacon of efficiency so many alternative pop albums I’ve listened to in 2023 have been missing. “Sometimes We Fall Apart” – which feels like a celebration of lust somehow drawn from the same place a piece like “Island Girl” once was – is the fiercest song on the first half of the LP, but it doesn’t take anything away from the stormy harmonies of “Black Widow Rising” or the bludgeon of the beats in the titular “Young Man’s Eyes” later on in the record. There’s a nice, even flow to the content here that has made it hard for me to turn away from the tracklist once I’ve gotten started with it, and if you’re looking for the right kind of soundtrack to take you on an emotional road trip with limited gas money and the occasional exit for a flashback, there should be no other album you consider this summer outside of Young Man’s Eyes.
From the relatively black-and-white “The Soul or the Skin” to the grind of “Freak Show,” suffocating harmonies of “Your Shelter,” and the more volatile “We Can Be Winners,” Rob Alexander’s Young Man’s Eyes is a fun album to get lost in and with, depending on the circumstances, and I think other pop enthusiasts are going to share my sentiments. Fans of the genre both old and new alike will enjoy the unfanciful cut of the mix from one song to the song, and curious music critic types aren’t likely to have any issues with the compositional inventiveness this player comes up with rather unstoppably. All in all, this is one stinger of an indie rock record I don’t imagine forgetting anytime soon.
Jodi Marxbury