Post hardcore brainchild Anthony Green walks the line between indie rock and piano balladry for fourth solo effort in Pixie Queen, in a poignant collection of tracks departing far from his better known sounds from Circa Survive. With his own pixie queen muse directing themes throughout the record, the trip is mature and heartfelt from end to end.
Lead single “You’ll Be Fine” opens up the set in a foreboding indie rock tension on the attempts to overcome the failings of love. It’s accompanying single take music video reveals a Green singing out as he struggles in the metaphor that attempts to drown him in the oncoming tide. The indie rocking ballad that follows in “I’m Not Holding You Back” sifts through relational entanglements of a man maturing and growing, establishing the serious and tender tone for the album.
Acoustic laments of “Will It Be” marks the honesty of fatherhood as a man on the road, and the lack of being there for his family – particularly his boys. The folksy rock number in “A Reason to Stay” that follows almost sounds disingenuous, though if you listen closely Green sings bittersweet notions of love and need. “East Coast Winters” matches sound more closely in content to sound, an indie rock ballad on his over personal struggles overcoming suicidal tendencies.
Songs that follow find Anthony Green even more weighted in sound and theme. “Dawn on the Canal” is a haunting metaphorical love experience captured in piano balladry. A sort of emo ballad of further relational entanglements play out in “From What I Understand.” A straight forward acoustic “Cellar” works in the relational certainty of need.
To round out what’s left the remainder of Pixie Queen turns towards a more lighthearted affair of soft rock and settles on the permanence of Green’s relational ties. The piano led indie rock “Better Half” may be a bit cliché with lyrics such as “No one ever gets my better half” yet Green sounds rather convincing. A straight piano echoing sustain in “I’m Sorry for Everything I’ve Ever Done” sings over ambiguous past possibilities, old stories that simply ask for forgiveness. By the time the closing title track extends out in indie rocking form, the muted celebration of a life for two feels far more hopeful than anything before it.
Much could be said on Pixie Queen that it’s hard to pen all of Anthony Green down in one go. The record works on themes of love and life and relationships and letting go… coming from a man who took a sharp departure away from substance-induced frenzies to developmental meditations. Yet according to Green he couldn’t be happier: a bit conflicted, but holding on for dear life to that what matters most.