Aging

About

You get no extra points for guessing the thematic focus of Kevin Drew’s fourth solo album. As a co-founder of Broken Social Scene, Drew has often used anthemic indie rock as a vehicle to hold on to those big teenage emotions and passions that adulthood so often suppresses, but on <i>Aging</i>, he can no longer ignore the creeping march of time. This is an album wracked with the fears of losing loved ones and regrets over past life choices, and its quavering emotional tenor is reflected in stripped-down arrangements that emphasize deep, trembling piano chords. “We partied into the grave/Was that OK?” he asks on “Party Oven,” a bleary-eyed ballad that plays like the hangover flipside to BSS’s rapturous “Lover’s Spit,” while the slow-building “Elevators” and “Awful Lightning” take a few minutes to reach their opening verses, as if Drew needed the extra time to work up the courage to spill his guts over the ivories. And yet even as he’s weighed down by the heaviest of feelings, Drew’s irrepressible spirit can’t be held back for long: “I know you’re frightened, I know you’re scared/I know you’re feeling unprepared,” he sings on “All Your Fails,” but the song’s synth-swaddled textures and pulsing momentum offer the optimistic assurance that you’re not alone.

via Apple Music