The polish doesn’t constrict or corrupt Headlights; all the pieces that may seem as an indulgence solely expands the vary of an artist who’s principally a style unto himself at this level. “Afterlife” isn’t Alex G making an attempt to satisfy the mandolin by itself phrases; it’s a mandolin studying learn how to sound like a bluegrass model of Seaside Music. And if it does find yourself taking part in alongside Goo Goo Dolls or Sheryl Crow at a CVS, “June Guitar” honors that lineage of subtly devastating songs it’s also possible to use to EQ your headphones.
In sound and spirit, Headlights is likely to be described as present-day “dad rock.” Alex G is taking part in with new toys that make data sound each extra natural and costly—banjo, accordion, mandolin, precise string sections. This places Headlights proper the place it ought to be, in dialog with major-label debuts from the likes of R.E.M., Elliott Smith, Dying Cab for Cutie, and Modest Mouse; classics in their very own proper and gateways to a few of the most influential indie rock of the earlier decade. Nonetheless, the constancy of Headlights is nowhere close to as startling because the readability of objective. On the climax of God Save the Animals, Alex G sang about youngsters and religion as probably the most thrilling issues that the long run may maintain. There was no authorial license on “Miracles,” no purpose to imagine “the narrator” was speaking: Alex G has a two-year-old son together with his accomplice Molly Germer, one of many few outdoors contributors to Headlights.
Headlights doesn’t handle fatherhood straight, however moderately the considerations that emerge when fatherhood cleaves your life into “earlier than” and “after.” Whereas Alex G is barely into his 30s, a curious faculty freshman embarking on their Alex G part would have been 5 when Trick dropped. The primary phrases on Headlights are “finish of my rope, I swung so freely,” a bittersweet, ambivalent nostalgia intensified a minute later by the refrain of “June Guitar”: “Love ain’t for the younger anyhow/One thing that you just be taught from fallin’ down.” It’s a intelligent line, however extra importantly, it’s sung like earned knowledge. Hopefully, that is the album that earns Alex G his due as a virtuosic voice actor, whose small tweaks in inflection launch emotional tides (witness how the drawing out of “porno magazines” on “Afterlife” embodies each youthful abandon and future embarrassment).
With few exceptions, Headlights maintains a burnished silver tone, the sound of reality rising after a darkish night time of the soul. Alex G ruminates on the boundaries between the religious and materials, the character of real love and, repeatedly, cash. Right here the dominant theme of Headlights performs out as previous beliefs and new realities come straight into battle. “Hoping I could make it by to April/On no matter’s left of all this label money,” he sighs on “Actual Factor,” a thematic centerpiece coming to phrases with the fleeting nature of authenticity. With its echoing baritone guitars and brushed drums, the title ballad appears destined to reside out on a lonesome freeway as he whispers, “Let the cash pave my manner.” Quickly, an overdriven synth jolts the association to consideration just like the horn of an oncoming semi.
The recurring themes of displacement, of America’s nice stretches of highways and ghost cities, underscores the supposition that that is certainly Alex G at his most private; it’s a street album from an indie rock A-lister who has extra causes than ever to really feel homesick. Headlights finds its vacation spot with the raucous, rootsy rave-up “Logan Resort (Reside).” After embodying Philly indie rock for many of the previous 15 years, Alex G sounds snug becoming into the place it stands proper now—even when he and his band are recording in an upscale lodge room with a grand piano. Generally you hear the cash that went into Headlights, however you at all times hear the love even louder.
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