New Old Music - Opening up the Vault
New Music is always great. What’s even better is new old music. The songs from the vault. Songs artists have on the way back burner that didn’t make it on a current project, but they still want us to hear. There are songs inspired by the current times or there are songs written and inspired at a different place in time completely. With touring options stripped from so many artists, releasing music and live streams are all we have left. So especially now when an artist wants to release something old I say bring it! My two favorite artists, Old Dominion and Maren Morris, have done just that. They helped fill the void of new music, but since both recently released new albums instead of rushing their next projects they added new old songs to their most current albums.
Old Dominion announced on their weekly 'Shot with Old Dominion' videos that they were releasing three new old songs. I’m On It which was cut from their album Meat and Candy to make room for Song for Another Time. The studio version of Can’t Get You which was abandoned for the live version on the Happy Endings album. And a song called Goes Without Saying that was recorded for an independent EP before they even had a record. As always, even songs written in the beginning, Old Dominion never disappoints with the world play in their lyrics. Let’s dive in!
Keep tellin yourself that it’s over the only over I’ll be is over your shoulder
I’m On It written by Matthew Ramsey, Matt Jenkins, and Trevor Rosen tells the story of someone singing about knowing they are going to be stuck in someone else’s head even if the relationship is over or there’s distance and a jet between them. The imagery of this song is so strong and achingly relatable. My favorite metaphor is the idea of someone’s memory being stuck in your headphones, but at the same time the other person is using the headphones to drown out the memory; You know this memory ain’t gonna leave you alone/you can try to drown it out with your headphones/but it really doesn’t matter what comes on baby I'm on it. Someone’s memory can really be stuck in your head, just as much as the catchy groove of this song won’t leave your mind after you listen. A few years ago it was out on SoundCloud as an unreleased song under Matthew Ramsey’s account. So glad this one is released and available!
The next release from the vault was going to be recorded for an independent EP, before OD even had a record, it’s titled Goes Without Saying written by Andrew Dorff, Josh Osborne, and Matthew Ramsey. I am almost as obsessed with the hook of this song as I am with the beach setting lyric video! The track is set up so beautifully. You’ll always be a part of me/you’re a beat in the heart of me/it goes without saying. At first listen you think that the main line is going to be love goes without saying, as in even when you don’t say how beautiful someone is or how much you love someone doesn’t mean it's not true even if it doesn’t roll off the tongue often. The twist is in the line ‘sometimes love goes without saying goodbye’, as in love falls apart without realizing it. Broke without breaking implies there wasn’t just one thing that broke a relationship, the love just fades away without warning. Each verse is like listening to another piece of a heart break, but in such a sweet reminiscing way; those three words were easy once but now they won’t roll off my tongue.
The third song Can’t Get You was also written by Andrew, Josh, and Matthew, the same three who wrote Goes Without Saying. Can’t Get You does appear on the Happy Endings album, but the live version not the studio version. The new release is of the studio version, which they abandoned for the original project. These three songs all have the theme of nostalgia and thinking about what was or what we don’t have. This one specifically, a guy cannot get the girl he wants, he can get close, he can get a smile, but he can’t get her. This song is so high energy live, especially with the addition of the Matthew wiggle (the We Are Old Dominion super fans will know what I am referring to), so I can understand bypassing the studio version for the live one on the album. Either way it is great to have both now and imagine being front row again for the infamous Matthew wiggle during the bridge.
Maren Morris’ album Girl has been out over a year. As an ode to her most transformative year she took this forced time off to polish two older songs she wanted her fans to have ASAP! We are so grateful and lucky she did!
The first track Just For Now was a collaboration with the late Busbee and Maren’s current husband and father to their new son Hayes, Ryan Hurd. They wrote this song before Maren and Ryan were an official ‘’us”, they met through songwriting and then became a couple and a family afterwards. I love these lyrics! About a girl broken from her past, but someone new has brought the light back in her life and even if it's short lived it is still a love to cherish. You don’t have to be the answer to the question that’s gonna change my life/we got gold in the love that we found even if it's just for now. Sometimes love can be just that; just for the healing, just for the night, just for the distraction. Seems to almost be a prequel to her song Gold Love which Maren wrote, when she was officially an “us” with Ryan, for the album Girl this last year; if my diamonds lose their shine your gold love gets me through. Looks like that love with the gold in it wasn’t just for now after all!
Takes Two is another sexy track that actually fits very well with two other songs on the album: RSVP and Make Out with Me. Maren’s vocals have such a wide range, but when she brings out her sultry and R&B vibes fans definitely respond. A simple statement; It takes two to love like this, but the production and how the song is structured and flows brings out the sexiness implied in the words.
Maren also released an interview she did when she was reimagining her three songs Girl, The Middle, and The Bones. It is a great, eye opening interview on what she feels when she sings each song and what each one means to her. It is cool that we have two versions of these songs and to see how the production through a different lens can change or purely enhance the emotion of her songs.
That concludes diving back into the vault for these two artists. Thank you Old Dominion and Maren Morris for giving us this treat. I am now going back to having these five songs on rotation, because each one is so good. I really feel like I get more out of each one with every listen. Let me know if you feel the same or if another artist’s lyrics are really speaking to you these days! Until next time! ~ Rox
