Alec Benjamin - These Two Windows (2020) [Hi-Res]

Editors’ Notes The path to singer-songwriter Alec Benjamin’s proper debut album, These Two Windows, is a Hollywood cautionary tale—an unusual industry veterancy for someone still at the beginning of an impressive career. Benjamin’s precocious pop songwriting, prone to virality, got him signed to Columbia Records while he was still attending USC. Then he was dropped by the label and spent his time garnering an organic following, eventually catching the attention of Atlantic Records. There, he released 2018’s Narrated for You, a folk-pop mixtape stuffed with heart-on-your-sleeve Ed Sheeran-esque songs recorded throughout his misadventures. These Two Windows is much more of a cohesive statement, from the addictive descending harmonies on opener “Mind Is a Prison” to the surprising vocal vocoder of “Oh My God” and the John Mayer-approved “Jesus in LA.” “In music and storytelling, everybody explores the same themes, recycled over and over again, because there’s not that many things [worth] talking about,” Benjamin tells Apple Music. “What differentiates one story from another is the perspective. These Two Windows is a metaphor for my eyes—my take on what’s been recycled throughout history. That’s what makes my retelling of these stories unique.” Below, he breaks down those musical narratives, song by song.