Alex Winston Releases Sophomore Album 'Bingo!'

Indie singer-songwriter Alex Winston has shared her sophomore album, Bingo! Written over the course of three years during a mercurial period in her life—which she lovingly refers to as her “swamp era”—the album is packed with sonic elements of old school Americana, psychedelia and an untethered wiliness, all anchored by Winston’s assured pop sensibilities.  Bingo! is an unfiltered snapshot of Alex’s nosedive into the uncertainty and discomfort of growth. The 10-track project is both nostalgic and freshly compelling in its honesty and hard earned optimism.

Twangy lead single “Stassia” ushers the listener into the front-porch lit, country-tinged indie rock world of Alex Winston, with its jangly guitar and Alex’s cutting vocals. “Hot One” follows as a sweltering, bass-driven pop anthem, airing out Winston’s frustrations in the dead of Nashville summer heat. All boiling over into a defiant refrain, “You can’t take my joy away / Hello, Satan, not today”.  Indulging in a mirky, trickster energy, “Swampland” is a playful parade of flutes, horns and hallucinatory guitar riffs— a Mardi Gras of Winston’s mind. 

With pulsing guitars and an atmospheric swagger, “Where My Cowboys At?” is a bittersweet victory lap, as Winston celebrates her days of reckless abandon, knowing they’re numbered.  

Alex continues to press in close, reflecting on the path of her life as an artist in “Special Feeling.”  With verses spilling over into near mania, it’s a song about desperately wanting to be seen and understood, yet feeling terrified at the same time. 

“Indiana”, enveloped in a rich muted acoustic guitar and clicky percussion, provides an earnest moment of vulnerability and heartbreak.  Winston’s lyricism shines in “The Cutting Board” and “Run On”, tracks that siphon out the mistakes of past relationships with a wink of naïveté and wit. “Run On”s  all-too-relatable lament “Every Friday night we try so hard to make it nice / Then it devolves into some kind of run on conversation / It feels like mindless automation.” reflects the maddening loop of continuous communication breakdown.

As the penultimate track, “Mike’s Soup” shows Winston’s proclivity for duality, as she weaves a sonically buoyant, sing-along with hard to face self-revelations, all while watching “The sun rise through a bullet hole in a roof,” of a seedy motel. “Jeremiah Johnson” brings Winston’s scathingly honest, steaming summertime album to a reflective and desolate close. Recounting the moment she realized the person she loved, loved being alone far more than he ever loved her. Alex finds herself in solitude, looking to an unexpected future that is rife with the painful joy of hope.

More About Alex Winston:

Born and raised in the suburbs of Detroit, Alex Winston is a classically trained opera vocalist and indie-pop singer/songwriter with an unmistakably unique voice. Balancing a sharp wit with down-to-earth self-awareness, Alex’s sound juxtaposes scrappy, upbeat sonics against lyricism that explores the ‘down-low’ of life’s most painful moments. She released her critically acclaimed debut album, King Con, in 2012 on Island Records and went on to share the stage with acts like Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Little Dragon, Grouplove, and Neon Trees. In 2015 she shared her The Day I Died EP through 300 Records, but her sophomore full-length follow up was shelved and never released. It was around this time that Alex was diagnosed with Lyme disease, which she battled for almost two years.

Undeterred by her unconventional path, Alex continued to refine her sound, releasing a slew of singles as a solo artist as well as diving into a side project, Post Precious, with her friend and MS MR member Max Hershenow, a partnership which gave her the opportunity to collaborate with artists like Charli XCX and Ryn Weaver. In 2022 Alex celebrated the 10-year anniversary of her King Con album with a vinyl re-press of the record, live performances from the beloved LA Blogotheque Take Away sessions, and a new EP of reimagined versions of the original LP tracks, including a previously unreleased Townes Van Zandt cover. In 2023, Alex shifted her focus to the release of her sophomore album with the release of singles including “Hot One” and “Where My Cowboys At?”. Written around Alex’s coming of age and coming into her own in her thirties, the Bingo! LP showcases her growth as a writer and producer over her decade long career, as well as a new found confidence in who she is as an artist. 

Bingo! LP Tracklist:

1. Stassia

2. Hot One

3. Swampland

4. Where My Cowboys At?

5. Special Feeling

6. Indiana

7. The Cutting Board

8. Run On

9. Mike's Soup

10. Jeremiah Johnson

Photo Credit: Matthew Libassi

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