Photo by Katie Silver, Boston Celtic

Boston indie folkie Alexander is among our most favorite (and most covered) artists on this website for damn good reason: he’s one of this city’s greatest and most poignant songwriters. Capable of seething bombast, heart-stopping stillness, and the shrugging asides necessary to balance all the tension between the two, Alexander pairs that wide-reaching instrumental acumen with the kind of witty, hyper-detailed lyricism one looks for in the greats of the American songbook. We should consider ourselves very lucky to have an artist of his talents around. Alex’s new record Lucky Life is out this spring, and we can say for certain that it’s yet another stunner, pairing his sharpest (and most expansive) collection of songs to date with a veritable kitchen’s sink of sounds and motifs from his whip-sharp band. And so we are pleased to have the album’s latest single “Certainty” premiering today at Allston Pudding. A tender and tragic story song rendered with grace, its ostensibly about a young person experiencing a (thankfully non fatal) drug crisis. But things unfurl quickly, with Alex flipping to first person to use it as a device to explore the chaotic randomness of it all over a pitcher at The Sil as the band crashes down around him.

Give “Certainty” a stream below while you peruse this handy diagram Alex provided to help untangle that metaphor:

Alexander’s new album Lucky Life is out Friday, April 5th. You can preorder a copy on vinyl or digital right here.