Alex G: Headlights [Album Review]

Alex G
Headlights
RCA Records [2025]

“Alex G shines brighter than ever on a major-label debut that stays weird, tender, and unmistakably his.”

Album Overview: Alex Giannascoli—better known as Alex G—has always played by his own rules. Starting out in the early 2010s with home-recorded gems on Bandcamp, he built a cult following through lo-fi mystique, warped storytelling, and Philly indie cred. Over nine shape-shifting records—including DSU, Rocket, and God Save the Animals—Alex blurred lines between folk, rock, and the delightfully weird. With Headlights, his tenth album and first on a major label, he doesn’t reinvent himself—he refines. The album explores time, identity, and how personal growth butts up against outside pressures. It’s contemplative but not heavy-handed, full of emotional ambiguity shaped into something beautiful, strange, and quietly devastating.

Musical Style: Headlights balances Alex G’s rustic roots with clean-lined production. Think Americana guitars riding shotgun with eerie synths, banjo sharing space with warped samples. The songs stretch between soft rock, psych-pop, and bedroom indie, but they always land in a zone that’s unmistakably his. Tracks like “Spinning” and “Afterlife” shimmer and shift—grounded yet slightly haunted. The blend feels intuitive, a natural evolution rather than a genre-jump.

Evolution of Sound: Compared to early records like Trick or Beach Music, this is widescreen Alex G. The bedroom murk is traded for clarity, but the strange little ghosts still linger in the corners. His vocals are more up front, his arrangements more expansive—piano, strings, and banjo all get their due without overwhelming the core melodies. The lo-fi heart remains, just with a better signal and more sunlight coming through the windows.

Artists with Similar Fire: If Elliott Smith’s melodies, Sufjan Stevens’ experimentalism, and the spectral warmth of Plans-era Death Cab had a jam session, you’d land somewhere close. There’s also a kinship with The Microphones, Sparklehorse, and newer acts like Hovvdy or Florist—artists who know how to sound fragile without falling apart.

Pivotal Tracks: “Afterlife” anchors the record with its mix of homespun instrumentation and existential haze. Opener “June Guitar” sets the mood with quiet resolve, while “Real Thing” questions whether authenticity is even possible anymore. “Beam Me Up” leans into theatrical weirdness without losing heart. “Is It Still You in There?” channels a kind of childlike melancholy, and closer “Logan Hotel (Live)” brings us full circle—just Alex, a grand piano, and ghosts from an earlier era.

Lyrical Strength: Alex G has always favored implication over explanation, and Headlights sharpens that skill. His lyrics blur the line between memory and invention, confession and character sketch. But there’s a shared thread—searching. For self, meaning, connection. His phrasing turns mundane scenes into quiet epiphanies, and surreal images into relatable truths. You feel what he’s saying, even when you’re not sure exactly what he means.

Final Groove: Headlights doesn’t chase big moments—it builds them out of the quiet stuff: subtle turns of phrase, half-heard echoes, shifts in mood that linger long after the final note. It’s the sound of an artist growing up without letting go of the weird, wonderful core that made him compelling in the first place. For longtime fans, it’s a graceful evolution. For newcomers, it’s a perfect starting point. Wherever Alex G goes next, it’s safe to say we’ll be following the beam.

ALEX G REVIEW HISTORY
God Save The Animals (2022) / House Of Sugar (2019) / Rocket (2017)

ALEX G LINKS
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp | RCA Records