Ethan Davis – “Are You Alright In The Head?”

Ethan Davis – “Are You Alright In The Head?” – Single Review

Wait…is he asking me specifically?

‘Cause the answer would be a hard no.  Forty-six years and counting if you’re keeping score at home.  I’ll sort myself out one day I’m sure, but no, it’s probably not going to be today.  Thanks for asking Ethan!

I don’t think there could possibly be a more ironic way to start this review up than by talking about myself, which you’ll understand a whole lot more after you have a listen to the new single from Ethan Davis.  According to the man himself, “Are You Alright In The Head?” is a song that was born “out of the frustration of being in one-sided conversations where people talk about themselves but don’t even ask how you are, what you’ve been doing etc.”  Sound familiar?   Of course it does!  These conversations are so rampant and common place in the hey-look-at-me society we’ve become that you’d be lucky to make it to noon on any given day without running into someone that does everything Ethan’s singing about.  He’s making a very solid point in this song’s overall concept if you ask me, and I’d tell you that it’s all backed up by evidence and cold hard facts.  What else could we have expected from a culture of thirty-second videos, click bait, and no attention spans?  Most of the zombies on our planet masquerading as functional members of these communities we share are a self-serving lot that don’t care about their neighbors as much as they probably should if we don’t really want to unalive ourselves as a species.

Not to make this about me again for a second, but a lot of what Davis is singing about directly overlaps with the reasons as to why I do what I do in the precise way that I do it.  After reading countless bland reviews from mainstream giants like Rolling Stone, Spin, Pitchfork and the rest as I grew up, most of the time I found myself wondering if the writers had actually checked out the music they were speaking on.  I started sleepingbagstudios with a very simple principle above all others – to listen.  If there was a hole to be filled in the music scene, it existed in the fact that no one seemed to really get into the liner notes of life anymore…and I became determined to change that in whatever ways I could.  To this very day, that still remains the guiding principle beyond all others, and in my hearts of hearts, I find myself wishing that actually listening – actively listening – wasn’t the main thing that separates us from the rest, even if I’m well aware that hasn’t changed.  I read reviews all the time from other sources online because it’s kinda part of what my job is to an extent, and it still seems like no one’s really listening.  And you know something?  It pisses me right the fuck off.  “I just wanna bang my head into a brick wall,” sings Davis, and in what ways I can relate, I sure feel every word he’s written into this tune.  Obviously there are countless examples of this happening in a variety of areas in life…call it caused by whatever you like, a lack of attention, a lack of curiosity, narcissism, Tik Tok/Instagram culture…we’re a me-me-me society, and it’s hard not to get down about that…like…daily.  I think I’d boil it down to a lack of basic freakin’ decency, from my perspective, or maybe it’s even more accurate to say it indicates a true lack of caring.  While it would be nice to pin the inspiration for a song like “Are You Alright In The Head?” on what it’s like to live life where we’re generally sitting on one side of the screen, and hence losing the ability to have proper exchanges of meaningful dialogue at a rapid pace – I’m not letting ANYONE off the hook that easily.  If YOU are the type of person that Davis has aimed his lyricism at in this shiny new single of his, believe me when I tell ya that YOU are the person responsible for YOUR awful behavior, full stop.  In that respect, trust me when I tell you he’s putting it nicely by asking “Are You Alright In The Head?”  That’s a professional level of restraint I can’t personally duplicate, because I’m sure I’m much more of a dickhead than Davis is.  We already know he’s a damn nice guy from the last time we reviewed his music on the single “Four Simple Words,” which he wrote specifically for his wife/first dance of his wedding.  You don’t do things like that without being a genuinely good dude, and to be completely fair, I don’t think you’d even get frustrated by what he’s singing about on this song unless you were one of the good guys as well.  If you weren’t, if you didn’t listen, or the lives of other people didn’t matter to you at all, you’d never even think to write about the concepts in a song like “Are You Alright In The Head?,” simply because none of it would even occur to you!  “You talk about yourself instead,” like just about ninety percent of the artists and bands you know sing about, or like you notice in every conversation you have.

Song-wise & sound-wise, I dig what I hear from Davis so far, on both sides of the musical personality I’ve had the privilege to listen to so far.  Do I like this more than I enjoyed “Four Simple Words” last year?  I suppose that’s a fair question…I am here to provide you with my personal opinion on what I hear and all – but that’s very much comparing apples to oranges.  I’m sure if I was pressed to give an answer, I probably lean towards the mellow & melodic sincerity he put into the last single I’d heard from him, but that was also created for a very specific & special occasion.  In that respect, it’s highly likely that what we’re hearing on “Are You Alright In The Head?” is further towards what might be more representative of the sound he’s looking to create with his music overall.  There are some real standout elements of the band that contribute to the stellar results achieved here, like the Flea-esque bass lines of Glen Gearing for instance, or the Mike McCready early-Pearl Jam style guitars from Joshua Harris for example.  As far as Ethan’s vocals go, have a listen to his voice as they cross the threshold of the two-minute mark and you might very well feel like he resembles a young Gavin Rossdale as well.  All of these things are good things as far as my ears are concerned, and the blending of styles between them all, which also includes solid drums from Toby Johnson & keys from Richard Davidson, gives this song a vibrant crossover sound.

As far as I’ve heard, both “Four Simple Words” and “Are You Alright In The Head?” are going to be featured on Davis’ upcoming fourth album – which also ends up creating valid questions about what we might find on it, even if you felt like you enjoyed both songs as much as I did.  As singles, you can make a whole lot of things work.  In the context and crafting of a record, that can be a whole other beast to take on…and right now I’m hearing such a massive distance between these two songs for subject and style that to be truthful with you, seems like a daunting bridge to cross, if not outright impossible journey to fill the extreme gap in the space between the substance and the sound.  But I’ll leave that part up to him and assume he’s got a plan for that!  For now, I’ll simply encourage you all to LISTEN – not just to this song, but to each other.

If we could listen to each other a little more, actively engage in an exchange of meaningful dialog, and be present in the moment without our usual distractions…maybe we can all help force Ethan to have to find something else to write about other than his extremely valid frustrations with one-sided conversations…and what a world that could be, right?  He’d be mighty pleased with that, I promise ya.

Find out more about Ethan Davis from his official page at Instagram here:  https://www.instagram.com/ethandavis79

Ya ha!  This link right here is the key to being the next artist or band featured here at sleepingbagstudios, so instead of just ignoring it, click it instead!