Are you really alive? Or are you just half·alive?

The members of half·alive are a group of three talented individuals hailing from Long Beach, California

Josh Taylor is the man behind the vocals while Brett Kramer kills it on the drums and J. Tyler Johnson works his magic on the bass, in the end these three put together give us a band for the ages in half·alive. (P.S.- These three have much more talent than their respective titles, you’ll see as we carry on.)

Back to those two questions I asked earlier, see I didn’t just ask them out of the blue, I asked them because I can’t seem to get them out of my mind. They seem to always pop up whenever I am in front of anything half·alive related, but boy am I glad, because after listening to this album I was hit with emotions that in all honesty, woke me up. Emotions that felt as if I was being pulled into the direction of LIVING. Seriously, ask yourself are we truly living? Alright maybe I should relax a bit with these philosophical questions and actually get into the review.

Here are my thoughts on half·alive’s debut album “Now, Not Yet”.

Before I started this review I thought to myself, “how can one even do a review on this album as a whole? It just feels disrespectful to each of the songs”. Each song was curated in such a beautiful way that they all deserve a review. I now understand why they released half of their songs as singles before giving us the album. This allowed listeners the opportunity to truly digest what was on their plates. What a well thought out delivery. Like many of us, when an album is dropped we are quick to rush through the songs to find the best, instead of taking in each song and finding the beauty within each of them. I think artists should do this more often, its a very smart move. For this review, I thought it’d be best if I gave a small review for each of my favorite songs and then give my final say for the album put together. So here we go!

“ok ok?”– Wow, has this song really grown on me. This is a song that really just gets better after every listen you give to it. (Might I add that listening to it in 8D just puts it into another realm of music.) The synths are sweet, sweet, sweet ear candy, such a funky sound. From the clapping to the sound of breathing, ahh what an amazing sound they created here. Now on to the message of the song, but really quick can we take a second to realize that everything going on in our lives is OK. We are OK. Who we are right now is who we need to be in order to become who we are meant to become.

When I first heard this song, the message hit me. The message being to be OK with who you are and what you’ve got, but then after several listens things became a bit clearer. (After reading that sentence what I’m going to say hopefully will make sense to you. My mind thinks many things all the time, and most times those thoughts wont make any bit of sense, but I guess you’ll be the judge of that in just a second). While listening to the song playback after playback, taking in its beauty it occurred to me, “huh, must we go through different phases of people we shouldn’t be in order to find that person we should be? Does it takes several listens?”. For most of us that first listen wont be IT, but after those multiple listens its then when you realize the beauty that the subject holds. I guess what I’m trying to say is that, it takes multiple listens to find ones true beauty, ones true self. BUT also with every listen you uncover a piece of that beauty. So just keep on listening and that beauty will strike you just as this songs beauty did me.

All in all there was a lot to take out of this song, from the pleasing sounds to the meaningful lyrics and that’s what makes this song far more than OK.

That may have been a lot to take in, so I’ll give you a second to gather yourself because there’s more where that came from….

“RUNAWAY”– This is a song that I like to believe has put many people at ease, such beautiful lyrics sung with nothing but pure soul. The song is so upbeat with amazing drums in the back which make it feel like the song gets faster as it develops. The tempo paints a picture of us running away from something, that something being ourselves. With Josh’s vocals becoming louder and louder it almost feels like we are reaching a climax to where we realize that we actually “don’t need to runaway”. This song is perfect for those times when its feels like we are mentally falling off. We shouldn’t be chasing that perfect life because as we chase we become blind to the perfect life in front of us. You may feel like who you are now is far from who you want to be, but as Josh says “Everything I am, is everything I should be”. You don’t need to keep running, slow down and let time build you. What I took from this, is to pace yourself and to understand that all the planning will never really pan out exactly how we expect. Things will work in your favor, love who you are in every moment.

Take a moment now and really feel this performance. Just pure ART, WOW.

I’ve just now realized this is getting a bit long so I’ll give you one last song review, I honestly could’ve done a review for every song on the album but at that point only I would make it to the end of that post. If you’re still here, Im giving you a lil wink and smile, one of those you see in a coming of age movie. Now back to our regularly scheduled program.

“Rest (with Sam Henshaw)” – I’ll keep this one nice and simple because it’s a clear cut message that we all need to take very literally. REST REST REST. Taking time to slow down and rest is something I struggle with and society doesn’t make it any easier on any of us. Every time I feel like I’m doing nothing I feel bothered and it really messes with my mental because I just feel very unproductive. Truthfully, learning how to give yourself proper rest is one of the greatest benefits to life. Withh this song half·alive and Sam Henshaw give us a very smooth delightful vibe that will definitely be playing every time I take a break from life. Rest is truly a secret, recharge yourself every once in a while. Beautiful song with again such meaningful lyrics.

All right we’ve made it, or at least I have haha. Again if you made it this far, I truly appreciate you whoever you are. We are most definitely friends now 🙂

Finishing this off, man what an album. What a DEBUT album at that. These fellas are truly renaissance men at work and RCA Records yet again have got themselves a band of severely talented individuals. This album will surly be an album I play for the rest of my life and I just want to thank half·alive for bringing us such a beautiful piece of art. Remember that YOU reading this are important and nothing in this world compares to you. Love You All.

Favorite Lyrics:

• “But I’m through with being you, I know it’s okay to be me”
• “Vision’s clearing, still I’m learning“
• “Carved within the beauty, the darkness in between”
• “Could it be that you’re more than the scars on the surface? As the heat is beneath all the ash of the embers”
• “It was something I believed in, Ain’t no rest until the bank account’s peakin'”

And if you haven’t left by now, you stayed just in time for the special!

Sayonara my friends, thanks for tuning in.

-AB