Candid, cathartic, and breathtakingly vulnerable, bog berries’ new single “Nobody Told Me” is a gut-wrenching reflection on expectation versus reality wrapped in a warm, intimate blanket of lo-fi bedroom pop.
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Stream: “Nobody Told Me” – bog berries
“I didn’t expect to be alone this much,” bog berries’ Cooper Evello confesses in his first song of the year.
“Getting stuck in my head reviewing all the ways in which I’m not enough.” Oof. Candid, cathartic, and breathtakingly vulnerable, “Nobody Told Me” is a gut-wrenching reflection on expectation versus reality – how we thought our lives would go, and how they actually turned out – wrapped in a warm, intimate blanket lo-fi bedroom pop. Imagine Death Cab for Cutie and Owl City had a love child, and you get Boston’s bog berries – an architect of wistful, melancholic wonderment whose diaristic, conversational songwriting hits hard and leaves a lasting, aching mark – especially with this song, and especially for millennials.
We’re all aging, and let’s face it: Adulthood isn’t the fairytale we were promised as kids, nor is it the paradisiacal nirvana we dreamed it would be. The days are long, the weeks tend to blend together, and the ruts are real and wretched. Maybe you foresaw this, but if you’re like me or like the narrator of this song, it’s quite a surprise – a shock to the senses, really. Evello spells it out, painfully and passionately, in lyrics that cut to the core while sending shivers down the spine:
Nobody told me life could feel so dull
Nobody told me friday nights
would come and friday nights would go
Nobody told me that it all fades by
Week by week and year by year
I leave my better times behind
I didn’t expect to be alone this much
Getting stuck in my head reviewing
all the ways in which I’m not enough
I’m kinda surprised that it turned out like this
Now I can’t sleep in like I used to
Now I’m way too anxious
As Evello explains, this song comes from a very real, painful, and deeply personal place.
“‘Nobody Told Me’ is a little tongue in cheek because in a lot of ways people have ‘told me,’” he tells Atwood Magazine. “I remember my friend’s dad saying ‘college will zip by – some of the best years of your life and it will fly by.’ I remember seeing adults look so sad and talking about work and ‘the grind’ and just all seeming defeated and depressed. I saw adults give up on their dreams and just settle for a job that they kind of like, but not too much, and they don’t make art anymore and they don’t have hobbies and they just work and eat and clean and go to bed and repeat.”
I thought that I’d be better
More together than this
Like my name might last forever
For something cool that I did
But that was delusional and naive
I was just a kid
Wait for me
I’m stuck, I can’t leave the house
Wait for me
I’m lost, don’t know if I can see the route
I’m freaking out I’m sorry
Can’t make it to your party
I wasn’t like this last year
I never thought I’d get here
There’s a lot to unpack in “Nobody Told Me” – it’s ready to be the soundtrack to a good cry, to keep you company on a long night, and to be your next big cathartic release. To his credit, bog berries manages to make a dreamy, soul-stirring reverie out of what one might otherwise call a very productive therapy session.
I didn’t live through any tragedy
It’s just sometimes I’m truly disappointed
how my life turned out to be
I’m kinda surprised at just how weak I am
I fall crying into bed when something doesn’t go to plan
I thought that I’d be better
More together than this
Like my name might last forever
For something cool that I did
But that was delusional and naive
I was just a kid
Growing up and getting older can be tons of fun, too; I’m not going to sit here and pretend that college wasn’t a four-year thrill ride, but I’ve made plenty of incredible memories as an adult as well. This is a song for those moments of anxiety and restlessness, insecurity and self-doubt that inevitably crop up from time to time. It’s a song that speaks to the devil on our shoulder, asking what it’s all for and why we’re even here. It’s a song that begs for perspective, while simultaneously reminding all who listen that they’re not alone in what they’re feeling.
Active since 2021, bog berries is still very much in its infancy. “Nobody Told Me” is only his tenth song, and it’s his first release in over a year – since December 2022’s emotionally charged pop/rock-meets-pop punk fever dream “fail more,`” a song that will resonate with anyone who ever attended Warped Tour). An incredibly talented songwriter willing to wear his heart unconditionally on his sleeve, bog berries is without a doubt an artist-to-watch, and one I’ll be paying very close attention to from here on out.
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Stream: “Nobody Told Me” – bog berries
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© Cooper Evello
© Cooper Evello
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