I wish I had something particularly clever or insightful to accompany this particular track, but regrettably I don’t. I’m not entirely sure whether or not I’ve reached my musical critique limit of the day (too poor to purchase the monthly premium access), or that at the moment I’m stuck in a state of dumbfounded awe. I’m sure that after a few more listens to this stuff the latter will prove itself the more formidable possibility, but only time till tell. Thankfully I’ve got tons of it.

Whatever the case may be, Ace Enders is no stranger to our little scene. From another dicked around DTR alum (join the club) to an overly ambitious storyteller and now to a man amidst a million different people with a new found focus, Ace has never been one to put the guitar down. I mean seriously, the way the guy records you’d think his solution to illegal downloading was to record as much as he could in a short time to make it nearly impossible to keep up. If anything, over the years I’ve admired the man as an artist for his willingness to dish out the goods to his fans.

My ongoing relationship with the man and his music (going on several years now, very on again, off again) has always remained somewhat conflicted. To me he always seemed like an artist who didn’t know what he really wanted. A man unsure of his strengths, his weaknesses, and most importantly a man unsure of where he wanted to take his music. Oddly enough, I’m not the only one. In discussing the first single of his new project’s (Ace Enders and a Million Different People) debut LP When I Hit the Ground (due out March 17), Ace spoke candidly about his own personal struggles with his music:

“The idea for this song came from the last few years of my life and just seeing the way life puts you on this up and down roller coaster. You can never be sure what’s over the next hill. I think its one of the most honest songs I’ve ever written, because when I wrote it I was really confused and in that moment the only thing that made sense was to write about it. It came to me at a time where I just felt like I wasn’t in the right place. All my work that I had done for the past year was meaningless, but it’s about finding the one little reason or in this case “the sign” that keeps you going. It’s basically a struggle to decide how and why you keep going when you feel you shouldn’t.”

Luckily, after the break-up of The Early November however, the signs were in no short supply and with the formation of Ace Enders and a Million Different People came a new focus for Ace (of Base). At this point I can’t really express how happy I am to admit that for the first time in our troubled relationship I see an artist finally realizing his true potential from both a musical and songwriting standpoint.

You did it Ace, you finally won me over. Congratulations.

Enjoy the track “Open Windows,” which comes off of his recently (limited) released Australian EP. The release was recorded as a means to make it up to the Aussies for canceling his last scheduled Australian stint.