Composer Alex Paxton’s latest album “Delicious” has just been released, and it is already getting fantastic reviews from the full range of the music press:
The Times – “Best classical albums of 2025 so far” - link
“wild and wacky to a new level... invigorating... classical, jazz, pop, baroque, minimalist, maximalist, acoustic, electronic - are stirred together and served up in 13 delicious dollops... impossible to listen with a straight face... head of steam... Imagine one of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention tracks fused with a hurtling Conlon Nancarrow piano piece and you’re still only half way there.” – Geoff Brown, The Times
Jazz Times - link
“Paxton wears his blissful mania on his brightly coloured sleeve... journey into the frenetic and the ridiculous... incessantly joyful album, bold and catchy, exploding in colors and melodies and thick with texture... a hopeful harbinger for the shape of jazz-adjacency to come... fast-paced, often comic, meticulously complex. It takes cues from video games, 1960s pop orchestration and 2020s pop production... clouds of counterpoint... sonic adrenaline... vying forces, but happy opponents, playing out scenarios in carefully choreographed dances.” – Kurt Gottschalk, Jazz Times
Arts Desk - link
“wild, untrammelled, odd, enticing... turned up to 11... infectious exuberance... this is the indecent sweetness of Jelly Babies... jazzy rollercoaster-ride... “hanging out with your best friend, who you definitely don’t fancy. Not even a little bit.” It is intoxicating, and I think I might fancy the friend too... commitment to the weird... like a comedian who’s always “on”... Above all I was swept along by Paxton’s inventiveness and energy” – Bernard Hughes, The Arts Desk
Cultural Attaché - link
“GENRE-DEFYING... electronic music; hints of contemporary classical music and moments that sound like a film score... inventive mind... unlike anything I’ve heard before... like being in a musical amusement park with thrills, twists and turns that are guaranteed to delight.” - Craig L Byrd, Cultural Attaché
Bandcamp Album of the Day - link
“meticulously plotted, arranged, and performed, with contrapuntal elements piling up like mounds of sugar... maximalist on steroids, a voracious genre-hopper... astonishing formal rigor, sophistication, and an unerring ear for pop hooks.... dizzying riot of vividly contrasting lines, grooves, and styles, all arranged with mind-melting precision and coherence...love for fizzy melody and an abiding sense of raucous fun... extremely accessible in its tuneful generosity... a seriously entertaining and invigorating activity.” - Peter Margasak, Bandcamp Album of the Day
Crescendo Magazine - link
“Sound Strobe... kinetic, overflowing, and generous music... never sleeps, deliberately forgets his Ritalin, and his state of wakefulness merges with a manic episode... opens a window into the effervescent soul of the composer... perceives no boundaries... common thread of the score is the melody: an emotional starting point, a seeker of pleasure (the kind that touches the entire body)...thrilling” - Bernard Vincken, Crescendo Magazine
Silence and Sound - link
“a true journey into the depths of how classical music should sound in the 21st century....ballets of birds in full breeding season, colorful animal show with diamond flashes...break down barriers and codes, with feverish creativity....unique music deeply rooted in our contemporary world, full of life and exuberance, contagious madness and rainbow bombast. Vital.” - Roland Torres, Silence and Sound
You can listen to the new album on all the main streaming channels by following this link: Alex Paxton - Delicious
