Alex G

Beach Music

Whether it haunts you, puts you in a dreamlike state, or simply makes you hum along, Beach Music is an album which should be listened to without hesitation.

Beach Music never really settles into a groove with each of these songs sounding as if they’ve come from a different place musically and emotionally; although it is fair to say that Beach Music is perhaps a more melancholic beast to its predecessor.

While this style of 90s US alt.indie is having another moment, G’s debut is the loner colt among the show ponies. His lush lo-fi recalls battered VHS tape recordings of MTV2 reruns found in a bin and lovingly restored.

Like the previous cult favourites he has to his name, ‘Beach Music’ hits gorgeous highs without making a big fuss.

Beach Music, Alex G’s first major wax-plated step outside the bedroom is predictably secure. But it’s also exploratory of his changing landscape, one that’s situated like unauthorized speech-class notecards, articulating each situation and character but still allowing for cracks and incongruity.

Despite its experimental elements and trippy sensibility, Beach Music is relentlessly intimate, moving, and hard to shake -- a notable trait for a young if experienced recording artist.

Beneath the rough-hewn veneer and casual disposition there’s considerable ambition and imagination at play.

Beach Music feels like the work of an artist a few steps ahead of his audience, jumping to answer their expectations of a DIY darling taking on the trappings of a label. He stuck to his roots, recorded at home, and embraced his eccentricities.

What is remarkable about Beach Music is that some of these arrangements beg for you to dismiss them, the way you might have the very first time you heard Pavement, but what at first feels sloppy and clogged is actually intricate upon closer inspection.

Beach Music finds him expanding stylistically, song by song.

There is a seam of quality that runs all the way through this record, and Alex G is a young guy whose talent does in fact match his work rate and eagerness to share his music.