Tobias Jesso Jr.: "How Could You Babe"

The first time I listened to Tobias Jesso Jr.‘s “How Could You Babe”, I heard police sirens and thought they were coming from the song. Then, I hit pause and realized that was real life. But I was ready to be fooled, because it’s not only Hollywood that Jesso sings about in the few songs we’ve heard ahead of his debut album, Goon. It’s the city, vast and stupid, the bright lights and big dreams inside every window holding a story that might sound maudlin if you tried to explain. Well, Jesso isn’t afraid to be maudlin. There are lyrics to “How Could You Babe”, but it’s really pretext for Jesso to howl the title over and over again, his strangled lament perorating to something beyond words—another broken heart in the city trying to figure out where it all went wrong.

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