Alex G sounds like he might be a hard-house DJ from Preston, but in fact he’s a Philadelphia-based bedroom musician who has been championed as “the internet’s best secret songwriter” after a string of “DIY” releases on Bandcamp. 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. Its opening track, Bug, recalls the dainty chime of Smashing Pumpkins’ Today, while lustrous instrumental Walk is a sweet homage to shoegaze. There are eccentric moments, too, such as In Love, on which he adopts a wibbly drawl like an old man lamenting love on a park bench duetting with a sad saxophone. It’s his acoustic guitar-led ditties that forge a real connection, though, their frail vocals and melancholic thrum eerily similar to Elliott Smith. Familiar, yet impossibly charming.
