Hi, everyone. Rest in peace to the legend Ozzy Osbourne here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of the new Alex G album, Headlights.

Here we have the newest LP from singer and songwriter Mr. Alex G, a figure whose influence has grown quite a bit within the indie scene as of late. His growth, in fact, has been exponential since breaking through as a Bandcamp 'it boy' around the mid-2010s. And while I personally wasn't too crazy about a lot of Alex's early work due to the songwriting, in my opinion, being a bit dodgy and malstructured, he has since teamed up with larger labels like Domino Records, and his writing, his recordings have actually matured quite a bit, with his last LP, God Save the Animals, really hitting a peak of catchiness and clarity as far as the songs are concerned.

And Alex has also done a fair amount of soundtrack work as of late between We're All Going to the World's Fair as well as last year's I Saw the TV Glow. I'm excited to hear how some of those experiences and influences might seep into the writing or instrumental palettes on Headlights here, especially with this record being a big label release; Alex has teamed up with RCA for this one, interestingly.

However, that doesn't seem to have changed the overall sound quality of the music all that much. Alex's sound still does have a strong DIY flair to it, and there were some promising singles to boot, namely the track "Afterlife", which was a folksy little rock tune with what sounds like a lot of mandolin and some accordion, too. Kind of a '90s throwback with some super earnest vocals and a chorus where Alex is really hitting like a "weeeeee" that really is one of the most fun and invigorating moments on the record vocally.

There was also "June Guitar", the opener on the LP, which by comparison is not quite as snappy. But the track's gentle, acoustic lines and whimsical accordion melodies most certainly come together in a mesmerizing vibe, especially as all the instrumentation is layering up toward the back end of the song. I also like continuing to hear Alex's vocal sounding a lot less obscured in the mix when compared to some of his earlier records. It really feels like he's embodying a little bit of a Red House Painters influence on this one, too. But if you can take the sound of Songs for a Blue Guitar but make it maybe a touch more light-hearted.

However, aside from those cuts, the only other song on this album I left truly enjoying is probably "Spinning", which is like this passionate, Elliott Smith-style indie folk tune with some fantastic string work. Maybe the most impassioned vocal performance on the entire album, too.

And sadly, after this, I found the quality of these songs to drop off pretty exponentially. For example, "Louisiana" feels like I'm listening to a slowed down Better Than Ezra song with these annoying, droning, nasally lead vocals that sound like a sworn of bees in the mix.

There's also "Bounce Boy", which isn't so much a full song as it is a weird transitional moment. It's kind of like what you would get if you took the stems and pieces of an indie folk tune and tried to remix it into a twerk anthem with repetitive chops and persistent claps.

"Far and Wide" I found to be a kind of shocking change of pace from everything else on the album. It's a really theatrical, spot-lit vocal number, which when I listen to it, I can't help but imagine a Jim Henson Muppet singing this song while floating down a lazy river or something like that. The vocals are barely hanging on to the melodies and the pitch, but in a way that seems like intentionally hokey and cartoonish, which, I mean, in some contexts that sort of thing does work, but it just seems like so far away in style from everything else on this record. Personally, I don't even think it's executed that well.

The song "Headlights" seems to pull a lot of influence from Elliott Smith once again, but it feels like an Elliott tune but if you stripped out anything from it that would dare to pull your heartstrings even a little bit.

"Is It Still You In There?" is another surprising change of pace because this track, honest to God, sounds like what you would get if you combined a mysterious film noir jazz soundtrack with the kids chorus from A Charlie Brown Christmas, which is an odd combination, an odder direction for Alex to go in stylistically, and maybe the oddest way that you could help end this album off. And again, another thing that maybe in some context with maybe a different person arranging and composing could work a lot better. But toward the back end of your DIY indie folk project, it seems so out of place.

The whole record finishes off with seemingly a live version of "Logan Hotel", which to my ears, sounds super derivative of a Counting Crows song or two.

But yeah, I'm just not really enjoying this Alex record. And even though I do think the production values and some of the songwriting efforts have most definitely improved since his early stuff, I'm still picking up, though, a lot of the same issues that I feel like have held me back from loving many of his projects up to this point, lack of vision, lack of follow-through, which is why I'm feeling a strong 4 to a light 5 on this album.

Anthony Fantano. Alex G. Forever.