Review: Alex G’s major-label debut is as weird and beautiful as ever

An indie artist getting plucked from the underground and ushered onto a major record label is a much rarer thing than it used to be.

But with streams in the hundreds of millions and collaborations with Frank Ocean, Halsey and Lil Yachty in his rearview, how indie is Alex G - born Alexander Giannascoli - anyway?

Fifteen or so years into his career, Headlights is the first Alex G release on a major label (RCA), which had fans wondering if the lo-fi sounds and experimentation of prior albums would be absent this time.

The answer is mostly no. Making the album, Giannascoli seems to have been given free rein to indulge in genre experiments.

On the track ‘Far and Wide’, he channels ‘Rainbow Connection’ while ‘Is It Still You in There’ features a mock-child choir, and there's some general silliness on the crunchy, two-minute, digital pop-punk tune ‘Bounce Boy’.

The between-song space on Headlights is littered with studio noise, flubbed takes, and evidence of a still-there DIY aesthetic.

With his streaming figures so high, Giannascoli didn’t need to worry about curbing his style, and evidently, the team at RCA didn’t either.

That said, the bulk of tracks here, including singles ‘Afterlife’, ‘Oranges’, and ‘June Guitar’, do hew to trad-folk-rock signifiers, and as such may be the most broadly-appealing music he’s made.

The strums are mostly acoustic, joined by a palatable accompaniment like banjo, bongos, and mandolin.

On the album highlight ‘Afterlife’, Giannascoli channels late-period R.E.M., while an accordion heard on Highlights' opening track ‘June Guitar’ evokes Bruce Springsteen.

This far into a run that began in his teens, it’s inescapable that Giannascoli’s way with melody would start to feel familiar, but he catches you off guard with other aspects, like dropping a bit of discord into the otherwise heavenly ‘Real Thing’.

Then there’s the fascination with altering his voice, heightening its pitch till unrecognisable; the strange nasal delivery on ‘Far and Wide’; or layering it into a digitally-warped choir to gorgeous effect on ‘Beam Me Up’.

“I’m gonna put that football way up in the sky”, he sings - a good example of how delivery can make something mundane feel profound.

Other football-themed phrases ensue, but an earlier line is more telling - “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."

(When pressed by Pitchfork, Giannascoli said 'Beam Me Up' was about a job he was commissioned for and ended up declining.)

But it’s not the only financially-minded lyric on Headlights.

"Let the money pave my way", he sings, presumably sarcastically, on the album's title track and “Hoping I can make it through to April/ On whatever’s left of all this label cash,” on ‘Real Thing’.

Giannascoli is a musician best known for being ordinary.

Along with sports, another lyrical preoccupation on his past albums was dogs, but generally the turns of phrase are oblique, making it more likely the major label switch and ensuing cashflow was on his mind during writing.

Regardless, Headlights is far from an abandonment of Giannascoli's values, with songs that challenge as much as they uplift.

He’s an artist who loves to try new things each time he hits record, and it’s affirming to hear that continue.

Coming sixteen years after their last release, Push T and Malice return with typically dextrous rhymes and a continued interest in airing out grievances, on an album produced entirely by Pharrell Williams.

The latter sings a bit too often, but otherwise it’s a trove of perfect loops and battering raps.

When this English duo dropped their first album, you were either charmed by their irreverence or annoyed by it, but there was no denying the abundance of catchy hooks.

They expanded to a four-piece band for its follow-up, and allowed a smidgeon of genuine feelings into the mix, complementing rock-solid riffage with singalong sincerity.