Canadian singer-songwriter Alex Runions has released his second album, Above the Clouds and on the Ground, earlier this month, a landmark for his fifteen-year career in the music industry.
Runions got his start on Canadian country radio back in 2009 with his self-titled album, produced by CCMA-winner Bart McKay. After getting his break, he kept on a streak of chart-topping country singles for over a decade as he built up to his second album. His years of successfully making the charts led to a recent billboard put up in his honor in Kipling, Saskatchewan, his hometown.
The opening track from the new album, "On an Island," sets the album's mellow, reminiscent tone. Before Runions begins the first verse, an isolated guitar track plucks a soothing melody, leading into a euphoric cymbal crash as the verse builds: "Slowly sinking in the waves / I probably shouldn't resist." In an interview with Amplify Music, he dotes on a shift in his sound from country radio hits to mellow melodies: "This represents just the start. It feels like a new beginning for me."
Runions' shift in his sound -- from more commercial country to more singer-songwriter Americana -- marks a change in his life. "I grew up. I got sober, I got married, have a daughter, and love my life," he told Amplify. " I think in the past, I was chasing something that didn't really mean much."
The feeling of new beginnings bleeds into the next track: "Day by Day." The song carries a similar opening sound, this time with a banjo that brings a more roots-forward folk flair. The song longs for moving forward: "Oh my God, it wears you down / It's an endless walk of shame / Minute by minute / Hour by hour / And day by day."
Tracks four and five, "Missing Piece" and "Watching the World Go By," carry the echoes of his past in commercial country. Both songs, though they are imbued with melodic strings, are backed by pop-country tracks, echoing refrains with a more upbeat rhythm.
Overall, the album encompasses the culmination of tender emotions and growth that Runions experienced in the last decade—giving his tracks a consistent sound. "I wanted to say something in these songs that didn't necessarily always leave the listener with some resolution. A sad song is just a sad song," says Runions. "I wanted to write about the struggles and the joys of life."
Despite shedding light on both the light and dark facets of life, he ends the ten-track album with "Settling Up," an anthem of hope and redemption. The track opens with mournful keys, as he croons, "Didn't know what I was missing 'til you came along," as a hopeful sound builds. He concludes with the introspective lyric, "With the love that I lost and found / Settling up, and settling down."
Above the Clouds and on the Ground is a retrospective view on Alex Runions' growth as a person and artist: it's both an ode to the past and a triumph over it.
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