Quiet As A Mouse, Aka Alex Moran, turns nostalgia — the fuel and soul of so much writing — into a jumping off point. The album title, “Nostalgia is fine… But…” trails off into an ellipsis, and Alex Moran spends ten songs rolling out of that thought. The album unabashedly borrows elements from genres — indie, pop, alt-rock, folk — and as a result becomes something absolutely unique, with an unmistakable 90s nostalgia woven into its core.
“Miss Melody” opens on a simple acoustic strum. It feels unhurried and warm, with Moran’s voice sitting close to the microphone as if he’s sharing an intimate secret. Very little else crowds the mix. This bareness matters, because “Cocaine Soul” arrives right after it with loose, bar-room blues guitar and a looser rhythm section, and the shift reads like the narrator has left the room he was sitting alone in and walked into a crowded one, the music changing along with him. You can almost picture him strumming his guitar and singing to this new found crowd.
Further down the track list, “The Man I Am” keeps that bluesy pulse going but roughs it up, grunge-y chords stumbling forward. Moran calls on both Jesus and Judas — the ultimate paradoxical pair — with questions about life. “Doll Eyes” pulls the opposite way, stripped down to almost nothing with upbeat strumming joining parts of the track as delightful little surprises. Both songs stand out for their incredible storytelling — “You wanna know/Why I wanna sleep alone?/ When I was ten/ My mother died.” Moran sings.
As “Nostalgia is fine… But…” Inches towards an end, “Comfort Food” leans completely into what can only be describes as the evils of reminiscing; the pain of remembering and wanting what once was. “I wanna see the sight of your face/still I wait for an invite to your place”, Moran sings, voice low and heavy. “White Picket Fence” takes a rather different direction, maintaining a peppy abandon throughout the track.
Moran never answers what comes after the titular but; It simply becomes the open door through which all the exploration on the album takes place.
Listen to the tracks here:
Find our previous album reviews here.
