With a large range of sounds and melodies that may seem nostalgic and unique, Alex Giannascoli, or Alex G, hits it out of the park with his new album “DSU.”
Alex G has been a prominent name in the music industry, especially in the indie rock genre, with his rough, unsteady, and angsty music. He currently has 9.3 million monthly listeners on Spotify. He has been described to be quite a mysterious person.
“DSU” is his fifth studio album, standing for Dream State University. He got the idea of this name by asking his sister, who was with him at the time when he was making the album, what he should name it; one of her many suggestions was Dream State. Giannascoli thought it was a stupid name and jokingly added University at the end of it as a play on State Universities. But he bailed out on that name at the last minute, until his sister already wrote down the letters “DSU” onto the album cover, so he had to stick with it since he really didn’t have a choice now, and it worked out better than he thought it would.
The album’s length is a total of 37 minutes and 32 seconds with 13 tracks, including two re-release bonus tracks, “Soaker” and “Waiting For You.”
The album varies and consists of elements of acoustic guitars, electric guitar, and a modicum of piano keys, varied with bass and drums. It’s impressive what Giannascoli can create with such sounds, making songs that can be happy and upbeat, to making depressing songs. Starting with the first track, “After Ur Gone,” a quite powerful tempo with a mix of the electric guitar and drums accompanied by quite sorrowful lyrics, some interpret the meaning of the song as being about the loss of a loved one that either passed away or had a fall out with, repeating “After you’re gone, how can we tell them you’re gone?” showing how the person struggles to process this information of losing someone they loved or were closed with.
Another track, being one of the most popular, “Harvey”, with a more innocent and upbeat tune, which fans speculate is about success and development, the song begins with “Success for my buddies, success for my friends, success is the only thing I understand” and it gradually goes into a more delicate tune on the love for a supposedly younger sibling. ‘Black Hair’ is the complete opposite; it’s more distressing with a sharper sound and disconsolate lyrics, “Black hair, it’s swimming in my head. Black hair, it’s bigger than death. Black hair, don’t leave me in the dirt. Black hair, I’ll show you what I’m worth.” The next song in the album is “Hollow”, which is one of the most significant songs out of the entire album, next to “Harvey” and “Boy”. ‘Hollow’ has a softer and mellifluous sound, and the mellow harmony of “Skipper.”
This album does not have a huge difference between any of Giannascoli’s other albums; listeners could point out the similarities between two songs from different albums that were made over the years by him. “Trick”, another album made by Giannascoli, could easily seem similar to “DSU” based on the music tone and noise.
Overall, “DSU” ranges from melancholic to more upbeat and warmer songs with uniquely strange and jangly tunes, and such a thing basically sums up Giannascolis’ entire discography. This album is also his fourth most popular album behind “Trick”, “Beach Music” and “Rocket” which are all also great albums.
One special thing about this album was his breakthrough, with Giannascoli gaining a wider audience due to being mentioned in popular magazines that cover music like Pitchfork and Rolling Stone. Alex G began his music career in 2010 when he was only 17, which goes to show how much his music and himself have grown over the years. People who like indie rock and “child-like” experimental-sounding music should definitely give “DSU” a listen.
