alex bell - stardance

Alex Bell

Stardance
self-released; 2013

3.8 out of 5

By Eva Cantillo

From the get go, this syrupy uber slowed-down album is mysterious like the night. Alex Bell realized that throughout the years, he had written quite a number of songs about the night, so he took to compiling them into a cohesive album, hence Stardance.

Each song has its own method of sweeping you away to a distant misty land where sometimes things are dark and scary, and other times they are light like a cool mist. The track “Out in the Dark” is a song where Bell is very successful in harmonizing his voice with the soothing melody of the background music. Another transcendent track “Starlight,” starts off with a sound reminiscent of a fairy world, as the song goes on the sentiment continues yet the lyrics paint a somewhat longing feeling, perhaps complicated love. “She never seemed to fade…” are the anchoring lyrics of the song.

Bell constructs a dynamic layer of sound behind each song; every track just glitters with soft notes. The song “First Movement” is very soft with piano keys, guitar, effects and vocals. There is some “erking” squeaking that can be heard from moving along the strings of the guitar, but this is something that can be attributed to production not execution.

The music that makes up Stardance is very ethereal and seems as though the notes and lyrics just rain down from the stars on a moonlit night out in the countryside. The concepts of the songs can be both dark, and enlightening as the sentiments of a passing night. The album is well-conceived and executed but deserves better production qualities. 

official website

itunes