You Changed Me

You Changed Me begins with Emma Russack yearning to ‘get back’ to her hometown for family dinners, her familiar schoolyard faces, and the simple country town way of life. The rest of the album delves into honest introspection as the singer-songwriter explores who and what changed her into the person she stands as today.

Throughout her career, Russack has poured her life events into her music, with emotions left to drip on the lyric sheet. The life lived on this record has seen a few more stamps on the passport, a break-up, musical detours, and the simultaneous wide open road and self doubt of single-dom, as lamented in the lyrics, “I thought I was dangerous, I thought I was everything you like”.

The song that gives the LP its title is the smoky-roomed soul and admonished acknowledgement of ‘becoming and feeling like a woman’ through a particular tryst, “I never thought I’d like animal calls in bed, or… a man in dress shoes”. The restrained funk guitar again chimes through the breathily whispered track ‘You Shouldn’t’, where Russack sits muddled between feeling wanted, yet left alone.

At the end of the 10 tracks, the artist leaves the listener, and the album, in Paris. She’s a bit worldlier, surrounded by and open to the potential of romance, yet arriving with the battered baggage of lost love. In just over half an hour of music, Russack pours years of maturing, growing, and all the things that have changed her into one fine collection.

Listen to ‘You Shouldn’t’ from You Changed Me here:

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.

Subscribe to Rolling Stone magazine

Subscribe to Rolling Stone magazine