NEWS
Alphabet Girls, Vol. II by Paul Slavens (June 24, State Fair Records) is the crystallization and distillation of the Nebraska born, Denton, TX-based artist’s long, varied, and accomplished career, complete with all of the requisite breakthroughs and disappointments.
On record, Slavens’s endurance is a listener’s treat. Alphabet Girls, Vol. II plays like the product of a “been everywhere, seen everything” guru-type somehow fitting all of his experience and education onto five lines of musical staff like some kind of trippy Tetris.
Funny, but serious. Jazz, but pop. Quirky, but grounded. Alphabet Girls, Vol. II (the title isn’t a red herring, the “girls” of Vol. I showed up twelve years ago) is all of these things and more.
But not.
“My goal was to make beautiful sounds,” Slavens said.