Released: September 19
Twice, Alexis Strum has been in touching distance of realising her pop star dream, but it took 20 years for her first two albums – ‘Addicted’ (2003) and ‘Cocoon’ (2006) – to finally materialise…
It’s enough to put any artist off the recording industry for life, so the irony isn’t lost that, on ‘Swim’, her third long-player and first original music in two decades, she reintroduces herself on opening track Everybody by declaring: ‘I’m giving up, I’ve had enough!’
For the hordes of fans who have long anticipated this day, it’s a relief that she’s talking only about dating life and not her devotion to her craft, which from the calibre of material on ‘Swim’, it’s clear is unwavering.
As is the loyalty of her followers, who helped propel the singer-songwriter back into the spotlight thanks to an online campaign calling for the release of that aforementioned material, selections from which were picked up by the likes of Kylie Minogue and Rachel Stevens and included among their most popular LPs.
This time around, Alexis fuses the synth-pop of her debut with the more mature, rootsy songwriting of its follow-up for a collection that is simultaneously cohesive yet diverse, incorporating elements of pop-rock (Outgrown), synth-pop (If You Think I’m Too Much (You Should Go Find Less)), Americana (Like The Other Girls) and soul (When The Good Goes Bad) across the record’s nine tracks.
What stands out is not only the quality of the material overall, but the production of the songs, which is shared between Shadowhands (Sugababes, Pixie Lott), Jim Lowe (Stereophonics, The K’s) and Jonas Westling (Lady Gaga, Melanie C), conjuring a sound that’s distinctive to the LP while incorporating each collaborator’s individual flair.
Lyrically, Alexis gets personal across much of the material; ‘My fingernails are bleeding / I’m done with believing’ she announces on the gut-wrenching When The Good Goes Bad, lamenting the drawn-out breakdown of a relationship, while Gigi Perez-inspired closing number, Like The Other Girls, reads as a life lesson to her daughter: ‘I just want you to be yourself / I hope, I pray, you find your way’.
Unquestionably, the jewel in the crown here is the title song, reflecting on the first-hand experience of the helplessness losing a loved one to Alzheimer’s: ‘I’m losing it / Thinking about all the things you’ll never get to do now / Credits at the end of the movie are running out’.
If Alexis’ past material proves anything it’s her versatility as an artist, songwriter and performer, but her latest work fuses the cornerstones of her previous efforts, resulting in a body of work that not only feels wholly authentic, but stands as the strongest collection of her career to date.
