Songs You Should Know: Lucy Sugerman

I firstly wanted to say a big thank you to Simon/TSIY for having me write for this - nothing gives me more joy than listening to music and really sitting with it, and this is a fantastic opportunity to do so. 

I’ve just put out a new collection of songs called the ‘old patterns’ EP. The TL;DR is that I think it’s pretty good, and I do recommend you listen to it if you like Maisie Peters, Annika Bennett, quinnie etc., I’m also touring it in Sydney and Melbourne next month! We’re doing intimate acoustic-style shows with a couple of guitars and a piano. 

The ‘old patterns’ EP is a culmination of songs mostly written a long time ago now, and the first of two duo EPs - chronologies focused on transforming past mistakes into something new. It’s pop music with country and folk sensibilities - and storytelling at its core, wrestling with romantic grief and the desperation that can come with heartbreak and attempting to fill voids with other people. It starts with ‘crumb’, a song about being so off-kilter in your own life that you accept cruel treatment disguised as love, and culminates in the beginning of acceptance and renewal in the country-tinged (and most recently written) closing track ‘be gentle with me’. I think of it as a record where I was learning to take responsibility for myself through heartbreak, while also allowing myself to float downstream in the things I can't control.

Anyway - music is fun, what a privilege it is to get to create it, and here are 10 songs other people have made that I think you should listen to, and that in some way or another were a part of the process of making my recent EP:

Annie’s Song by John Denver

I listened to this a lot while walking around Massachusetts in northern-hemisphere spring last year when I was laying the foundations to finish off the EP. I think it’s one of the most classic and beautiful more ‘modern’ love songs of all time: so purely capturing devotion, and the way the orchestration dances with the melody scratches an itch in my brain.

Favourite lyric: You fill up my senses like a night in a forest

God Only Knows by The Beach Boys

You’ve probably already listened to this but I believe it will forever be the epitome of vocal harmony of the modern era: the stitching together of melodic keys and polyphony is simultaneously so free and intricate - reflective of the creative and divine nature of love! I believe it was one of the first big commercial songs to use God in the title, and also inspired Paul McCartney to write Here, There and Everywhere. 

Glory Hallelujah, I’m Gonna Fly Home by Natalie Bergman

You want a glorious song with a good groove for porch listening with a cool beverage on a summer afternoon? This is it. Natalie Bergman is one of the most underrated songwriters on this side of the 2020s, and she so tastefully sings about her faith in a way that everyone can connect with it.

man by quinnie

I love this song for how it feels so specific in its storytelling, detailing cherries in the backyard and nail polish, it universally captures a sad, damaging and increasingly common experience: the confusing and searing fallout that can come from a man utilising softness or appearing in touch with femininity as a facade to pretend to be harmless and play-on faux vulnerability. I remember listening to this heavily during the ~events~ that inspired most of the songs on the EP.

Take It Easy by The Eagles

If you know me, you know I love this song and have for as long as I can remember (shoutout mum for importing it onto my iPod nano in 2008). It’s been with me on long drives, buses, planes, in the kitchen, falling in love, falling out of love and will forever remain one of my go-to feel-good-groove-cortisol-lowering songs. Thank you Eagles. And the BANJO!

Fall On Me Rain by Bob Belche

This one is worth listening to because it literally has just over 100k streams, and first came out in 1969 - I’m talking a deep deep cut. There are so many sweet rhythmic moments in the melody, Bob Belche has the type of voice that feels so deeply honest - and I pull out new meaning for the lyrics on every listen (and I’ve listened to it A LOT). If you want a good new song to yearn to in the car or on the bus while it’s raining, this is it.

Outside by Parcels

3:45 onwards. Enough said. The most underrated Parcels song, worth every single bit of the 7 minute listen. Has moved me to tears before.

Northsiders by Christian Lee Hutson

The sincerity and direct imagery of this song has influenced the way I construct my songwriting from the day I heard it. The vivid descriptions of youth, growing up and navigating tragedy keep the listener hooked from start to finish - and the stripped back folk production allows the words to shine and evoke their own images.

As You Are by Samia

Samia is a phenomenal wordsmith - this song is a simple sentiment delivered in such a compelling way. Somehow when you listen to it, you can attach your own personal memories to Samia’s own reflections about digging up shark teeth and long family road trips in a 4Runner. 

Watchman by Josh Garrels

Like a watchman at the gate, waiting for morning to break - this song and these words have a very special place in my heart. It’s a beautiful depiction of being faithful and hopeful through suffering, and what it looks like to walk in this life with humility. 

I really hope you love some of these songs as much as I do.

Big love, Sugs