Alex Nicol - Been A Long Year

“feels very much like an exhalation, as Nicol’s assured vocals weave into a tapestry of sound that occasionally recalls Andrew Bird in its orchestral swells.” FLOOD Magazine on “Been A Long Year”

“Alex Nicol writes hauntingly enigmatic tunes and this new EP is a simply beautiful collection of songs. He sings like an angel and his fragile vocal truly touches the soul!”  Guy Chadwick, HOUSE OF LOVE

“full of floating melodies and dark textures”  UNDER THE RADAR

If Been A Long Year Volume One by Montreal-based singer/songwriter Alex Nicol was drawn from his internal world, Volume Two finds him looking outside of himself to address more wide-reaching issues. With a slightly lighter application of the nuanced folk-rock style he’s been growing into over his past few releases, Nicol uses the five songs that make up Been A Long Year Vol. 2 to journey outward, moving past the grief and sorrow happening in his own head to explore bigger picture feelings of frustration, joy, fear, and hope. While Been A Long Year Vol. 2 is a little more airy and less internally-derived than its predecessor, the two chapters come together as complimentary hemispheres of an album-length statement.

Though all of Nicol’s music is drawn from his thoughtful first-person viewpoints, the menacing skies and displaced characters of Been A Long Year Vol. 1 worked more as metaphors for emotional processing. Songs here like “Simple Fires” are far more overt, aiming pointedly at the fossil fuel industry and their destruction of the planet in the name of profiteering. With the wildfires of 2023 that produced some of the worst quality air on recent record being directly linked to emissions from gas, oil, and coal companies, the song’s anger surrounding these toxic entities is both acute and topical. “Working On My Tan” looks at how difficult it can be to live in the moment while a constant barrage of pressure and prescribed competition is always assailing us, and the beautiful and bittersweet “Song For Franz” reflects on how men are socialized to deny their emotions and never outwardly express fear or pain. The lyrics are rich with dreamlike imagery of cowboys, movie heroes, and spiritual redemption, but the song’s direct inspiration was the loss of Nicol’s own uncle Franz, who struggled with these tragically limiting societal expectations for decades before taking his own life.

For as heavy as all of Nicol’s emotional threads can get, you’d never know it from how lightly the music itself floats through whatever atmosphere it occupies. Gentle, whispering vocals glide through soft shimmers of pedal steel and understated backing from a steady rhythm section. The hooks are unassuming, but they latch on and return to your mind for days to come, like overhearing a stranger hum a melody that somehow unlocks memories you hadn’t thought about for years. The way Nicol intermingles the personal and the universal showcases his versatility as a songwriter, one unafraid of taking on bigger topics, but equally fearless of the vulnerability required to share his own deepest truths.

Track #5 (Been A Long Year) feat. guest appearance by Angel Deradoorian