Counterpoint has always been one of rock’s compelling elements, delivering often tender or soulful sentiment through visceral means, the heart and soul embodied. “Alex,” co-written by Webster and Mark Cooper, offers an achingly sensitive poem of the hardship life metes out to its infinite promise (“On the day that you’re born they will look you in the eye, swear they’ll give you the world,” and “But you know that’s harder than you think, and sometimes the pain will drive you to the brink”), and salvation through music (“I know that I don’t always say it, but I just can’t wait to hear you play it,” and “You sing and you shout and you say what you got to say, the music, the rhythm, it is in your DNA,” and “Don’t be afraid to wear your heart upon your sleeve, ’cause love is the only impression that you leave”). These unfolding and embracing sentiments are delivered in a compressed format of pounding drums and scaling guitar that feel themselves like a sense memory of pain, and yet when “all is said and done” and they deliquesce, they leave us with the residue of the poetry they carried, the defiant affirmation of their own expressive power.

Written by Billy Webster & Mark Cooper
Produced by Billy Webster
Lead Guitar by Carl Basler
Recorded at The Jersey Dream
(c) Shampoo Girl Music, 2020