Headlights is the latest record from Alex Giannascoli, better known as Alex G, the singer-songwriter whose surreal storytelling has been converting casual listeners into obsessives for more than a decade and a half. On these twelve new songs, Alex G revisits the reality-bending terrain that has made him both a beloved artist and an unassuming cultural figure.

Like the songwriting giants Alex is sometimes cited as being in conversation with—Neil Young, Elliott Smith, Lucinda Williams—Alex’s take on Americana is at turns direct and impressionistic, suffused with mystery and melancholy. That heritage is audible all over Headlights, a gorgeous collection of absurd twists and mundane milestones narrated by one of the twenty-first century’s most celebrated and influential rock & roll architects.

It doesn’t feel hyperbolic to recognize that his creative eccentricity has helped steer the trajectory of post-2010s indie and alternative music, and Headlights is a good reminder that the best way to understand his impact is by listening to his songs. The result is his tenth full-length album, a meaningful milepost on the winding and remarkable path that Alex has been forging.