Alex Nicol

If Been A Long Year Volume One by Montreal-based singer/songwriter Alex Nicol was drawn from his internal world, Volume Two finds him looking outside of himself to address more wide-reaching issues. With a slightly lighter application of the nuanced folk-rock style he’s been growing into over his past few releases, Nicol uses Been A Long Year Vol. 2 to journey outward, moving past the grief and sorrow happening in his own head to explore bigger picture feelings of frustration, joy, fear, and hope. While the second volume is less internally-derived than its predecessor, the two chapters come together as complimentary hemispheres of an album-length statement. The way Nicol intermingles the personal and the universal showcases his versatility as a songwriter, one unafraid of taking on bigger topics, but equally fearless of the vulnerability required to share his own deepest truths.