Better Be the One
Review of Carousel (2023) by Alternate Ending
On Carousel, Cambridge’s stylistically ungovernable Alternate Ending continues to make music according to a playbook with virtually zero limitations. Ever heard of fairground psychedelia? After listening to this seven-song EP, you will have. Here, longtime friends and recent collaborators Colin Halyk and Deborah Tihanyi show up with a stellar collection of original tunes that feel like a indie-rock mixtape from some clothing-strewn college dorm room, circa 1990.
On the Ontario duo’s second release, the vibe goes straight to the seedy, small-town fairgrounds of the psyche, with Halyk playing the exuberant, mirthful carnival barker and Tihanyi the laconic, easygoing everywoman who watches humanity go by with equal parts amusement and compassion. Halyk, moving into the autumnal phase of his almost 40-year career, sounds even more joyous and playful than on Stations, the duo’s 2022 release. The album notes state that six of the EP’s seven songs date back to the late 1980s, a particularly fruitful time in Halyk’s songwriting, when his stylistic palate had expanded to embrace both Grateful Dead-inspired jams and the more inward, solipsistic musings of his deeply spiritual Through the Screen era.
From the introduction’s vintage arcade samples and background laughter, Alternate Ending launches without pause into the EP’s lead off track (and undeniable single) “Debbie Says Hello.” The song, written in 1987 during the interim between Halyk’s graduation from York University and his mysterious disappearance (and apparent musical retirement) to Saskatchewan, lyrically captures the vivid directionlessness so often associated with Generation X in popular music and film. For the song’s cast of characters, absolutely nothing is going right. Somebody’s phone has just been cut off; somebody else has landed in the hospital, and nobody has any money to speak of. “I gotta see you real soon,” Halyk howls mid-song, “‘Coz you still owe me seventeen bucks.”
But Carousel doesn’t stay in one musical setting for long. In “World Without a View,” Halyk dresses up the subtle and unexpected chord changes with an arrangement that calls to mind some of Randy Newman’s best work.
There’s something interesting going on sonically in Carousel, and it’s a spirit you won’t find in the typically airless production style of modern indie pop. Instead of simply pulling MIDI content out of the cloud, Alternate Ending leans heavily into a sound that, refreshingly, comprises real instruments. Despite covering drum, bass and guitar duties himself, Halyk and Tihanyi make records that sound like actual bands, eschewing the metronomic airlessness of a Haim recording for the loose, buzzy room sound of an early Nineties Guided by Voices track. As always, the arrangements contain surprises at every turn: the layered, Escher-like background vocals on the jangly, REM-influenced pop of “Fallen Arches”; the Elephant 6 collective-inspired and reverb-drenched percussion; the sound samples that seem to pop up throughout the record. “Leave Me Here On My Own (Bartholomew’s Theme)” not only features the fluid fiddle breaks of Fiona Coll and an old-timey country arrangement, but has also been produced to sound like a scratchy old slab of vinyl.
Tihanyi, for her part, is the Andy Richter to Halyk’s jumpier Conan O’Brien; her deceptively casual energy brings an unhurried sense of ease to the proceedings. More than that, though, her delivery is that of a vocalist who’s right in the moment, taking it all in with Zen calm and and an unerring instinct for phrasing.
Also particularly interesting is the instrumental “Thena’s Catnap,” a two-minute pastiche of ukulele, drone and prog-rock mellotron that abruptly segues into martial drums near the song’s end. As good as the EP’s vocal tracks are, there’s something about this song that makes me wish the album could be peppered with instrumentals just like it. We can only hope that Alternate Ending releases a full album of Thena’s Catnaps sometime in the next few years, just for shits and giggles.
Carousel ends with the raucous nudge-nudge, wink-wink of Halyk and Tihanyi’s “Knowing She Would,” featuring the core lineup of late-1980s York University communal soul band, Ernie’s Coffee Shop, which Halyk joined in late 1988. A virtual reunion made possible by the five members’ contributing parts from various locations in Australia (Mark Kuntsi on harmonica, bass and slide guitar), Toronto (Bruce Russell, piano and congas; and James Paul, Lowrey Heritage Deluxe and Hammond S6 organ) and Vancouver Island (some random middle-aged participant with a guitar that looks like something you’d grate cheese with), “Knowing She Would” is pure fun from Mark Kuntsi’s Lee Oskar-esque harmonica intro to the jovial studio conversation at the song’s tail end when, apparently, Russell had run out of time to do another take:
Colin Halyk: {laughing}
Bruce Russell: “Better be the one…”
Deborah Tehanyi: “Not quite…”
Make no mistake. Carousel is the one. And these guys are just getting warmed up.
