Alex G • DSU
OCT042 | Released June 17, 2014
Vinyl out of print / Listen
The general thematic content of DSU is what you'd expect of a 21-year-old university student: friendship, the tribulations of love and a super-sized helping of angst. It's remarkably honest in this sense, with Giannascoli playing fast and loose with his emotions, delivering a cavalier attitude towards self-censorship. This works to his advantage though – DSU is down-to-earth and easily relatable. He channels feelings we all experience at some point; or, like on “Harvey” showcases his knowledge for his hodgepodge interest – it's based on the cult film of the same name from the 1950s that inspired Donnie Darko.
This will be a debut look into the world of Alex G, though it's not really his first record. It's almost like anthology of his evolution during the BandCamp days – he told us recently in an interview that it took “two and half years,” and “in between writing and recording DSU [he] finished other songs and put them online.” That lengthy gestation period probably explains its occasional stylistic deviation.
DSU is carved up into palatable little nuggets of joy. Devouring the whole record multiple times in one sitting is far more likely than you'd expect – not that it'll be a problem in any way, shape or form. It's a fully-formed debut that demonstrates Giannascoli's talent for a variety of genres, pop bedrock and his own idiosyncratic experiments. As non-debuts go, they don't come much stronger.
-Laurence Day, Line of Best Fit