Sam Arjes takes a hard left and invites you into the quiet on “Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love”

We live in a very loud and over-sensationalized world. Forever reaching for harder, better, faster, & stronger. Scouring for the next mic drop or hot take. Our songs, we drop them with dazzling flames & promises of a lit experience on a jet, a yacht, or the top of skyscrapers hanging with underwear models by the infinity pool. With “Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love,” Sam Arjes takes a hard left and invites you into the quiet, tender, & vulnerable.

Here a man stands half-lit by the desert fire. Aware of the darkness in the world that silently threatens all that we love and chooses the flicker of light instead. “Winds are gonna blow, fires are gonna rage, sun is sinkin’ low but nothing’s gonna change my love for you,” he opens. It would be fine to scoff at such lovey-dovey goo if not for the fact that it is aware. This is not a playground love. It is not a college romance. This a deep knowing of responsibility and the courage needed to love well.

Regardless of the weight, this song remains buoyant & light. In a way that is similar to The Beatles “Blackbird” or Nick Drake’s “Pink Moon,” the darkness & the cold remain only near the edges of this campsite noted by the sparse thunder of timpani ala the production reminiscent of T. Bone Burnett on Ryan Bingham’s “The Weary Kind.”

Everything is understated in this song. It’s a calm hope unravelling itself. “When the morning comes you will be safe & dry and I’ll be … I’ll be by your side.” Without layers of synths & blown out drums, no showy guitar licks to dazzle you’re left with the quiet. Quiet is difficult. You hear everything when it’s quiet … so it better be good.