A few years ago, our colleague Raúl Guillén was the first to talk on this website about Alfie Templeman, then barely 17 years old and still with several EPs: ‘Like An Animal’, ‘Sunday Morning Cereal’, ‘Don’t Go Wasting My Time’ and the one I was about to release, ‘Happiness in Liquid Form’. He had already collaborated with the likes of Kid Harpoon and Justin Hayward-Young from The Vaccines, who would repeat two years later on his debut full-length ‘Mellow Moon’, which was the one I was able to cover at his wonderful Mad Cool concert.
Now comes their second full-length, where we once again have Hayward-Young, and also previous collaborators such as Cameron Gower Poole, Will Bloomfield, Charlie J. Perry. New, however, are the names of John Scarbrow (a regular of Arlo Parks, to whom Alfie says he has been listening obsessively this time), Oscar Scheller (related to people as unlikely here as Ashnikko or Brooke Candy) and, mind you, Dan Carey and even Nile Rodgers! Perhaps one would say, because of this, that ‘Radiosoul’ is an ambitious project.
But Alfie, who despite having published eight hundred songs, is 21 years old, does not raise any major pedantic questions on this album, but rather is quite consistent with his life stage: “it’s about turning 20, entering a new decade and realizing how “You have guided yourself to where you are now, even if you didn’t realize it,” he said recently.
This is where songs like ‘Beckham’ (for which he was inspired by ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’), which narrates his search for an apartment, or the wonderful closing with ‘Run To Tomorrow’, which he comes to remember – saving the distance – – are about. to Radiohead from ‘In Rainbows’ while repeating to himself “this is the lowest you can feel, but it will pass and you will heal, don’t fall into the trap”, within a positivist message that recalls the last Girl In Red album.
But, where that one faltered a little in the production, ‘Radiosoul’ stands out from the title track, which is also the one that opens the album, close to psychedelia and with saxophone included. Here, Alfie reflects on the addiction to mobile phones and networks, and how the impoverishment of the population can be something that feeds back on this: “there is a lot of superficiality, and everything is so expensive that people prefer not to go out with friends, but rather use social networks and stare at your phone all day.”
He also touches on interesting themes in ‘Vultures’, which beneath its happy sound hides a criticism of the way the industry uses and pressures “young talents”. We don’t know if it is a declaration of intent, but it is the only song produced entirely by him. And he’s not bad at it, really.
Simpler are ‘This Is Just The Beginning’ (which he wrote when he was 14), the R&B of ‘Switch’ (doesn’t the beginning remind you of ‘Good Days’ by SZA?) or ‘Just A Dance’, where, no However, the hand of Nile Rodgers is noticeable: it is simple but also a super catchy candy. But I find more interesting approaches to funk like those of ‘Hello Lonely’ (about everyday life in the pandemic), ‘Drag’ (a cross between Friendly Fires and Chromeo) or, above all, ‘Eyes Wide Shut’. He cites Prince or Talking Heads as inspiration for this song, and maybe that’s still a long way off, but it does remind me of one of those songs that Jake Shears did so well in the Scissor Sisters.
Another highlight of the album is ‘Submarine’, between the kindest Arctic and Harry Styles, in which he sings about how he would go to visit his girlfriend (you can erase this fact from your mind if I have just hurt you a lot) in a submarine, now that she is a marine biologist. Random? Perhaps, and quite symbolic regarding ‘Radiosoul’: Alfie Templeman does not seek to invent anything, nor to make stories bigger than life, but rather to bring us closer to his reality. And, perhaps that’s why he has such a good album.
