My personal experience with Alex G's album "Dsu"

I had heard of Alex G over the years, but always brushed him off as some artist that boring people listened to. Then one day, I heard the song “Harvey”, while on the train, and something about it just stuck with me. I listened to the song a few times before finally trying the full album on that same train ride. Everything about it shocked me. I never really liked this kind of music, and I was aware that it was a kind of “sad” album, but my life was going pretty okay, so I thought that I may as well try this genre that was

so new to me. Two weeks after I started listening to the album, I had an experience that left me devastated. Two days after that experience, I was on a very long public transport ride, so I decided to put the album on again. This time, I felt so connected to this album, because everything about it felt like it was speaking to me. I love every song on this album, but I am choosing to write about the four that I feel speak to me the most.

Photo taken by Anna Hanks

After Ur Gone

After Ur Gone. It is just such an incredibly “feeling” song, with amazing soft vocals that I feel speak for me in a way. A cool thing about this song is it has literally four lines that repeat over and over, which I noticed is similar to a lot of songs in this album. This song really got to me, because I felt so incredibly

miserable during the time that I really got into Dsu, and I thought life just wouldn’t get better. I really connected to the lyrics specifically though, because I was thinking the exact same thing that he was singing. This song was one of four in the album that I felt most connected to. Every time I listen to this song, I feel unnaturally emotional, which I don’t know how to feel about. It is such a beautiful experience.

Harvey

Harvey. A short and deeply upsetting song. It goes for a minute and thirty-nine seconds, which is just such a short amount of time for such a heart-wrenching song. When I first started listening to this song, I was annoyed by how short it was, because I wanted more of it. Now I feel it’s perfect, and the shortness of it is a reminder to me that beautiful things often end quicker than you want them to, and unlike“Harvey”, you can’t just click replay and do it all again.

Axesteele

Axesteele. The scream at the start is such an interesting artistic choice, as it really cuts you after the soft ending of the previous song, “Skipper”. My favourite thing about Axesteele is the panic chord that occurs throughout the song. It feels like such an emotional contrast from the rest of the instrumental and Alex’s vocals. I’m not really sure what this song is about, since I mainly think about that instrumental contrast. It’s the thing that most connects to me, as it feels like it doesn’t fit within the rest of the song, which kind of mirrors how I felt and still feel during this time. It just speaks to me. I do think life will get better, it’s just

hard to imagine it. People think they know what they’re talking about when they comment on other people’s experiences, when they honestly just don’t. Even if they had the same experience in the past, it’s hard to understand how that person feels in the moment. That’s what I think about during Axesteele.

Sorry

Sorry. Whenever I listen to this song, I think about the past, with little thought for the future. To me, it speaks about suicide, and how sometimes, it really does feel like the cure for the gut-wrenching sadness of love and loss. Suicide is incomprehensible from the perspective of a mind that thinks of the future optimistically, yet from the perspective of a mind that can’t come to terms with the past, it does seem like a way out from constant suffering. However, suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem, and is really not an option. No matter how sad you feel, there are people there for you, and life will get better.

Dsu

Dsu. Such an emotional album from an artist who I believed was only cool to losers. I really think this album is not for everyone, but those who enjoy it should listen to it more often. It is one of the best albums that I have ever listened to, and it is probably the most connected piece of music that I have ever really felt in my soul.

Thanks for reading.