The bold and charismatic command of Trevor Drury’s music reaches a new peak with the release of his latest EP, Alice (It’s All in Your Head). This well-traveled and schooled artist shows an impressive breadth of talent throughout Alice. Managing to produce such a forceful and precocious outing while studying at Boston’s Berklee College of Music testifies to a genius for multi-tasking if nothing else. However, there’s fortunately much more going on here.
It hints at the polymathic nature of Drury’s musical art. He’s a dazzling stylist. Drury triangulates myriad influences, some seemingly in conflict, into a coherent and highly personal musical hybrid. He draws from bottomless imaginative wells. Alice’s songs confidently zip across the genre map, never content with wearing one face for long. These condensed yet freewheeling works allow Drury to explore different textures. Assigning labels to what Drury does is pointless; file his releases under “music” because they never subscribe to a single label.
“Alice (Wonderland Mix)” hits almost like a show tune. It’s bold, brassy, in the listener’s face, and possessing unreserved physicality. Drury’s compositional skills deserve praise. Marrying the spartan churn of the song’s verses with far more expansive, albeit brief, transitional tissue without leaving noticeable stitching in his wake testifies to his craftsmanship. “Like a Stone” illustrates it as well. Changing gears from different musical slants without striking a discordant note puts a lot of distance between Drury and his contemporaries. He’s further along than many, and the seasoned sensibilities he brings to bear positively transform the material.
One of the EP’s greatest moments arrives with “Leviathan”. Drury concocts a distinctly darker mood for this performance. There’s a grasping sense of desperation that emanates from the track’s assorted changes. He isn’t content with invoking a single texture. This song is a varied beast undergoing several evolutions during its playing time. He puts a lighter touch to use for “Teenage Fantasy” using piano as the primary means for carrying the song’s melodic ideas. His lyrics for this song rank among the EP’s best, and his songwriting style deserves plaudits for consistently balancing intelligence and plain-spoken language. Pretentiousness is missing from any of Alice’s six songs.
“Need” allows Trevor Drury to spread his compositional wings wider than elsewhere on Alice. It’s arguably the strongest example of his skill in manipulating musical dynamics for maximum effect. Drama surrounds the song’s development. Drury never rushes the performance and raises the intensity to levels you can’t avoid. “Lost” is, essentially, a solo piece centered on Drury and an accompanying piano. Minimal secondary ornamentation further fleshes out the finale. The classical overtones accentuate his dramatic aims without risking melodramatic heavy-handedness. It’s a deeply emotional yet controlled conclusion for Trevor Drury’s Alice (It’s All in Your Head). It also practically behooves the young singer/songwriter to focus on a full release. The appetite is there.
Kim Muncie
