Jesse Rosenthal - "Ever Since You Left"

Seattle’s Jesse Rosenthal flexes his pop songwriting muscles on his latest single, “Ever Since You Left.” The track flows with a lively, bombastic energy that stems from a combination of over-the-top lyrics and Rosenthal’s own knowledge of 80s pop music tropes, which he seamlessly incorporates into the song’s instrumentation and structure. The big, shiny riff that arrives just before the three-minute mark and serves as the bridge to a series of more subdued ones really stands out as fitting into this mold, as it sounds like it was plucked right out of the credits of a John Hughes film. 

Rosenthal shared the following about the track via e-mail:

“Ever Since You Left” is probably the song on the record that best captures the bad joke the project is trying to make. At face value, it’s a pop song that draws on a theatrical energy while using tropes from commercial 80’s music. It’s a zombie of cliches in its instrumentation, form, and especially lyrically. Although all the drama of the song is sincere too. It’s exaggerated like a cartoon is exaggerated— or how somebody uses hyperbole when telling a story to make their audience feel as much as they felt in the moment. 

Stream the track below!

“Ever Since You Left” will appear on Rosenthal’s forthcoming album, The Killing Language, which is out on April 2nd. Keep up with Rosenthal by following him on Instagram.