Andrew Alarcon - Frenzy (2024) Hi-Res

Given his chosen themes of self-improvement, emotional chaos, and resilience, which we find woven through the lyrics and messages on Frenzy, Andrew Alarcon’s music style seems more than appropriate. As the recent single, “Otherwise,” opens the album up, we find ourselves in a world that is as much about mood as it is music. Here, sonic threads shimmer and chime; they ebb and flow, marking the song out to be a soundtrack to self-analysis and soul-searching as much as it is a song in the conventional sense.

This ability to present music as emotion continues throughout the album, the vocals often hushed and half-heard, as if to reinforce the fact that the music is at least equal to the lyrics it carries.

“Grace” captures exactly the idea expressed in the title: a smooth array of dream pop contagion and heavier, grander deliveries. “Carry On” drifts between walls of shoegaze-infused sonic highs and more spacious, chiming interludes, while lyrically, it is forged of strength and optimism. “Play Thing” gathers subtle and supple sonic weight around it and heads off into more post-punk territory, a strange blend of technical, almost mathy rock riffs and alt-rock energy.

I get the feeling that Frenzy is as much an outlet for Andrew’s own thoughts as it is a conversation with the potential audience, that the creation of the album is, in some small way, therapy, or at least a chance to express his own moods and feelings, as much as it is mere songwriting.