(Sandy) Alex G

One Liner: DIY indie rocker with some more experimental weirdness on the new album
Wikipedia Genre: Indie rock, lo-fi, experimental pop 
Spotify Says Similar To: Adult Mom and Spencer Radcliffe
Home: Pennsylvania

Poster Position: 15
Slot: ?

Thoughts: Yeah, that is apparently the name that he goes by now, adding on the "(Sandy)" part to the front.  I remember reviewing his album (2014's DSU) a long time ago and liking it, but on further listens a few months ago I dropped it out of my saved music rotation.  The whole thing was a DIY, dorm-room-with-a-mac-book-and-a-guitar-and-synth vibe.  I was apparently alone in not being on board, as a bunch of publications named it as a top album of 2014.  And I liked it after a few listens, but the more the songs popped up in shuffling my saved albums playlist, the less I liked them.
Since that debut album, he's done a bunch more, 2015's Rules, 2015's Trick, 2015's Beach Music, and 2017's Rocket.  EDIT - I just found out that Trick and Rules were actually old albums that he put out on the internet-only in 2012 but then re-released once DSU was popular.  The new album is interesting.  Portions of it sound very much like they are entirely made up of songs that are soon to be chosen for a re-make or sequel to the soundtrack for Garden State (which is a kick ass soundtrack, BTW). Like Bright Eyes, Elliott Smith's corpse, Belle & Sebastian, and Iron and Wine decided to Netflix and chill.  But then other parts are more like Sleigh Bells took a child hostage and made him step on a sample machine to a beat.
The current most popular track is from that new album, called "Bobby," with 866k streams. By the way, for what its worth, the top 4 songs right now on Spotify are "Bobby," "Proud," "Mary," and "Sarah."  I feel like this is a message to me.  Bobby Brown used to beat up Whitney Houston, and Ike beat up Tina who sang "Proud Mary" in an awesome way, soooooo if your name is Sarah you had better watch the fuck out, because some dude is about to whip your ass if you sing anything around him.  Anyhoo, here is "Bobby."

Beautiful.  Although this is far afield from the original album's plain jane recording, this one is like he hired the Avett Brothers and Sarah Jarosz to back him up for a track of melancholy bluegrass.  I dig it.  But then some tracks on this album (like "Horse," and its future-shock-weirdness-instrumental sound) are not good at all.  "Brick" is very different from the rest of the album, with a hard ass beat and screaming vocals.  It is just so jarring, among the otherwise kind of lovely tracks, to get your ears punched in by a hard-edged redux of the beat for part of the Beastie's B-Boy Bouillabaisse and a fuzzed-out scream.  Here, check it.

I mean, where did that come from?  I like the folky, chill things on here.  I don't like much about the autotuned "Sportstar" thing.  Come to think of it, seems like this album is kind of schitzo, like he couldn't decide what he really wanted to do with the music on here.  Do I go soft and introspective?  Or do I freak out with scary sounds and beats?

Beach Music, Trick, and Rules, just kind of disappear as albums from my entire consciousness, despite giving them a few tries.  Just seems like most of the songs are short little bursts that fade before I even notice that they are there.  Literally, of the 16 tracks on Trick, only two break 3 minutes (and one of those two is 3:18).  Not caring much for those, even though I'm liking that newer album more.  But here is the most listened to one from that debut album, so you can hear how the original DIY stuff sounded.

Oh yeah, I remember that video.  Weird shit, man.  And another super short song at 1:40.  I guess that is kind of his thing.  I'm going to give an overall review of this guy that he has a couple of good songs, and he evokes a chill, kind of melancholy feeling in me when I listen to the good tunes, but overall it ain't for me.