Alex G - Headlights

Unlike most openers across his catalogue, in which Alex camouflages his vocals with pitch-shifting or layers of distortion, ‘June Guitar’ leads with his voice at the forefront, quietly supported by an uncomplicated acoustic melody and the gentle rustle of airy percussion. ‘Real Thing’ continues with simple instrumentation and a meandering curiosity, musing “I went out looking for the real thing”. ‘Afterlife’, meanwhile, stands in opposition to Alex’s often aloof outlook, the track finding his vocal stronger, the percussion heftier, the guitar pluckier. It carries the exhilaration of running full speed down a hill, and could easily be a fine-tuned deep cut from 2011’s ‘Race’.

‘Beam Me Up’, however, follows as a sobering return to the present. The melody doesn’t find immediate structure, but falls into an indelicate groove as Alex admits: “Some things I do for love / Some things I do for money / It ain’t like I don’t want it / It ain’t like I’m above it”. It’s communicated somberly, but he doesn’t allow this level of reflection to become too much. ‘Spinning’ soon returns to the buoyant energy of ‘Afterlife’, fronted by electric guitar with the lower notes accentuated by a rich cello line. ‘Louisiana’ and ‘Bounce Boy’ satisfy any desire for exaggerated vocal effects, the former taking on a grittier style while the latter is choppy, hyper and chromatic. He allows time for a folk-tinged number, too, with the trodding strum and rustic harmonies of ‘Oranges’. Never tiring from novelty, ‘Far And Wide’ plays as an elaborate waltz of cartoonish recitation contrasted by tense lyricism and a string arrangement that weeps to an unnerving climax. Before reaching the closer, it’s clear that ‘Headlights’ is Alex G’s most streamlined body of work yet – the culmination of fifteen years of exploration, refined.

Tags: Album Reviews, Reviews, Alex G, RCA