What would happen if you really gave yourself a clean slate? Let yourself be free from expectations and frustrations, free from the unavoidable baggage of life, free from all the things that stand between who you are and who you want to be? Alien Boy’s third full-length You Wanna Fade? is the sonic equivalent of trying to achieve that freedom. It’s a towering blend of hook-laden alternative, lush shoegaze, and deeply felt emotion that forms an album truly massive in its scope, sound, and sentiments.
Formed by multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Sonia Weber in 2015, Alien Boy has steadily evolved from a plucky punk band in the Portland, Oregon, DIY scene into one of the most reliably satisfying rock bands in modern guitar music. The group, whose lineup is rounded out by drummer Derek McNeil along with guitarists Caleb Misclevitz and A.P. Fiedler, solidified their sound on 2021’s acclaimed Don’t Know What I Am, and now You Wanna Fade? takes all of the best parts of that pop-rock-by-way-of-shoegaze concoction and amplifies them to their most widescreen version. “I wanted to go as big as possible and I really didn’t want to rush,” Weber says of the album’s sound and four-year gestation. “When I first started the band I was trying to keep the songs as short as possible, but I sort of realized that that’s not actually what I like. I was looking at the records that I turn to the most–Third Eye Blind’s self-titled and Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream–and I really wanted to capture that kind of grandness, the kind of thing that has a lot of dimension and isn’t actually that concise.”
In lesser hands this might have been the recipe for a bloated misstep, but the songs on You Wanna Fade? stretch Alien Boy’s sound in exciting new directions while also being the band’s most accessible and instantly appealing work yet. The album came together in sporadic sessions over the course of months: first drums with Andy Rusinek at Page Street Sound Lab in Portland; then guitars and bass with Phil Jones (Supercrush) at HMS in Seattle; and lastly the vocals and various overdubs by Misclevitz at home with help from Nathan Tucker (Strange Ranger, Cool Original, Pontiac Flare) providing additional production, drum machines, and synths. The densely layered songs were finally handed over to Jack Shirely (Deafheaven, Gouge Away, Jeff Rosenstock) to be mixed and mastered at his Atomic Garden studio in Oakland. The process was much more involved and intentional than any previous Alien Boy recording–and it shows. Weber explains, “I was just really trying to view myself more like a songwriter and an artist, and not just someone filling that role simply because I wanted to be in a band and that was the only way to make it happen–which was how I felt in the beginning. I think I started taking myself more seriously.”
The result is 12 of the most dynamic and powerful songs Alien Boy have ever released, each perfectly calibrated to knock you over with wave after wave of fuzz and feelings. You Wanna Fade? opens with “Scrub Me Clean,” a glitched-out introduction of spacey guitars and warbling synths that instantly sets the stage for what you’re about to hear, or as Weber puts it: “We wanted the listener to know they’re about to go for a ride.” The intro segues directly into “Changes,” a perfectly crafted cut of gauzy pop rock that highlights everything Alien Boy does best (effects-drenched guitars, emotion-drenched hooks), along with many of the new elements You Wanna Fade? incorporates into their sound (drum machine beats, intricate structures, unbridled guitar heroics). “I wanted to experiment more with drum machines and asked James from Dazy to try and add that kind of thing to ‘Changes,’” Weber explains. “I got really excited when I got the track back and it made me want to lean into that more across the record. It’s sort of this early 2000s radio hit kind of vibe but then there’s also this evolving structure with the chord changes in the bridge, and A.P. really went wild with the guitar leads–somehow it all works!”
Alien Boy’s secret weapon might be that ability to deftly utilize some guitar music’s most opulent ticks without ever stumbling into overwroughtness. You Wanna Fade? sprawls out, each song overflowing with multiple moments that would be the sole high point of most tracks. McNeil’s drumming is the bedrock, while Weber, Fiedler, and Misclevitz prove exactly why Alien Boy need three guitars on stage when they perform live–all without crowding Weber’s sugar rush vocal melodies. These are the kind of songs that could not only elicit a sweaty shout-along at a basement show, but also command the attention of an entire arena–and their sonic grandeur is matched by the emotional punch in Weber’s lyrics.
Tracks like “I Broke My World” or “You Want Me To” describe a kind of self-inflicted upheaval–the need to shake up your life and your relationships, for better or for worse. Weber’s words strike a perfect balance between unabashed earnestness and a touch of knowing drama. “I think I just write lyrics very similarly to how I speak,” she says. “The record is clearly about what was happening in my life during the couple of years we were writing it. I went through a big breakup and then was seeing someone else, and it just got to this point where I realized I needed to cut myself free from all of it. I think musically I was trying to manifest the freedom and confidence I was craving–whether that’s with my body, my art, or just myself. I wanted to be able to feel however I wanted to feel, make whatever I wanted to make, to say whatever I wanted to say.”
At the halfway point, You Wanna Fade? begins to take a musical and thematic turn into darker territory. “Cold Air” and “Rhythm of Control” are some of the record’s most daring and expansive songs, with Weber exploring the fallout of turning your life upside down in search of independence. “Sometimes you know something needs to change but you don’t know what, you want to be free even if it means not feeling very good,” Weber says. “I think these songs are about starting to really feel the choices you’ve made.” Elsewhere, “Morning” provides a respite from the distorted onslaught with a bit of Elliott Smith-esque indie; “Picture of You” demonstrates that Alien Boy are still more than capable of simply writing a perfect two and a half minute guitar pop song when they’re not creating alt rock epics like the crushing late album standout “Everything Stays.” But no matter the volume, no matter the track length, Weber’s ability to communicate true heartache through song remains unmatched. “That song is about that person you just can’t totally let go of,” she says. “That person that keeps showing up in unexpected ways.”
You Wanna Fade? comes to an end with its title track, a vibrant cut of shimmering guitars and skittering synths that tries to find some sense of peace in all the love, loss, and leaps of faith that make up a full life. Maybe it’s not possible to truly unburden yourself of all of the accumulated complications, maybe that kind of freedom is fleeting, dissipating like the final notes of the closing track. But for the 45 minutes you’re listening to You Wanna Fade?, you might just catch a glimpse of it.
