Alex Nicol - “Hollywood”

Photo by Christopher Honeywell

From Montreal, Canada, please allow us to fill your ears with the divine music of Alex Nicol. His latest single, “Hollywood,” conjures some reasonably heavy Thom Yorke vibes as it portrays the pitfalls of fame.

“Hollywood” is the perfect blend of folk and rock as it gently dips its toes into both genres. For you connoisseurs of the former, the arrangement contains some raw, stripped-back sounds of some lo-fi acoustic guitar. However, once you hear Nicol’s vocal, the tune quickly makes a turn toward everything that originally made you fall in love with Radiohead.

Some dark synth pads the soundscape, allowing the listener to predict the eventual expansion of the entire production. And at around forty seconds in, it does just that, with the addition of a melancholic rhythm section and ghostly notes from an electric guitar. We can hear quite a bit of ‘90s influence here as it is unafraid to express equal parts emotion and craft.

As dark as “Hollywood” is, it is ironically very refreshing amidst an ocean of music that tends to focus a bit more on commercial appeal. And if you’re like us, hoping that more music like this exists, today is your lucky day– you can stream an entire EP of this fantastic sound:

-TM