Alison Eales: Four for a Boy
In February 2021 the supremely talented Alison Eales blogged for us about the process of recording her debut album Mox Nox during lockdown, and last year it was released to rave reviews. Alison has been busy and is back with her new four-track EP Four for a Boy due for release on March 8th from Fika Recordings.
Alison Eales
Four for a Boy was written with Alison’s long-term collaborator, Garry Hoggan, and like its sister record Mox Nox, the EP was recorded and mixed by Paul Savage at Chem 19 studios. In a departure from the approach to the album, Four for a Boy keeps its arrangements sparse in order to showcase Hoggan’s gift for melody.
Four for a Boy
The songs
The lead track is Minuet, a minimalist love song that pits its protagonists against zombies and nanobots and which is accompanied by a lyric video by magician Billy Reid.
Rain Song, with its drip-drip-dripping ukulele and piano, captures the experience of suffering with depression, while the shining autoharp and accordion of The Earliest Blue expresses the hope of recovery. These are also accompanied by an animated lyric video. The EP closes with Play Along, a plaintive reimagining of the Carpenters’ Superstar.
About Alison
Alison is a long-standing member of the band Butcher Boy playing piano, accordion and other keyboards as well as arranging for choir and brass. She is also a member of Glasgow Madrigirls and has collaborated with bands including The Color Waves (USA), The Very Most (USA), The Just Joans (Glasgow), Featherfin (Norway) and The Powdered Earth (UK).
Reviews for Mox Nox
“Blessed with a voice whose clear, bright tone evokes Kirsty MacColl, Alison Eales puts it to excellent use on this charming debut album” – Uncut [7/10]
“…her debut solo album Mox Nox (meaning “night, shortly”) is an opportunity to hear her light, pure voice in its own right across a variety of ravishing soundscapes, from the electronica-inflected indie folk of Rapunzel to the delicate chamber pop of Ever Forward” – The Scotsman [4/5]
“A sonic palette that binds electronica, chamber pop and folk with gorgeous indie pop, most importantly with the songs to develop all the wonderful ideas going on here… You are probably unlikely to hear many records as individual as this album this year, so make sure you hear this one” – God Is In The TV
“In the liner notes to his Tea & Symphony compilation albums, Bob Stanley of Saint Etienne writes about a late-60s pop microgenre close to my heart – the ‘English Baroque sound’, defined by ‘string quartets, woodwinds, and summer-into-autumn melancholy’. Alison Eales may be resident in Glasgow rather than Gloucestershire, but with Ever Forward, she draws from that wellspring to wonderfully yearning effect. The same grand but minimal style of string arrangement that marks Colin Blunstone’s Say You Don’t Mind or John Cale’s Paris 1919 is in full force on Ever Forward, as is the same refined, vaulting vocal, but the result is every bit Alison’s own. It’s the second track from her upcoming debut album, and if the rest are as good as this we’re in for a real treat.” – Fresh on the Net