12 Notes by Alec Benjamin- a poet’s review
12 Notes by Alec Benjamin album photo. Photo courtesy of Spotify.
Looking for sad songs that sound sad and happy songs that sound sad? Welcome to the world of Alec Benjamin. You’ve definitely heard his music before even without knowing it. He’s responsible for bops like Let Me Down Slowly and Water Fountain. Alec’s 2024 album 12 Notes debuted yesterday and boy do I have (excited!) thoughts.
Although the album begins with what I’d argue to be the most romantic song in the entire playlist, it fluctuates between the light and dark sides of falling for someone.
The overarching story I pictured while listening is the life-cycle of a romantic relationship from depressing beginnings to depressing endings (in true Alec fashion). All the songs, even the love-dovey ones, have melancholy threads interlaced between the lyrics and soundscapes.
After listening to the entire album for the first time in the order it was released, I noticed I could categorize the songs together into 3 broad phases of a relationship: the songs that depict your mental state before, during and after a romantic relationship.
I took a stab at organizing the songs into 3 groups sequentially. Once rearranged a bit, these 12 songs paint a heartbreakingly beautiful story from beginning to end that some of us may know all too well.
Here is the order I’d recommend listening the songs in to tell a heartstring-strumming story from start to finish. I also added some of my own thoughts about a few of the songs in context:
12 Notes by Alec Benjamin (Anisa’s Order)
Before (stage 1):
This is the first part of the story. You are in a tired and overthinking headspace. All you want is support and to maybe find someone cool to spend forever with. Is that too much to ask for?
I Sent My Therapist To Therapy
Ways To Go (feat. Khalid)
Pick Me
During (stage 2):
This is the era filled with the most dopamine. It’s the daydreaming in love stage. YOU FOUND SOMEONE FINALLY. You experience the beginning of a relationship with all its passion, butterflies and blind spots. You ignore the rest of the real world because that doesn’t matter when you’re infatuated. This is also when you create genuine, soul-deep connections. It gets serious as the infatuation transforms into enamoredness. You fall in love, almost insufficiently. These are peak love levels.
Sacrifice Tomorrow
In A Little
12 Notes
this is the title track and is the most seemingly romantic of them all. There are also 12 songs on this album (I wonder if this is on purpose). Is this a love album?
After (stage 3):
Post-break up: Your heart shatters like porcelain on pavement into seven wonky pieces. This is where it all came crashing down. Based on the stages of grief chart above (I know the chart says it’s for chronic disease but the sentiments felt familiar). You’re grieving something you craved so bad. A relationship transformed into a regret engulfed in flames.
Stages of grief chart (for chronic disease) from NAFC online.
Lead Me To Water (stages 1 & 2: denial and pleading)
Love The Ones Who Leave (stage 3: anger)
Different Kind of Beautiful (stage 4: anxiety and depression)
thought it was just about plainly calling someone beautiful, but after a few listens within the landscape of the album it seems like a panic-attack kind of beautiful. It’s a painful beautiful, a stabbing in the chest beauty instead of a rose-tinted glasses kind, a regretful beauty?
By Now (stage 5: loss of self and confusion)
The Arsonist (stage 6: re-evaluation of life, roles and goals)
this feels like old-school Alec vibes, it’s catchy while also dancing around serious topics gaslighting and being self aware afterwards.
King Size Bed (stage 7: acceptance)
What do you think of this order? Do you prefer the exact order the album was released with? Lemme know <3
