{"id":11478,"date":"2019-08-21T10:42:20","date_gmt":"2019-08-21T15:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/?p=11478"},"modified":"2026-05-06T15:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T20:18:13","slug":"album-preview-begonia-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2019\/08\/21\/album-preview-begonia-fear\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Preview :: Begonia :: Fear"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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by Ben Waldman<\/strong>
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Three years ago, Alexa Dirks began to transform. Dirks\u2014an eminently talented vocalist equally comfortable singing lullabies, headbangers and neo-soul ballads\u2014had made a name for herself in local circles for her work in ensembles like the Juno-winning Chic Gamine. But at the 2016 Winnipeg Jazzfest, she stepped forward, redubbing herself \u2018Begonia\u2019 and signalling the blossom of the most dynamic and intriguing artist the city has seen in years: a glittery, hot-pink supernova who felt like Canadian music\u2019s worst-kept secret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

With her long-awaited debut album Fear<\/em> out September 13, that secret will finally come out. Fear <\/em>is a deeply personal album, at once bursting with ruminations on solitude, depression, self-doubt, anxiety, and panic, all bundled up in that serene feeling that comes with an artist fully embracing themselves in both the past and the present tense.
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Though she\u2019s surrounded by an enviable supporting cast\u2014including three-fifths of Royal Canoe and Dirty Catfish horn work\u2014there\u2019s no doubt Begonia\u2019s voice is the central character. On opener \u201cThe Other Side,\u201d Begonia discusses her complicated relationship with religion, and it sounds as if it were recorded in a cathedral, the isolated vocal of a gospel choir of one. \u201cI want to cross to the other side,\u201d she chants, and we\u2019d let her take us there.
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On stage, Begonia dresses exclusively in bright-coloured costumes: it\u2019s how she feels most powerful, \u201calmost like a superhero version of herself,\u201d she says. Growing up, people called her \u201cweird, fat, and loud,\u201d and as Begonia, she screams, \u2018Look at me now!\u201d But on most tracks, her invincibility is buoyed by profound vulnerability: \u201cMirror Talk\u201d is about the day being half-gone and not yet getting out of bed, \u201ca melancholic daydream,\u201d she calls it. On \u201cTwo Beers In,\u201d Begonia is a \u201cragdoll with my insides hanging out,\u201d an apt comparison to the catharsis of using your pain to inspire art. 
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The title track begins with frantic clapping, and the lyrics take the cue: Begonia rattles through anxiety after anxiety, fear after fear, eventually culminating in a pained scream that acts as a pseudo-chorus we\u2019ve all sung before. This is the power of Begonia: her music feels like something we\u2019ve all been waiting for the chance to say, but couldn\u2019t quite phrase. And though she lists Nina Simone, D\u2019Angelo and Erykah Badu as influences, she never tries to mimic them: Fear <\/em>is a throwback to something that\u2019s never existed, but thank god it\u2019s here now.
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by Ben Waldman Three years ago, Alexa Dirks began to transform. Dirks\u2014an eminently talented vocalist equally comfortable singing lullabies, headbangers and neo-soul ballads\u2014had made a name for herself in local circles for her work in ensembles like the Juno-winning Chic Gamine. But at the 2016 Winnipeg Jazzfest, she stepped forward, redubbing herself \u2018Begonia\u2019 and signalling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11478"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11480,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11478\/revisions\/11480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}