“God Save the Animals” is the 10th album produced by the indie rock artist, Alex G. Released on Sept. 23, the album has already received glowing reviews.

My expectations for the album were high. Alex G was an artist I had listened to a lot in the past, especially his more popular albums like “Trick” and “Treehouse.” His most streamed song on Spotify, “Treehouse,” has grossed almost 40 million streams since its release in 2011.

The album opens with a guitar intro to the song, “After All”. The introduction is grunge with an autotuned, high pitched voice singing the repeating lyrics. Although they were made to be repetitive in a stylistic way, after a while the lyrics almost became annoying and hard to listen to. This choice proved to be a common theme throughout the album.

The second song of the album, “Runner”, was an improvement from the disappointing opener. The high pitched voice filter was gone, and the genre shifted to what’s more of a classic Alex G song: darker acoustics and cryptic vocals. However, as I mentioned before, the lyrics became repetitive and almost monotonous by the end. 

“Mission” is the third song of the album. The depressing, minor key combined with the constant repetitive lyrics made it synonymous with a sad coffee shop song that was just boring to listen to. However, it was saved by the outro.

Several more of the songs on the album were disappointing, including “Cross the Sea,” “No Bitterness,” “Blessing” and “Immunity”. They all sounded the same, with an autotuned, Justin Bieber-esque voice and creepy, techno background music. “Immunity” was the worst song on the album by far. I found it to be cliche and quite boring to listen to. This was due to the repetitive lyrics and background track, as well as the (again) autotuned vocals.

A few of the songs felt solely transitional to get to the next track. One example that stood out to me was the song “S.D.O.S.”. There were nearly no lyrics, and the steampunk background sound effects were unsettling and continued for the song’s duration of nearly three minutes. 

Some of the highlights of “God Save the Animals” were the songs “Ain’t it Easy,” “Early Morning Waiting,” and “Headroom Piano.” These were the most unique songs of the album and I enjoyed that they strayed away from the techno sound of the other songs.

“Early Morning Waiting” scored the highest for me. The combination of instruments including guitar, piano, and violin during the bridge made it stand out as one of the most impressive songs on the album. It was nostalgic, upbeat, and sounded more like Alex G’s past productions. 

The closing songs of the album, “Miracles” and “Forgive” were fairly average. However, of the two, “Forgive” scored slightly lower. I enjoyed the electric guitar sound at parts, but as an ending track of an album, it was anticlimactic. 

Although I have really enjoyed the past work of Alex G, this album was very underwhelming. Many of the songs sounded very similar and there were few songs I would want to listen to again. Nevertheless, one high point of the album was the unique outros that were the highlight of nearly every song. If you enjoy listening to grunge, steampunk music that is different from Alex G’s past albums, “God Save the Animals” may be for you. 

Overall, I would give “God Save the Animals” by Alex G a C-.