If you play piano and loud-whisper, does Replacements-stye rock become profound? James Alex hopes you think so, since he’s re-recorded all these songs that he wrote for his punky club band Beach Slang as acoustic, slow anthems. Or, to quote his song, “Too Late to Die Young:” “The punks are wired, and these records feel tough/It’s loud and wild, but I swear it feels soft…”
The answer is no, but that doesn’t mean you should skip this record. This is an experiment he started last year, with a neat little EP…
…featuring Replacements and Big Star covers. Now it’s a full album of Beach Slang songs. It works. You won’t be able to shake the original versions, but it’s easier to understand Alex’s wonderful lyrics when he sings them with strings accompanying him (Dan Delaney on cello, Keith Giosa on piano). I didn’t find myself “missing” the originals, but on the whole this doesn’t feel like an essential chapter in the band’s catalog–it’s for hardcore fans only (and I count myself as one of those)–and those fans won’t be disappointed.
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