New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The alternative hitmaker's solo sophomore album delves into life's complicated in-betweens
Today, alternative hitmaker Alex Ebert releases 'I vs I' (out via Community
Music & AWAL). His most expansive and eclectic album yet, on 'I vs I' Ebert unfolds a conceptual narrative that explores the many facets of the human experience, through the lens of a deteriorating relationship and the eventual phoenix-like rise back into the warmth of a new love.
Ebert's second solo record since 2011's 'Alexander', 'I vs I' tackles heady topics with a range of sounds just as immense, from the funk-laden sound that fans of Ima Robot are familiar with to more doleful indietronic folk reflections in the vein of
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.
Ebert runs the gamut of human emotions and desires on 'I vs I', including love and sex ("Her Love"), jealousy (a trippy reinvented sampling of John Lennon's"Jealous Guy"), battling depression ("Gold"), the passage of time and the chase for eternal youth ("Automatic Youth"), and (on "
Stronger") "an exploration of relationship highs and lows, replete with handclaps, whistling, and a bold falsetto", according to KCRW.
The album release comes in the wake of a performance and Q+A event last night at the GRAMMY Museum in LA, and the dropping of Alex's "delightfully surreal" (Rolling Stone) new video for album cut "
Fluid". Drawing from funk and deep house, the track explores an individual, who initially feels confused in a socially evolving world, before coming to understand and embrace the nuances of self-identity and progress. The video finds Ebert reflecting and boogieing down against chaotic backdrops that call to mind the creation of the universe.
Of the song, Alex says "
Fluid" "predicts the synthesis of amorphous identity and scientific biology. Today's detractors and bigots, who point most fervently to today's biological facts to corroborate their disdain, are tomorrow's luddites. The song's futuristic antihero finds themselves feeling momentarily isolated by the changing world through the transition of a lover, until, instead of resisting the change, they embrace it - and celebrate it."
About Alex Ebert
LA-bred, New Orleans-based Alex Ebert is a musician, filmmaker, activist and father. He founded the bands
Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros and Ima Robot, and won the Golden
Globe for Best Original Score in 2014 for his work on All Is Lost. Ebert established himself as one of alternative music's leading voices with a folksy, whimsical musicality and a surreal onstage persona that has garnered praise from SPIN, Consequence of Sound, Variety, KCRW, and The New York Times. A social activist, Ebert is the founder of Big Sun Foundation, which specializes in facilitating Community Land Trusts. He is also the CEO of crowd-sourced social radio app Tuners, contributed a song to Shia LaBeouf-written 2019 drama Honeyboy, and is writing a book called 'Kingdom Cool'.
'I vs I' Track Listing
"To The Days"
"Jealous Guy"
"Automatic Youth"
"
Miles Away"
"
Hands Up"
"I Smoke"
"
Miracle"
"
Stronger"
"Gold"
"King Killer"
"
Fluid"
"Alex Meets The Night"
"Her Love"
"
Press Play"
