Relationship problems. Post-graduation life choices. The troubles of early-20s life. They’re Millenials’ problems, sure, but weren’t they everyone’s at one point? Few people can detail these worries quite like Alex Lahey, a 24 year old Melburnian (that’s Melbourne, Australia) who’s EP B-Grade University is out now on Dead Oceans. Lahey’s fuzzed-out, catchy-as-hell indie rock is stacked with emotion, weighing the sound of youthful anxiety against cutting, sophisticated wordplay.
Alex Lahey originally released B-Grade University on her own label in summer 2016, shortly before playing iconic Australian festival Splendour in the Grass. Lead track, “Ivy League”, pretty much wrote itself: “I went and studied sax at uni for a few years and just fucking hated it” she told DIY magazine last November. Lahey dropped out to concentrate all her efforts on the songwriting that she cared most about. That cliffjump proved a great decision: ‘B-Grade University’ immediately went onto heavy rotation on TripleJ, with the single “You Don’t Think You Like People Like Me” earning a Best New Track tag on Pitchfork. Lahey closed 2016 being the most played artist on Triple J Unearthed, as well as being voted Best Female Artist at the Age Music Awards.
Even if your woes are not the same, Lahey’s themes demand you to sing along, close your eyes and punch your fist in the air. Underneath the millennial angst, there’s an aura of positivity, universality, good times and looking towards the future that we all need right now.