All that glitters is not gold, but this song certainly is: Del Water Gap’s S. Holden Jaffe declares himself “King Midas in reverse” in the gut-wrenching anthem “Midas,” taken off his sophomore album’s deluxe release.
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Stream: “Midas” – Del Water Gap
As a quick refresher, King Midas is remembered in Greek mythology for having the golden touch.
He was granted the ability to turn everything he touched into gold, but the “gift” of such wealth soon became a curse when he could no longer eat food with his hands, and later turned his daughter into a statue. It’s a lesson, passed down from the ancients, to beware of greed and silver linings – and one that feels as relevant now as it surely did 2,000 years ago.
Taking pills in the green room
My neighbor back home got me too’d
And I’m ready for something new
Sucking down one more lozenge
World war III in progress
And I could really use someone like you
And isn’t it cruel?
Yeah isn’t it cruel how we do?
And then in the year 2024, along came Del Water Gap’s S. Holden Jaffe to turn the story on its head. “Call me Midas in reverse, ‘cause everything I touch turns eventually to dirt,” Jaffe sings plaintively in “Midas,” an achingly emotive new song featured on his sophomore album’s deluxe edition. “I’ll make a truce with myself and I don’t reckon that I’m cursed, but everything I touch turns eventually to dirt.”
It’s gut-wrenching, brooding, and rather pessimistic, but isn’t there also something to be said for someone owning their lows, just as they might their highs?
An honest, unfiltered lament diving deep into Jaffe’s psyche, “Midas” is enchanting: However poignant its lyrics and subject matter may be, the musical accompaniment feels liberating and sweet, with Del Water Gap rising to a glistening, golden-hued high as he sings his heavy-hearted chorus.
I could be your reflection
I’m a whore for affection
Hope you don’t mind I sleep too late
She’s a Ukrainian model
Moved to L.A. in high school
Flyin’ to Japan on Christmas break
And isn’t it cruel?
Yeah isn’t it cruel how we do?
Del Water Gap’s sophomore album I Miss You Already + I Haven’t Left Yet released last September to critical acclaim, including from Atwood Magazine; in featuring the record on our year-end list, we praised it as one of 2023’s musical masterpieces: “A cinematic, soul-baring record full of inner reckonings, raw upheavals, and rude awakenings… achingly intimate, candid, unapologetic, and deeply vulnerable.”
The timing of Del Water Gap’s re-release is no doubt strategic: He just co-headlined The Greek Theatre with The Japanese House, and is now opening for ex-One Direction singer Niall Horan on his UK stadium tour. While this writer would hardly call two original singles and a live version of “Doll House” deluxe, the quality and caliber of these additions to the Del Water Gap discography warrants the label: Both “Midas” and “Purple Teeth, The Bravery” are exceptional three-minute wonders, each a gentle giant of sound and a profound insight into S. Holden Jaffe’s unabridged, earnest soul.
Make a truce with myself and call me
Midas in reverse ‘cause everything I touch
Turns eventually to dirt
I’ll make a truce with myself
and I don’t reckon that I’m cursed
But everything I touch
turns eventually to dirt, yeah
King Midas in reverse
King Midas in reverse
Cause everything I touch
Everything I touch turns eventually to dirt
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:: stream/purchase I Miss You Already… (Deluxe) here ::
:: connect with Del Water Gap here ::
Stream: “Midas” – Del Water Gap
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© Amanda Laferriere
© Amanda Laferriere
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