Canadian musician Keegan Powell makes songs that explore the mystery of pain, the release of demons and how through it all, life actually may be some kind of miracle. Start with the lofi experimental EP’s from 2019 ‘Is+Was’ and ‘Headspun’, doused in reverb, guitar solos and electronic drums. Lines from songs like ‘All That Is and Ever Was’ describes the mundane process through one’s day ‘Can’t quite decide how to pass the time/Forever on call to be great’ On ‘Previous Pain’ from 2022, Powell melancholically sings ‘Tonight everybody wants you/To be a star and sit upon your throne’ Foretelling if anything, the record garnered his first bout of serious airplay, racking up five radio single rotations on SiriusXM Radio.
The soothing acoustic howls that made Powell’s sophomore record,‘Fear Be Gone’, a college radio staple across North America proves something very clear-Powell has never stayed in one spot artistically. Not because he doesn’t want to, but because he is incapable of it. If evidence of this is his past work, Alien Radio is the sentencing in which nails his hand to the coffin.
Imbued with infectious hooks and ferocious energy, Alien Radio is a compilation album composed of tracks previously released and unreleased from Powell’s archive, spanning across several separate recordings from the years 2016-2019. The tracks are a glimpse into an artist trying to overreach his ability and achieving it, only to forget about it altogether. Unearthed years later, what remains is an ultimate companion piece to his current released work. The results are crystal clear pop songs in the guise of quarter life angst that make for some of the most exciting rock music heard this decade.
