''House of Sugar'' is the eighth studio album by American musician

Alex G Alexander Giannascoli (born February 3, 1993), better known by his stage names Alex G or, formerly, (Sandy) Alex G, is an American musician, producer, and singer-songwriter. He started his career with DIY self-releases on Bandcamp and began build ...

, released on September 13, 2019, through

Domino Recording Company Domino Recording Company or simply Domino is a British independent record label based in London. There is also a wing of the label based in Brooklyn, New York that handles releases in the United States, as well as a German division called Dom ...

. The album's title is a reference to both the

SugarHouse Casino Rivers Casino Philadelphia, formerly SugarHouse Casino, is a casino entertainment development along the Delaware River in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's Fishtown neighborhood, one of five stand-alone casinos awarded a gaming license on December 20 ...

in Philadelphia and the gingerbread house from "

Hansel and Gretel "Hansel and Gretel" (; german: Hänsel und Gretel ) is a German fairy tale collected by the German Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in ''Grimm's Fairy Tales'' (KHM 15). It is also known as Little Step Brother and Little Step Sister. Hansel ...

Recording

''House of Sugar'' was recorded in New York City and Alex's home in Philadelphia, except for "SugarHouse (Live)" which was recorded at Duck Room at

Blueberry Hill "Blueberry Hill" is a popular American song published in 1940, best remembered for its 1950s rock and roll version by Fats Domino. The music was written by Vincent Rose, the lyrics by Larry Stock and Al Lewis. It was recorded six times in 1940 ...

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

on November 6, 2018. Drums for "Walk Away", "Hope", "Taking" and "Crime" were recorded at PUDH II. Drums for "Near" were recorded at The Acchione's in Philadelphia.

Release

Alex G debuted on ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

''s Emerging Artists chart following release of ''House of Sugar''. The album appeared on a number of ''Billboard'' charts, including reaching the number 5 spot on the

Heatseekers Albums Top Heatseekers are "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new an ...

chart as well as number 3 on Vinyl Albums, number 20 on Rock Album Sales and number 43 on

Top Album Sales Top Album Sales is a music chart published by ''Billboard'' magazine starting in December 2014. It is a weekly chart documenting the best-selling albums on a weekly basis in the United States. Up until December 2014, this had been documented by th ...

with 5,000 equivalent album units earned.

Critical reception

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, ''House of Sugar'' received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 86, based on 16 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Hannah Flint of '' Q'' praised the album's musical variation, commenting, "At first, ''House of Sugar'' can make you feel like you accidentally left the shuffle button on but, a few listens in, it's those twists and turns that make it such a satisfying listen."

Accolades

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''House of Sugar''. * Alexander Giannascoli – songwriting, production, engineering * Samuel Acchione – guitar , electric guitar , vocals * Colin Acchione – bass * John Heywood – bass * Tom Kelly – drums * David Allen Scoli – saxophone * Molly Germer – violin , vocals * Emily Yacina – vocals * Rachel Giannascoli – vocals , album art * Jacob Portrait – mixing, engineering

rums Rum is a liquor made by fermenting and then distilling sugarcane molasses or sugarcane juice. The distillate, a clear liquid, is usually aged in oak barrels. Rum is produced in nearly every sugar-producing region of the world, such as the Phili ...

* Harrison Fore – engineering *

Heba Kadry Heba Kadry is an Egyptian mastering engineer who currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. She is best known for her work with Bjork, Beach House, Slowdive, The Mars Volta, Neon Indian, Wooden Shjips, Lightning Bolt, White Hills, Alex G, Future ...

– mastering * Chris Bellman – lacquer cut * David Allen Scoli – insert drawing

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2019 albums Alex G albums Domino Recording Company albums