‘Mary’: The Alex G song that carved a crevice into Remi Wolf’s heart
Casual Alex G fans seem to be few and far between. With his inimitable blend of nostalgic indie rock, slightly altered vocals, and strange storytelling abilities, Giannascoli garnered a real cult following, turning Bandcamp self-releases into accidental Tiktok hits. But his success extends far beyond the millions of streams on ‘Treehouse’ into the hearts and record collections of music school kids and Rate Your Music users.
Alex G’s sound demands more than laid-back listening. His albums usher you into sonic worlds that are hard to escape from, not that you’d want to. Earlier offerings like Trick and Race are glistening entries into the lo-fi indie rock realm, fuzzy and warm but a little off-putting, too. More recent albums, like House of Sugar, push Giannascoli into new territory, into strange experimental moments and glitching soundscapes.
The one consistency in Alex G’s entire discography is enchanting songwriting, and it has left many listeners completely obsessed with his music. Some of those die-hard Alex G fans have gone on to include his influence in their own creations, and Remi Wolf is just one example. Wolf’s sound is a lot more pop-adjacent than Giannascoli’s, but she still found herself charmed by his songwriting while in music school.
When Wolf was attending university, studying music in California, she and her housemates fell into the classic student routine. “Pretty much what we would do all day was smoke weed, get drunk and jam for hours,” Wolf recalled during a conversation with The Line of Best Fit. It was during this time that Wolf fell in love with the stylings of Alex G, an artist who would earn a special place in her heart.
There was one song, in particular, that became a go-to for Wolf and her housemates’ collective cooking sessions: ‘Mary’, from his 2012 record, Trick. According to Wolf, they played and sang along to the track for “months on end.” It wasn’t the only track that they had on rotation, but it was the one that “specifically paved a little crevice into my heart.”
It’s easy to see why. ‘Mary’ is a stellar example of just why Alex G’s songwriting attracts such a cult following. Lyrically, it’s endearing and off-putting at the same time, longing to kiss the title character with her “big red eyes and big red lips,” her “big sharp teeth and big fat hips”. Although his words seem straightforward, they conceal something strange and sinister.
“Mary is the girl that leaves you to rot,” he sings. “She says I am real, and you are not.” Instrumentally, the track shows off Alex G’s talent for melodies that haunt and charm simultaneously, pairing gentle guitar strums with more menacing choices. It’s a modern indie rock masterpiece and one that would instantly endear itself to any university student studying music and smoking a whole lot of weed.
After discovering ‘Mary’, Wolf became a self-described “super-fan” of the indie artist. Alex G would become a formative influence on Wolf, as she referred to him as “a pioneer” and a “forefather” to her. Although the sound she would create for herself as Remi Wolf veered into more polished and upbeat territory, into bouncy bedroom-pop and straight-up pop, the influence of her forefather has persisted, and she has even covered ‘Mary’ herself.
