163: Alex G - Afterlife
It almost felt like a fever dream watching Alex G spiral into something huge. Like many of us who ran music blogs in the early 2010s he was I knew him as a ridiculously prolific character destined for a life in the shadows with his slightly weird, always skewed songwriter who was as adept at scrappy freakouts as he was Elliott Smith style moments of middle-of-night clarity. I remember hearing 'change' for the first time and thinking it was the closest I'd ever heard anyone get to Elliott's music, so simple and so complex. It was a shame that so many people would never get to hear him, this kid is special, I remember thinking.
Somewhere and somehow between then and now, a lot of people did in fact find their way to Alex G. Or he found his way to them. 'Afterlife', the first single from his just-announced new album, has wracked up over 25k views in the six hours since it was published. It's wonderful, as always, perhaps even more so given that he continues to balance so precariously on a tightrope, his songs always feeling like they could implode at any moment, collapsing at the seams.
'Afterlife' is exactly this. Lyrically complex, quietly reflective, it once again feels beautifully vivid, so melodically rich and sincere but always cast in a very unique light; carried on a strum reminiscent of REM's 'You Are The Everything', but finding its own sepia kitchen to slow-dance around in.
Let me write down
Every word
Once I was a mockingbird
Not an angel
But I’m your man
I can bring you back again
A prayer was
Baited hook
Scribbled in a history book
Let me run on
In between
Heaven and the TV screen
Running in the afterlife
The album is called Headlights and is out July 18th. What a treat it is to have him back; one of the very best songwriters out there.
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