by Ljubinko Zivkovic (@zivljub)
What kind of music can you expect from an artist that goes under the name of Strawberry Guy, giving his new album a title like Sun Outside My Window? Some form of a very melodic, modern variation of sunshine pop? Something that usually comes from places like the California coast or Liverpool? If that is what you would expect, that is exactly what you will get from this artist and album. Actually, that and a bit more.
Alex Stephens, aka Strawberry Guy, might have been from Whales, and the California coast might be a bit far away for travel (particularly at this moment), so Liverpool (as in The Beatles, La's, etc) was good enough for him to serve as the place for his melody-driven pop rock. What do the eleven tracks on Sun Outside My Window have as the common thread that makes them rise above just template copies of the sixties sunshine pop or The Beatles-like psych pop ditties? It is this almost impressionist style in which Strawberry Guy crafts music, impressionist like Debussy, Ravel, or painter Monet, if you will. As Stephens puts it himself, “throughout history composers have tried to capture emotion, painting their own impressionist pictures with musical brush strokes… I guess I’m just trying to do the same and people enjoy that,”
Listening to any of the tracks here, you do get that impression (here we go). Stephens has got an excellent sense of melody and what exactly belongs in a song without overburdening it with heavy arrangements, while still keeping a thin line of melancholy going through all of them. That happy, satisfying kind of melancholy if you will. In essence, Strawberry Guy's Sun Outside My Window is one of the better melodic pop albums of the year.