Ballad Breakdown: Maggie Rogers' "Don't Forget Me" and The Serenity of Simplicity
If Surrender had Maggie Rogers in "Overdrive,” "Don't Forget Me" sees her on a lazy road trip through the countryside. After years of wanting anything and everything, Rogers has finally found a sweet, serene, simplistic reality in a world of inauthenticity.
Written by William Beachum
Photo courtesy of Rolling Stone
Maggie Rogers’ career started off with a spark. The NYU graduate got her first flicker of fame when a video of Pharell Williams reacting to her song “Alaska” during an NYU masterclass went viral. Pharell’s reaction to the folk dance track was a primal, childlike excitement, the highest compliment one could receive from the music legend.
Hot off this viral success, Rogers then released her EP Now That The Light is Fading, followed by her debut album, Heard it in a Past Life. These records cover Rogers’ patient and placid ideas about platonic and romantic love, filtered through a wistful, danceable lens. Through lighter, airy synths and breathy, falsetto vocals, Rogers lets love wash over her on Heard it in a Past Life.
After three years, mostly encapsulated by the pandemic, Rogers released Surrender, a gritty, rough, and passionate album about the art of surrendering. Surrender was the culmination of Rogers’ Harvard thesis on religion and public life. Guided by these reflections, Surrender still deals with feelings of romantic and platonic love but handles them with more bombast and aggression. This change in passion can be displayed by comparing Heard it in a Past Life’s “Give a Little” and Surrender’s “Want Want.” In “Give a Little,” Rogers sweetly asks her love interest to “give a little” so “maybe [they can] get to know each other.” These lyrics are lightly chanted over an island beat, signifying the casualness of Rogers’ desire. On “Want Want,” Rogers confidently states after the final chorus that she “[doesn’t] wanna wait another moment” and that she “want[s] all of it” after letting out a raspy, guttural, yearning scream on the bridge. On Surrender, Rogers grew impatient with her adaptability and screamed out a desire for clarity and consistency. She grapples with the idea of power all throughout Surrender, due to the nature of her Harvard thesis.This thesis was clarified on “Anywhere With You”, where she states that “she just wants to make something fucking last.”
“Don’t Forget Me” continues to deal with a desire for consistency but is much more serene in its request. Instrumentally, “Don’t Forget Me” rides on the back of faded snare hits, serene acoustic strumming, and delicate tambourine. The track is also supplemented by a variety of hand-percussion instruments, commonly used in country/folk songs, contributing to the homegrown, country feel of the song On Surrender, the percussion signified an outcry of emotion that grew more sporadic with added lyrical intensity. “Don’t Forget Me” keeps a consistent drum tone in the mix's background. These drums are not an anxiety-ridden heartbeat but rather an emotional metronome that keeps the ballad’s journey on schedule.
While Surrender mostly dealt with grungier electric guitar settings and solid bass notes, “Don’t Forget Me” operates on the backing of a sun-soaked acoustic guitar. The instrumental choice works for this track because the chords and strum pattern are a bright, beachside jingle that anyone could play. General accessibility of the guitar’s chord progression mirrors Rogers’ desire for a love that anyone could give her. The instrumentation doesn’t have to be intricate because the love that she wants doesn’t have a high standard. She just wants “someone that’s nice to [her].” Soft piano notes lightly support the guitar tones, blowing over them like a welcomed gust of wind on a sunny day.
Photo courtesy of Capitol Records
Lyrically, “Don’t Forget Me” tries to create a new definition of love for Rogers by comparing her ideals surrounding affection to her friends’ relationship ideals and realities. In the opening verse, she discusses her genuine surprise and worry that her friend Sally is getting married. She fears a long-term commitment like this because “she’s still acting out of habit / hoping dirty words just don’t escape [her teeth].” Rogers initially stresses that she isn’t ready to be loved because she doesn’t feel she loves herself enough to do so. Combating this fear, Rogers reflects that she will “always find [her] way back to her feet” no matter how much commitment to love she performs. Rogers expanded upon this reassurance in an interview with Rolling Stone by saying that at the time of the song, “[she] was going to a bunch of friends’ weddings and feeling so happy for them, but also realizing that [she] is very simply in a different place in my life .”
This silent confrontation towards a deep-seated anxiety of being unable to be loved reflects the calm acceptance of “Don’t Forget Me.” This calm acceptance is mainly prescribed in the chorus, where Rogers commands herself to “close the door” and “give [her] something she can handle.” The Surrender era saw Rogers sprint out the door that “Don’t Forget Me” wanted to close. While Rogers is still surrendering to the emotions inside her, she asks for whatever spirit to lead her into a life that treats her kindly. Rogers’ desire to find “a good lover or someone that’s nice to [her]'' is a form of self-care she has rarely practiced. By looking for people that don’t have to intrigue her but rather just be kind to her, Rogers has given into a simplicity that may give her something that “fucking lasts.”
In the second verse, Rogers contrasts her love experiences with that of her friend Molly, who’s “got a guy she swears to God could be her family.” But Rogers fears Molly only loves this guy because she adopts his life goals and “follows him to parties.” Through this reflection on her friend’s story, Rogers reveals that she worries her desire will blind her and that her infatuation will make her a supporting character to her partner’s wants and needs.
She reinforces that this plagiaristic love is “not love to [her].” Rogers seeks someone who will “take her money” and “wreck her Sundays.” This sustainable love that Rogers desires interrupts her daily routine. She wants a partner who won’t transform her into a new person but rather help her reconsider and “wreck” her mundane reality.
In the bridge, Rogers reminisces, “maybe [she] was bitter from the winter all along,” reflecting on the harshness and roughness of her Surrender era. The “bitter” guitar tones and raucous drum rhythms were a product of a person in the “winter” of their life. In an interview with Vogue, Rogers expanded upon this period of her life, attesting that she “felt a lot of anger when she was writing [that] album, But when she [heard] it back, the record [sounded] really joyful. And to her, that [was] a sense of feral joy. While the joy of Surrender was more feral, the joy seen in “Don’t Forget Me” is placid. It’s the calm after the storm. “Don’t Forget Me” jumps into a feeling of summer: an open, vulnerable, and energetic season of life.
The song closes by repeating the titular line, “Oh, but promise me that when it’s time to leave / Don’t forget me.” Rogers has accepted that her love with someone might not last, but she can hope it will live on in each other’s memory. She has leaped headfirst into the desire for a cherished and revered connection, even if it is lost.
With this single, the folk-pop artist establishes a new sonic and lyrical era for her third album, Don’t Forget Me. Rogers ordered the album sequentially, with the chronological tracklist showcasing different memories and other's perspectives. Everything about the promotion for this album emphasizes its simplicity. The key to making things “fucking last” is not by screaming at your desires but by calmly accepting and considering them practically. Surrender was an album that was made to be performed live and evoke a cathartic release from audiences across the globe. The sonic and lyrical direction of Rogers’ next album is not guided by the need for the album to be performed live or to be a culmination of her Harvard thesis. While Don’t Forget Me’s direction as an album can’t be determined without the final product, the lead single showcases a softer side of Rogers that she is likely to explore. “Don’t Forget Me” might not be as exciting as Surrender, but it gives advice to make life easier for everyone involved.