CHLOE KOWALYK
Staff Writer
Grammy award-nominee Eric Alexandrakis has come out with a new album, and it’s definitely interesting.
Nominated for Best Spoken Word Album in 2019, Alexandrakis highlights his voice and unique poetry in his music.
He has used his musical talents in many ways, including film production, providing music for various media and even charted nationally for two original Christmas songs and productions for other artists.
Alexandrakis was also the first person in the industry to create a digitally watermarked CD.
His new album, “GMT,” which stands for Greenwich Mean Time, is another addition to his “Terra” series of releases.
All tracks in the album are written, recorded, produced, performed and mixed by Alexandrakis himself.
Impressively, most of his songs are recorded on the first take.
“GMT” features a seemingly odd mix of genres.
While it may seem like a strange shift between a happy pop song and an eerie monologue, this was Alexandrakis’ intention.
“Picture director David Lynch, Stephen King, Luis Fonsi, Justin Timberlake, TheMonkees, The Blue Meanies, Lord Voldemort and Emperor Palpatine, all drugged and kept prisoner in an airline’s executive lounge,” Alexandrakis said, describing his newest album.
Alexandrakis’ motivating goal while making “GMT” was to have fun.
Listening to “GMT” posed to be very fun as well.
The first song on the album, “Baggage Claim,” sounds very spooky with a techy tone.
It’s fully instrumental, but it features monster noises in the background, which gives the listener an uneasy feeling while listening.
The album then shifts to “Get Ready (For Springtime),” which sounds like it’s straight out of 1985 and has a very happy, upbeat sound.
Shifting the genre again, the next song on the album is “Grass in Your Toes,” which features a plethora of different voices and characters chanting phrases relating to the title of the song. It’s very unsettling.
“Boom Chicka Boom Boom Boom,” the next song on the album, sounds like a rap that you might listen to while driving around LA with the windows down.
It’s a good dance song, and you’ll struggle to avoid tapping your foot to the beat.
Similarly, the next song on the album, “Dance Baby Dance,” has a funky, electronic pop vibe that really does make you want to dance.
Alexandrakis shifts the genre once again when he moves into the next song, “Dropping Bombs with Needles and Fast Talkers.”
This song is very eerie and spooky, and it is a monologue, one of Alexandrakis’ specialties.
The final song, “Daylight Daylight,” is very calming and relaxing.
It’s almost as if by the end of the album, Alexandrakis recognized the amount of changing genres and overall spookiness of some of the pieces, so he included “Daylight Daylight” as a sort of reward to calm listeners down.
Through all the weirdness of the album, the music is very impressive.
However, the strange, genre-shifting nature of “GMT” is what makes it unique.
“I can’t imagine pop music getting more absurd than it has become today, so naturally I pay tribute to that on a track or two,” Alexandrakis said.
“GMT” is now available on all music streaming platforms. For more information about Alexandrakis and his music, please visit his website or social media.