Single of the Week: (Sandy) Alex G’s “Gretel”

By Rhea Thomas

My biggest regret of the last year remains not managing to snag a ticket to see (Sandy) Alex G when he played in Sydney at 2018’s Laneway Festival. Though, hearing from the people that did go about how he would sing almost every song through gritted teeth, I was left wondering: what exactly is he distilling in his music? Throughout his albums and singles, Alex Giannascoli packages small containments of his thoughts and soul in the twanginess of his guitar and sincerity of his lyrics. 

In his recent releases, he produces sonic sketches of his own mythology, characters and personas — this is no different in his latest album House of Sugar. The album returns the sticky folk sound (Sandy) Alex G is known for, tinged with a familiar dark industrial groove and grunge. Particularly, the single ‘Gretel’, a retelling of the classic Grimm fairytale. Through the chilling tale, Giannascoli’s lyrics reveal the darker self-indulgent tendencies of Gretel, allowing her brother to be eaten by the witch all the while longing for more candy.

Gretel’s chord progressions play hypnotically, entrancing listeners in a blanket of violin, guitar and pitch-shifted vocals. Though it’s in closer listening that the sinister message seems most prominent: “Good people gotta fight to exist” — here is when I feel bad for the Hansels of the world. Giannascoli effectively manages to disorientate the moral of the tale to communicate something with surprising self-reflexivity.

A message like this seems particularly relevant, almost political, to discuss; self-indulgence, guilt, restraint and everything in between. Upon reading into Giannascoli’s alternative retelling of the fairytale, it almost seems like a precautionary tale to consider as to when we cross the line of healthy self-care to selfishness or overindulgence — who pays the price?

The release of House of Sugar marks (Sandy) Alex G as a rising figure in songwriting and musicianship, probing ideas regarding gluttony and societal conditioning, while maintaining the lush folk hooks that make him so memorable. As per the trajectory narrated in charts and reviews over the past two years, he’s definitely one to keep your eyes on.