Alistair O'Brien - All Equal

Alistair O'Brien

All Equal
self-released; 2022

By Dan Weston

Alistair O'Brien released Who Fell On Their Head? in 2020. He is back with a new release entitled All Equal. The music on this release is in the same arena as Leonard Cohen, The Velvet Underground, Bill Callahan and other like-minded artists. He mentions this about the album “dark songs about love, heartbreak and searching for meaning in all things.” That’s a pretty broad description so let’s get into it.

The album opens with “Spiral” and on this song I was getting Velvet Underground vibes. It moves slowly with no rush to get anywhere in particular. O’Brien has a deep baritone which rests on the music which is barely above a whisper. On that note the song is quite catchy. I loved the hook which is very subdued and quite dream-like as well. The song, at least how I interpreted it, was about a breakup with lines like “now I get this feeling, its deep in my blood like a mix of ache, its jealousy, its lust like I'm not living in a film that we took and it means nothing.”

“You only made me smile” is a bluesy hybrid. Similar to the previous song it’s not in a rush to get anywhere, however this song is more dynamic. The lead guitar is a constant factor and I loved the bends on this song.

“Cherry Tree” is only about a minute-and-a-half long. Something about the tones of the song make it sound like it's being deflated. It works in a unique way and I actually thought the song could be a bit longer.

I’m not always a fan of spoken and a sort of stream of consciousness but in this case it really works. O’Brien delivers a monotone like spoken word and his baritone is what makes it work and that combines with a jazzy and experimental bed of sounds. The lyrics are poetic but you can still figure out the theme. There are some great lines including “the white horse lays down the little prick has given her a restful piece or a sexual beat or a hard blown sleep with soft music by your side in the trash heap we lived in.”

The music is brighter on “All equal” which sounds like a backyard bluegrass band. “Black fawn” was another very cool spoken word piece. The music felt a little ’70s inspired to me and there’s a formidable hook.

One of the highlights was “Snowflake” which has a steady and unique rhythm. It’s very subdued and also contains some of the infectious vocal melodies. “Charcoal dust smear” made me feel like I was at a beatnik coffee shop in the lower east side in the late ’60s while the closer “After hours” may have the single best groove on the album. The horns were great.

My only slight critique is that on some songs I had a tough time making out the lyrics. I did think however the lo-fi aesthetics worked for this type of album.

​I thought this was a great album. It’s a very “cool” sounding record with unique approaches to songwriting. Fans of the aforementioned artists should enjoy this album quite a bit. Take a listen.

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