Middle Child Syndrome (2024 Stephen Becker album)

Stephen Becker, photo courtesy the artist

Stephen Becker employs a minimal, melancholic keyboard figure to introduce “Range” fitting the impressionistic lyrics seemingly built out of the mundane details of life that separately seem insignificant but together develop a vivid emotional portrait especially when his vocals join together with those of Alena Spanger and they seem to be reassuring presences for each other. Ghostly tones and textural tones give the otherwise fairly abstract song a tactile quality and one that’s gentle yet slightly unsettled. The lyrics toward the end of the song, “I’m not lost, I’m just outside my range/I’m not lost, I’m just a little spaced,” point to the overall mood of the song in its embodying an uncomfortable acceptance of unfamiliar experiences and settings and a slight feeling of being unmoored emphasized by the realization that the song has no standard percussion yet the rhythms have their own organic sense of order even if it’s unconventional in the realm of pop music. Listen to “Range” on Spotify and follow Stephen Becker at the links below. Becker’s new album, the existential and sonically daring Middle Child Syndrome released on October 25, 2024.

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Stephen Becker’s “The Answer” sounds like a long-lost entry in the Elliott Smith songwriting catalog with his expert falsetto and emotional immediacy. But for this song Becker is joined by Taylor Vick (formerly known as Boy Scouts) and the song’s tale of impending breakup and the intense anxieties that lead up to that moment gains greater sonic dimension and emotional resonance. The layered and simple guitar work over shuffling rhythms is what lends the song its dreamlike and melancholic mood. But Becker’s lyrics alone are heartbreaking in their frank expressions of knowing things are wrong in the relationship but not really wanting it to end yet not knowing how to preserve it so like many people he tries one last thing that can’t possibly be a solution but can make one feel as though one has done something to belay the inevitable pain for long enough for things to turn around as summed up in the line, “Well I gave you the answer, I gave you the answer you wanted to hear.” But when you hear that line you know deep down, as it is obvious Becker is aware of as well, that such desperate hopes don’t really delay the inevitable. Watch the video for “The Answer” on YouTube and follow Becker at the links provided. His new album Middle Child Syndrome is out October 25, 2024 on streaming, digital download and vinyl.