Alex Lahey: B-Grade University makes a case for the second take
Five songs become ten tracks in Alex Lahey's versions-heavy reunion album. The question is whether the second pass improves the grade.
BY JOLT Staff · JUL 17 2026 · 2 min readB-Grade University (Reunion Edition) is a record about versions. Released through Dead Oceans, it runs ten tracks and revisits five songs, giving 'Let's Go Out' three lives, 'You Don't Think You Like People Like Me' three lives, and 'Wes Anderson' two lives. Tegan and Sara appear on one version, triple j preserves another, and two songs are placed in a bathroom and a bedroom. The message is consistent: the song is not the final take, it is the thing that keeps changing.
The first pass runs short and impatient. 'Ivy League' closes in 2:28, 'Let's Go Out' in 3:10, 'L-L-L-Leave Me Alone' in 3:25. The alternates take more room. The Bathroom 'Wes Anderson' stretches to 4:44, the Tegan and Sara version runs 4:11, and the triple j take runs 4:04. That difference in length is not proof of quality, but it is proof of intent: the songs are being given space to settle.
The best versions use that space well. 'Wes Anderson (Bathroom Version)' has a setting, a place where a song goes to be smaller. 'Let's Go Out (Bedroom Version)' promises the song at night, unplugged and unbothered. The Tegan and Sara feature is the strongest structural idea: a song called 'You Don't Think You Like People Like Me' gains a second voice, and the complaint turns into a conversation. These are good arguments for the reunion format.
The flaw is volume. Tracks six through nine are all returns: the Tegan and Sara version, another 'Let's Go Out,' the Bathroom 'Wes Anderson,' and the Bedroom 'Let's Go Out.' On a thirty-seven-minute record, that is a logjam. Three versions of 'Let's Go Out' is a surplus, and the sequencing makes the back half feel like a storage room instead of a stage. The record argues that versions matter; it does not always prove that every version needed saving.
The reunion concept asks whether a B-grade song can graduate on a second pass. Sometimes yes. The Tegan and Sara pairing and the Bathroom version make the case. But by the end, the record has repeated itself enough to feel like detention, not reunion. That is the honest grade: a good idea, over-enrolled.
