Review Summary: While there are promising signs in her songwriting and production abilities, Alex G's self-titled debut LP is mainly consumed in childish, downright amateurish lyrics and sounds more intended for toddlers rather than the teenage/young adult audience.
Pop has seen too much of this, these artists who are trying to appeal to older audiences while still trying to catch the attention of the teenagers and tweens of the younger generation. A mixture of pop and adult contemporary to give the music a bit of a “mature, serious” factor into it. It's been done before, if it isn't Colbie Caillat who's done it, it's Vanessa Carlton, Andy Grammer, and even Bonnie McKee. Not much success has come from either of these artists who have embarked on this path as they've nailed in one hit and that's all they wrote: with only a limited few exceptions in Ingrid Michaelson, Lana Del Rey, and even Lorde who haven't just excelled in the art of this particular pop form, but have really mastered it. Another one has decided to try out this route, with a little bit of a twist: incorporating some elements of country in the pop material. That's what 21-year old female pop artist Alex G (not in relation to the indie male artist), who's collaborated with other players in the pop industry such as Fifth Harmony and been considered an up and rising pop artist, has decided to do with her self-titled debut LP. The only thing is that there's one major issue here: it doesn't at all sound like an LP made for both audiences, young and old. In fact it acts and sounds more like a children's Disney album with playful medleys rather than a “mature” pop/contemporary LP. It literally fails to accomplish the objective that it was supposed to achieve.
This self-titled LP doesn't really offer much in terms of musical style or in variety. It's actually pretty reminiscent of another pop/contemporary LP, Lea Michele's “Louder” when you look at the limited variety with it's set of slow ballads, energetic up-beat tracks, and an exception of a EDM-pop anthem to go along with it. Really the only difference, which honestly isn't really much but you can call it that, is the additional elements of country that are incorporated into the music. It's pretty prominent in tracks such as “Love The Way You Miss Me”, and others like “Pretend You're A Real Man”, which along with the rest of the LP were all written by the female artist herself. While it's nice to see some different, distinctive musical twists in this LP: it's awfully plagued by mediocre, almost downright childish lyrics and even with the elements of country infused into the material: it doesn't overlook the fact that all of it essentially is generic pop, adult contemporary music. What's even more baffling is that some of these tracks don't even sound like regular contemporary material, yet it's being marketed as it is. An absolute prime example of that is in the undoubtedly cheerful “#LittleMissPerfect”, which just the title of the track alone is enough for anyone to be fearful to listen to it. It's sounds like one of those theme songs for some Nick Jr. or Disney show for toddlers, expect the lyrics that were directed towards the teenage audience with it's wacky social media references involving the ever-generic relationship subject. It's not that pretty, and it's unfortunately just one of many, and I mean many tracks in the LP that have serious flaws both lyrically and musically-speaking. Other tracks like “Love The Way You Miss Me” and “Say What You Drink” offer up similar issues. This certainly isn't pop material that'll break out or make a dent on today's pop charts.
Fortunately, Alex G's self-titled LP isn't entirely bad and when it wasn't: it actually showed pretty promising signs of her ability to compose and create enjoyable material. An obvious highlight of that is in the up-beat ballad “Bones”, which delivers a haunting yet hopeful atmosphere with a beautiful string section and uplifting piano. “Bones” also puts out undoubtedly the best lyrics in the LP, which is over trying to hold onto a relationship but it's deteriorating. It accomplishes what the rest of the LP wasn't able to demonstrate: appealing to the masses of both young and old which in the music style she has embarked on is supposed to achieve. It didn't sound nor feel like some children's song: it sounded like age-appropriate, exceptional pop music. Other highlights feature a duo of ballads with “Warning Signs” and “Proof”, along with the EDM-pop track “Butterflies”. There's no doubt that Alex G has the potential to break out, because there is: it's just how she utilized her songwriting abilities which resulted in more misses than hits. It just didn't entirely feel like an LP that was meant for the audiences that she attempted to target, and that's why Alex G's debut LP is a bit of a disappointment. If she can clean up the numerous songwriting and production issues and direct her style to the audiences she wants to target, there's no doubt that she has the ability to be up there with the rest of the players in the pop industry.
