STRAWBERRY GUY

Taking My Time To Be

MELODIC 8/10

Liverpool piano man’s dizzily charming debut

The nearest Alex Stephens gets to a claim to fame is a stint lending live keyboards to lovable Halifax indie funsters The Orielles. But his debut mini-album ploughs a much trippier furrow, one which has already turned on many a like mind, if two million Youtube streams for his first demos are anything to go by. Lysergic organ swirls and dreamlike whistling give a surreal feel to love-lorn ballads such as “Mrs Magic”, while also echoing the somnambulant laments of Spiritualized. But even when the break-up lyrics of “Without You” betray a stinging bitterness, a soft cloak of psychedelic sweetness keeps on seducing us.