Artist: Alex G Album: Headlights Label: RCA Records Link: www.sandyalexg.com Style: Pop, Folk, Alternative & Indie
Alex Giannascoli was introduced to the guitar at the age of eleven by his older brother. At the same time, he began composing and recording himself in his bedroom. In high school, he played in several bands in his hometown of Havertown, Pennsylvania, which allowed him to explore different musical styles. Between 2010 and 2012, the young man released his work independently on Bandcamp, which earned him a strong online following and led to him signing with various labels, including Domino, before signing with RCA. He cites Neil Young and Elliott Smith as his inspirations, and the lo-fi sound of his early work also brings his music closer to that of the band Pavement.
Still centered around his guitar, his compositions oscillate between acoustic folk reminiscent of Bonnie Prince Billy and a much more lush and electric pop. Strings and backing vocals, featuring the singer’s partner, add an extra dimension to a few tracks without sounding too conventional. Although Headlights is a departure from his early online recordings, he has managed to retain the indie charm that made him such an authentic artist. Fans will not be disappointed by this album, which is also likely to appeal to a new audience.
Long reluctant to record in a studio rather than at home, for fear of losing total control of his music in the face of technology he doesn’t fully master, Alex G took the plunge for his previous album and repeats the experience with Headlights. To do so, he once again placed his trust in Jacob Portrait, and the result is clearly convincing. The Lo-Fi spirit is preserved, with a homemade feel still present, but with a much cleaner and more precise sound that is better suited to listening on a high-quality system, allowing you to appreciate the intertwining of the melodic lines and the timbres of the instruments.
Artist: Swans Album: Birthing Label: Mute Link: https://mute.com/artists/swans/ Style: Rock, Alternative & Indie
A band that has undergone many iterations, with regular breaks and changes in line-up, Swans remains led by guitarist and singer Michael Gira. Initially close to Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth, the band has changed style while retaining a heavy and dark foundation. Far from being a softie, the singer even regularly displayed violence towards his concert audiences in the early years, and despite a significant aura within the indie rock community, the band’s commercial success remained limited, to the point of causing problems with the MCA label and pushing the artists to develop a business model that financed the recording of studio albums through the sale of live records or other projects.
Now firmly established in a slow-tempo industrial sound, the Swans of 2025 plunge us into twilight, almost post-apocalyptic atmospheres in which there is little room for proto-melodies. On long tracks, which bring the album to almost two hours in length, Michael Gira chants morbid and violent lyrics, somewhere between screams and incantations, against a backdrop of distorted and saturated guitars, spread out over a carpet of percussion that seems to come from distant horizons. Despite everything, the original high standards that have always dominated the band’s destiny are still present in this dark new opus.
Even if the atmospheres are marked and heavy, they are not the result of an impenetrable amalgam. The elements that make them up remain clearly legible. First and foremost, the vocals reveal all their intonations and are sometimes accompanied by backing vocals. The guitar demonstrates a beautiful variety of tones, with a few acoustic parts always inserted into a light maelstrom of sounds. Finally, the percussion plays a central role in the sense of mass that emerges when listening to Birthing.
Artist: Matt Berninger Album: Get Sunk Label: Concord Records Link: www.concordrecords.com Style: Pop, Alternative & Indie
Trained as a graphic designer, he also paints and sculpts, but is best known as the singer and lyricist of The National, a band formed in the late 1990s. When Matt Berninger arrived in New York with Scott Devendorf, they had already been friends for several years, but their first band had not been successful. Critics took notice of them as soon as they released their first album with their new line-up, and since their second album in 2003, their fame has continued to grow. This hasn’t stopped the band’s frontman from wanting to produce solo music.
As Matt Berninger is the voice and soul of The National, his second solo album is inevitably reminiscent of the band. We find the same nonchalant, natural class in the phrasing and melodies, which, without seeming to, become catchy and haunting. While the songs’ themes turn to more intimate considerations, openly referring to his period of doubt and artistic decline, this is only to better highlight the beauty of the light that comes after melancholy. In this sense, Get Sunk is an album made to gently accompany us when we want to return to the world.
For the sound engineering and production, the singer with the deep baritone voice has once again placed his trust in Sean O’Brien, who played the same role on The National’s albums. It’s a winning choice, because while the record won’t confuse the band’s fans, it has a lighter side, even though the songs are still extremely polished, with an immediacy that sets them apart. The warm voice glides over the guitars and synthesizer, a saxophone nestles in the gaps, all carried by a haunting rhythm. All you have to do is let yourself be taken by the hand.
Artist: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Album: Phantom Island Label: KGLW Link: kinggizzardandthelizardwizard.com Style: Pop/Rock, Alternative & Indie
This Australian band started out in 2010 and released their first album in 2012. Since then, they have produced a discography whose profusion is matched only by its eclecticism. Between studio albums, concerts and compilations, they now have more than fifty LPs to their name. While maintaining an eye on progressive and psychedelic music, the artists move from jazz to rock, electro to heavy metal, folk to soul, all with great artistic success. This variation in styles, while not necessarily comfortable for the listener, makes them one of the most interesting bands of recent years.
Illustrated with a cover reminiscent of the work of M. C. Escher, Phantom Island is their first real foray into symphonic music. The tracks on this album have been rearranged by Chad Kelly, conductor and friend of Stu Mackenzie, the band’s leader. The first two tracks follow in the footsteps of the previous album with a profusion of sound, a touch of psychedelia and almost funk-like brass reminiscent of Frank Zappa. After a ballad with bucolic accents, the rest of the album moves towards pop-rock and even folk, strongly tinged with a psychedelia that cannot deny its kinship with 1970s pop culture.
The combo had already accustomed us to their generous interweaving of instrumental lines. For this album, they have taken it a step further by adding a string and wind section. Still analog in essence, a dense sound is combined with additional resonances compared to the rest of the band’s output. However, despite fewer improvisational compositions, regular listeners won’t be thrown off, as the album retains the creative momentum characteristic of its artists. Acoustic instruments are rarely overshadowed by electric ones, and the lead vocals never take precedence over the accompaniment.
Artist : Jenny Hval Album : Iris Silver Mist Label : 4AD Link : https://jennyhval.com/ Style: Pop, Alternative & Indie
The Norwegian Jenny Hval takes us into a world of delicate, luminous light, with a sophisticated pop style and many strings to her bow. Her new album Iris Silver Mist is filled with layers of sound as light as perfume.
While still a teenager, she played lead vocals in a gothic metal band and studied writing in Melbourne, which led her first to write newspaper articles, then to publish short stories and novels. Back in Norway, she produced her own music, initially under the name Rockettothesky, then under her own name. At the same time, she was involved in the Lost Girl project. In her albums, the theme of sensory memory is often evoked and used to remind listeners of sensations already experienced.
On Iris Silver Mist (deliberately named after a perfume), Jenny Hval tells us about the emotions that her sense of smell can bring back when she detects familiar scents. To achieve this, she employs an airy pop style, full of weightless atmospheres, sometimes verging on the ambient, but always with a charming underpinning. With her seductive, high-pitched vocals and her carefully crafted sonic entanglements, she gives us a sense of height to better apprehend her rich, personal musical landscape, all in a calm rhythm where each element has time to blossom.
In addition to the instruments traditionally found in pop and folk music, there are soft electronica sounds, with a few hints of field recordings that are even more appreciable when listened to through headphones. These components are not scattered, and the sensation is not one of collage or superimposition, but rather of evolution, as in the olfactory notes of a perfume that we detect more and more. The rhythm remains gentle, while the caressing layers of sound draw you into this weightless world.
