ALEX NICOL — Releases New Album: ‘Been A Long Year Vol. 1 & Vol. 2’ Today

ALEX NICOL
RELEASES NEW ALBUM TODAY:
‘BEEN A LONG YEAR VOL.1 & VOL.2’
– STREAMING IN FULL FROM 1 DECEMBER 2023 – HERE

LISTEN TO THE EULOGISTIC TRACK:
“SONG FOR FRANZ”
WATCH VISUALISER HERE || STREAM HERE

photo credit Hamza Abouelouafaa

Today (1 Dec), ALEX NICOL unveils his profound new solo work: ‘Been A Long Year Vol.1 + Vol.2’ on 1 Dec.

An album of two-halves that hold together 10 songs of his distinctive Montreal melancholia, it arrives with the tribute track “Song For Franz” – also out now.

STREAM ‘BALY V.1 + V.2’ ALBUM HERE || STREAM “SONG FOR FRANZ” HERE

Layered with complex expressions of anger and sadness, “Song for Franz” addresses the way men are conditioned by society to suppress their feelings and the difficulties they face sharing their pain.

“Will this be a story // That ends happily // Like all the movies that I see // Or will the tiny trials add up?” Nicol finds himself questioning here.

While its lyrics are rich with dreamlike imagery of cowboys, movie heroes, and spiritual redemption, the song’s direct inspiration was the loss of Nicol’s own uncle Franz, who took his own life. A crushingly beautiful dedication to his memory, “Song For Franz” serves as a loving tribute but also tells the story of a male protagonist who moves through social conditioning to find exoneration. Expressed through a caricature of toxic masculinity, the song chastises perceptions of male strength and celebrates the bittersweet heartbreak of absolution.

“Song For Franz” follows recent singles “Simple Fires” and “Working On My Tan”, all of which can be found on the new album, ‘Been A Long Year Vol.1 & Vol.2’.

Showing different sides of the same coin, as its title suggests, Nicol’s latest work is made up of two distinct halves. Releasing ‘Volume 1’ earlier this year, it featured tracks including “Hollywood”, “Eye For An Eye” and the Angel Deradoorian-featuring title-track “Been A Long Year”. Together its tracks found an artist focusing on the personally reflective and metaphorical.

And while drawn from similarly thoughtful first-person viewpoints, the songs of its successor, ‘Volume 2’, are far more overt and direct. With songs that comment on the climate emergency, to finding solace in the natural world, to touching tributes to lost loved ones; its songs are noticeably panoramic in their outlook.

Together at last, ‘Volume 1’ and ‘Volume 2’ see Nicol presenting an album-length statement that showcases his deft ability to intermingle the personal and the universal, the minutiae of human emotion and the complexity of global issues. ‘Been A Long Year Vol.1 & Vol.2’ is streaming across all major services now.