Alexander Setzko’s Fairy Tale Is a Dreamy Indie Rock Escape from Memory’s Sharpest Edges –

Rose-tinted glasses come with thorns -on the dreamy, new wave indie jangle-pop single, Fairy Tale, by Alexander Setzko. The Brooklyn-based multi-disciplinary artist instantly sweeps you up within an ethereal cinematic glow, conjured by spectres of 80s synth pop and the kind of guitar work which made Johnny Marr stake his claim as one of the most influential indie guitarists to ever live and breathe over a fretboard.

Fairy Tale carries the romance of immaterial mythology, but these fables only carry visions of your past as Alexander Setzko’s dramatically lush indie rock opera vocals paint a vignette of wistful passion for what you wish still remained. The track feels suspended between sentimental illusion and the dull dawning of realisation, letting nostalgia shimmer while still exposing the emotional cost of living too long inside it.

Setzko is the powerhouse behind the vocals, instrumentation, recording and final production, giving Fairy Tale the distinct signature of an artist steering every contour of the release. As the cherry on the cake, Alex Blade Silver’s saxophone solo adds a strident timbre to this narratively enrapturing triumph, which we have been blessed with an early preview. If there is any summer single worth waiting for, it is this stunningly evocative tour de force, granting better escapism than navel-gazing into your memories.

Fairy Tale will be available to stream on all major platforms from September 1^st. Buy the single on Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast