Lexia - Underground Sounds
Breaksilence Recordings (10/12/10)
Electronic/rock/pop
Perhaps hodgepodge is the easiest way to describe Underground Sounds, the latest solo effort from Eyes Set to Kill front woman Alexia Rodriguez (dubbed here as Lexia).
Fans of the band might find it a little hard to digest some of the album’s offerings (I’m looking at you, album opener “Basements”), but overall Rodriguez’s engaging and, at-times enchanting, voice does well at grabbing the listener’s attention and holding tight.
It’s hard to pigeon-hole “Sounds” into any specific genre. You have the aforementioned “Basements,” a pop-infused, synth-powered electronic number that’s instantly addictive and sure to have fans of the singer’s band rolling their eyes (but secretly bobbing their heads all the same). The tone immediate shifts with a haunting cover of Radiohead’s “Climbing Up the Walls” and a melancholic take on Eyes Set to Kill’s “Let Me In.”
Whereas Eyes Set to Kill is an ensemble at its best, with Rodriguez’s voice at it’s core but still doing well as a juxtaposition to the screamed vocals, here her voice is able to take center stage alone and shine brighter than ever. This is most evident on a tracks like “Over” (which incidentally could also have just as easily found a home on an Eyes’ record) or the acoustically charged “Still Here,” surely the set’s standout track.
Speaking of acoustic tracks, the album makes a tonal shift mid-way through from electronic to acoustic; the groundwork laid with “Still Here” and full-force with emotive “Memories.” Once she commits, Rodriguez really puts on a show, stripped: a re-birth of Eyes’ grinding “World Outside,” now much-more emotionally crushing; the more laid-back Eyes’ cover of “Reach” that makes you wonder how great an acoustic Eyes’ set in the vein of, say, Godsmack’s The Other Side could be); the up-tempo “Waste” that again shows’ off her knack for writing catchy lyrics and melody. The set closes with another Eyes cover, an acoustic take on “Come Home” which fairs much better than an earlier version which feels lifted straight off the The World Outside release.
In the end, this collection is a nice little hodgepodge of songs, which brings this review full-circle. It’s a nice public showing of an artist trying on different styles to see what works best. In truth, you could call this a tale of two albums, the electronic, moody first half and stronger, acoustic second half. It may be the solo album no one was really calling for, but Underground Sounds is surprisingly good. At any rate, Rodriguez’s voice, in the end, sells this, and she’s sure to find a whole new audience turned off by Eyes Set to Kill’s louder moments.
