Kevin Bronson on December 5th, 2019

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Alex Ebert has adopted many personas since his adventures as a youth in L.A.: the manic agit-punker fronting IMA Robot; the white-dressed neo-hippie leading Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros; the Golden Globe-winning film composer (2013’s “All Is Lost”); and the solo artist who draws from folk, hip-hop and electronic music to accompany his flights of whimsy. Oh, and he’s working on a book, too.

This week, Ebert announced that his second solo album, “I vs. I,” would be out Jan. 31. It’s been eight years since he detoured from the Magnetic Zeros for his solo effort “Alexander,” and a lot has happened since. Before the Zeros’ last album in 2016, he decamped to New Orleans, and since then he’s developed an app, emptied his cupboard with the release of three “In Support of 5ame Dude” EPs in 2018 and slowly assembled his next batch of solo work.

He describes the latter thusly: “This album tells the story of a cavalier attitude towards a partner, a break-up, the distress of the break-up, the anger and exploration, the contemplation of death, the coming back into the fold of the party, and the eventual finding of love again. It describes the past three years of my life. It’s almost a concept album in how linear the story is actually told.”

Director Noaz Deshe’s video for the new single “Stronger” stars dancers Ya-Chun Tsai and Valentin Tzin, who really put some meaning into Ebert’s refrain “You’re making me work, work work.” Go ahead and try this at home … and if you fail, stick to the song’s handclaps.

||| Watch: The videos for “Stronger” and “Automatic Youth”

||| Also: Stream “Her Love” and “Miles Away”