Maggie Rogers – Don’t Forget Me

Don’t Forget Me is Maggie’s third proper album (she has had several EPs and demo compilations). Each album is a step forward, and this is her best. Her debut, 2019’s Heard It in a Past Life, had great singles but was not a cohesive album. It fused a folkie singer-songwriter groove with EDM in a natural way. Her second, Surrender (2022), felt like an album; it was a cohesive whole album. Surrender sounded more mature and self-assured, it had an 80s New Wave rock vibe. On Don’t Forget Me, Rogers has found the Maggie Rogers sound: a soft rock guitar-forward production and an updated version of a 70s singer-songwriter vibe. There is a quiet confidence in Rogers; she sounds comfortable as a pop star – or, as she says in a recent profile in Vogue regarding Don’t Forget Me:

“This is what I sound like when I’m just breathing.”

“There are so many different memories woven into the tapestry of this record, from across the span of my 20s. I’m turning 30 at the end of April. This record does feel in many ways like this really woven memory blanket of this long span of my life.”

Vogue 4/12/24

Per the pre-release hype, the songs poured out of her, with the help of co-writer Ian Fitchuk in a week. This kind of explosion of creativity was new to Rogers, as was the collaboration with Fitchuk.

“Rogers wrote most of the record with the producer Ian Fitchuk. They met in Los Angeles in 2019, when Fitchuk was there for the Grammy Awards. (He was a co-writer and co-producer on Kacey Musgraves’s “Golden Hour,” which won both Album of the Year and Best Country Album.)”

From The New Yorker published in the print edition of the April 15, 2024, issue, with the headline “The Modern Pulpit.”

The music on the album is generally upbeat, which is an intriguing contradiction to the mostly pensive lyrics. The lyrics of the bouncy opening track, “It Was Coming All Along,” are melancholy: Mom is getting ready to sell the family home, the narrator is approaching thirty, and feeling the weight of adulthood when the heady days of her early twenties don’t seem that far away. But it is not chronic: “…a honey shade of blue…But I know it won’t last for long.”

The confidence I hear in the album is highlighted in “Drunk,” where the narrator says:

“I’m drunk, not drinkin’
Lost in wishful thinkin’
‘Round and ’round and ’round and ’round and ’round it goes
I can hear them whisperin’
Call, but I’m not listenin'”

On her last tour, Rogers would introduce “So Sick of Dreaming” as “a story that my friend told me about someone being sorta shitty.” The narrator tells the story of a loser boyfriend and how the narrator is tired of dealing with this situation and dreaming they will somehow get better. She is ready to move on.

In the context of a rock song, “The Kill” tells the story of lovers who are not on the same page. Ultimately, the couple “were just wasting time.”

“If Now Was Then” is a beautiful song about regret and “what if?” The conclusion is that no matter what, you can’t fix the past.

“But if now was then, I would get out of my head
I would touch your chest, I would break the bed
I would say the things that I never said
Oh, the things I’d do, oh, if now was then
But you can’t take it back
But you can’t take it back“

“I Still Do” is a piano ballad in Carole King’s style. Rogers even has some King vocal mannerisms. Despite losing a failed relationship, it was worth it – no regrets.

“‘Cause love is not a debt you pay
It’s not something you can give away
Love is not the final straw
But it’s always a reason to risk it all”

“On & On & On” is the most impressive vocal performance on the album. Lyrically, the narrator warns their ex-lover to move on: “Yeah, you better run.”

The narrator of “Never Going Home” is conflicted; they have fond memories of early in the relationship, but know the spark can’t be reignited: “…you kept me waiting…now I’m never, ever going home.”

“All the Same” is a piano and acoustic guitar ballad with a heartbreaking sound and lyrics to match:

“And still you wish for one more kiss
A moment’s bliss from a lover you’ve always known
Ooh, so it goes”

Maggie sticks the landing with the final and titular track, “Don’t Forget Me.” When this teaser single came out in early February, I was stoked that Don’t Forget Me would be a good album, and now, hearing it, Maggie has delivered. The song has a great musical hook and is the best song on the album. Like many of the songs on the album, it has a lot of conflicted emotions: disappointment she has not found “the one” offset by an admission that she is not ready to settle down anyway. She accepts that the next lover likely won’t be the one and is ok with that.

“So close the door and change the channel
Give me something I can handle
A good lover or someone who’s nice to me
Take my money, wreck my Sundays
Love me ’til your next somebody
Oh, and promise me that when it’s time to leave
Don’t forget me
Don’t forget me”

With Don’t Forget Me (the album), Rogers states that she is a pop star who will be around for a while and can be considered with the great 70s singer-songwriter who paved the way for her. This is an excellent roll-your-car-windows-down and sing-along summer album.

Vinyl Note: After several days of streaming Don’t Forget Me on Tidal (24-bit/96 kHz), I picked up the vinyl LP. The high-resolution stream sounded great, but the vinyl (Dogwood Green Edition) enhances the album’s organic sonics. It’s an excellent, clean pressing.