Harley Alexander, the living example of a loose denim sleeve hanging from a suitcase flapping about in the Canadian winds, brings you “F Da Man 2” — the debut and lead single from Universal Love 2, the long-awaited follow-up to 2014’s first chapter, Universal Love.

Written in the darkest hours of 2020’s COVID-19 shutdown, “F Da Man 2” explores concepts of processing and overcoming grief, confronting devastating truths, and self-acceptance. As the first song recorded for Universal Love 2 and indicative of the album’s overarching sentiment of letting one’s self feel. “There’s absolute despair, internal and external, reflected everywhere you look,” says Alexander. “It makes sense that you feel bad, wanna cry, and wanna die sometimes but it’s important to know you’re not alone in that. But you gotta call out the bullshit and let yourself be mad. Be sad. Have feelings. Collapse will lead to self-discovery and self-love.”

This sobering look at harsh realities and groove-conscious melodies complimented with a playfulness delivered both lyrically and instrumentally is much of what one can expect in Universal Love 2. Universal Love 2 will land as Alexander’s 8th studio album — the studio being anywhere from a pal’s comfy couch to a mud-splattered Boler trailer to a 200-year-old farmhouse in Saint-Jean Port Joli, Quebec — where the majority of this project was created.

His decade of creating DIY, post-traumatic folk rock in Canada has brought opportunities to work with Charlotte Day Wilson, Bill Nye, and The Everywheres among others between brief stints working for the United Nations and planting trees in Northern British Columbia. Alexander delicately walks a tightrope from Halifax to Vancouver across Canada, to one side falls levity and the other profundity, and him, barefoot and balanced upright down the middle.