Ever since the release date for Maggie Rogers’ album Heard It In a Past Life was announced I knew it was going to occupy this space. I was trying to decide which song from it I wanted to talk about in my New Music Friday post, but then I figured why limit myself to a single song when I can just link to the whole album in Spotify. You should really listen to the whole thing because it is wonderful from start to finish. “Light On”, which was my favorite song of 2018, is still my favorite but I really do love everything on it. It’s only January and there’s already a ridiculous amount of new music out there, but it’s entirely possible that Heard It In a Past Life might wind up being my favorite album of 2019. I’m not the only one because she has been getting mad press over this album. It’s seems like I’ve seen interviews with her everywhere.

I always have mixed feelings about artists I love getting so much attention because the more other people love them the more I run into stuff like I talk about below. I obviously love promoting new music and artists I love, but a little piece of me also wants to hold them close and make them mine. The better part of me who wants great things for them and also wants others to experience the joy they create always wins out, but I won’t lie and say I’m not a little pained by how much attention Maggie Rogers is getting right now because I know it means it’s going to be impossible to get tickets to see her concert (it already is) and she’s going to stop playing the small venues I love and start playing the large venues that I don’t. I will only feel marginally bad for feeling this way since based on everything she’s said in interviews and the actual songs on this album I’m pretty sure Maggie Rogers herself has some real mixed feelings about her fame.

I’m really never going to stop kicking myself for not buying tickets to see her at the 9:30 Club in March. It’s in DC and on a Monday and Tuesday night so I talked myself out of it and now I regret it greatly. I have never, ever resold concert tickets for more than I paid for them, so I hate to feed the greedy people and scalpers by buying ridiculously priced resale tickets. I was aghast when I first looked at resale tickets and saw they were going for double face value at $75. Turns out I should have jumped on that because currently the cheapest ones are $175. Apparently I’m not the only one who is obsessed with Maggie Rogers. It’s one thing if I were paying that much money for a concert and the artist is getting at least some tiny portion of it after everybody gets their cut, but I refuse to pay that much and let some greedy person get 10 times more money than anyone actually involved in putting on the show is getting. So I’ll just be over here crying in my pillow that I apparently won’t be seeing Maggie Rogers live again any time soon. I will just console myself with this amazing album.