Once again, Adam Baxter has proven that he can pack a whole lot of heart into a small package. His latest album, Infinity, is six tracks of delicate guitar, subtle harmonies and vocals brimming with honesty.
Baxter deals with a lot of dark imagery on this album, but that’s not to say the subject matter is devoid of positivity. Instead, he explores the small moments found in the quiet hours of the night or early morning. Sometimes, there’s a hopeful conclusion to be reached. Sometimes he just finds more questions. Whatever he finds, he handles with a sense of wistful self-reflection.
Baxter’s achieved a sort of celestial energy with the recipe of sounds on this album. Subtle female harmonies are strategically threaded throughout certain songs. The use of strings creates this swelling build of emotion. In the song “Lantern,” you can literally feel it in your chest – like your heart is going to burst out of your chest. In “Hush,” the crooning vocalizing in the chorus mimics the howling wind he’s singing about. Every choice feels deliberate in building the perfect soundscape for Baxter’s poetic lyrics.
The tracks that bookend the album are the heaviest in terms of the emotions Baxter chooses to tackle. With “In Transit,” Baxter grapples with feelings of insecurity and not being good enough for the ones he loves. The arrangement stays pretty gentle before building to epic heights at the end as he finds hope in his own shortcomings.
Meanwhile, the final track, “Sleepless,” deals with all of the overwhelming and crushing feelings that can make it hard to find solace in sleep. It’s best listened to with a pair of headphones. Baxter plays with dynamics and panning in this song to create a truly surreal effect. It results in this sort of chaotic urgency that often is associated with insomnia.
As usual, there’s a lot to unpack in such a short amount of time. Because of that, there’s no room for fluff. The tracklist feels cleaner and crisper as a result. The only downside to this is that the record feels over in the blink of an eye. But hey, that’s what repeat is for, isn’t it?