by Tom Alexander (@___alexd)
“Why would anyone not want to be right where they are?” Alexander (last name Fatato) asks near the end of his second full-length record, Wonderland. It’s a simple enough question, but like many of the questions, observations, and anecdotes on Wonderland, it carries a startling depth to it. If you’re not paying attention, you might miss it – Alexander, on first blush, doesn’t carry the same gravitas as giant lyricists like Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, or David Berman. No, Wonderland feels crafted to avoid any hint of grandeur. Alexander isn’t out to convince you or anyone that he’s a “deep guy,” and that’s exactly what makes him and Wonderland so special.
In keeping with 2018’s Settle Down, Alexander’s Wonderland is a scaled back, often minimal, record. Songs feel clearly written with just an acoustic guitar and vocals, and while other instrumentation and production is added throughout the record, they are just supporting characters. Bradford Krieger (of Big Nice Studio) and John Margaris (of Community College and Horse Jumper of Love) contribute to these backing tracks, but they politely stand off stage as Alexander’s voice and lyrics occupy the spotlight. Even framing it like that feels just a little too “big” for Wonderland, as the album finds its beauty out of the spotlight and in the overlooked, hidden parts of our lives. Whether he wonders aloud about his health based on the look of his fingernails (“Fingernails”), falls into a job at the library (“Bicycle”), or disproves the existence of Santa Claus as a child (“Xmas Tree”), Wonderland is filled these small fragments of a life that just so happens to be Alexander’s, but it could be yours too.
Wonderland, if anything, is a more streamlined record than Settle Down. Not only are there fewer songs, and they’re shorter and more tonally consistent, both within themselves and across the record. In the short time since Settle Down, Alexander has become a more efficient, confident songwriter. Not only do you feel like you know him within just a few bars of a song, but it sounds like he could be sitting right next to you (a testament to Bradford Krieger’s engineering work as well).
Going back to that question in “Bicycle” (i.e., “Why would anyone not want to be right where they are?”), it is easy to see this as a thesis statement for Wonderland. Yeah, all of our lives kind of suck right now; we’re overworked, overstressed, constantly exhausted, and threatened by climate change / an exploitative economy / [pick anything, really]. Yet, Wonderland is written by someone who has found some amount of comfort in the present, and these songs represent the blueprint for that contentment. Every moment in Alexander’s life – everyone moment in our lives – can be a song, a tiny little world unto its own.