JAM THE TRACKS WHILE YOU READ
"GREAT ADD YOU SAUCY MINX" - BEN
ALEX LAHEY
THE ANSWER IS ALWAYS YES
JUNE 20TH, 2023
“Everyone is a bit fucked up, but they think they’re okay.”
That’s Lahey’s lyrical lead off for her new album, The Answer is Always Yes. And it’s a perfect intro. “Good Time” is Sheryl Crow’s Tuesday Night Music Club blendered with the Aussie vocal drawl of Courtney Barnett’s “Avant Gardener” and it might just prove to be your summer jam of 2023. At any rate, it’s sure to be a perennial playlist favorite for BBQs and boating, for porch hangs and house parties, for fire pits and lawn chairs. The daily grind of life knocks you down. Punches are swung. Bloody mouths and the same boring song on loop. It's time for fun. Time for a jolt of joy; to incentivize the desensitized. “Good Time” does that.
But good times rarely last. Beer is spilt, lips are split, relationships crack, and hearts get broken. Lahey excavates those feelings with “Congratulations”, attempting to stave off tears with false–or forced–praise for an ex-lover who has “settled down with wedding bells” in their new “perfect life.” Further emotional spelunking on “You’ll Never Get Your Money Back” addresses another breakup. It’s caustic, it’s conflicted. Love does that. “You said a lot of shit, but still owe me rent…Love never leaves you in the black.”
This album is solid throughout. Alex opens up her diary, pours feelings into songs. Its emo riffs are cushioned in power pop fun. Breakups and exes, mental lock downs and check outs, stoned trips via melted gummies, melting skies, and Michael Bolton references make for 10 tracks of awesome sauce. You have choices on what you consume, what music you listen to. But if you ask me whether Alex Lahey’s new album is worth a listen, the answer is always yes.
- TRENT RYAN SMITH