It’s been a while since Macklemore has released new music. In fact, he and producer Ryan Lewis haven’t put out any since 2016. Until now.
The Grammy-award winning duo’s latest track,“Next Year,” also features alternative artist, Windser. This optimistic song lets listeners know that 2022 is going to be a far better year than the previous, but it does so with a few marks of profanity.
Macklemore declares that “next year’s gonna be better than this year” as he plans to begin the new year as “an optimist,” living as someone who doesn’t want to “look back and regret who I was.”
He admits that “fear and doubt” ruled 2021. The singer’s year was filled with broken promises (“I’ma get spiritual soon”), poor habits (“I want, one last cigarette, one last sip of it”) and complacency (“I was just waitin’ for that day”). But he realizes he’s not promised tomorrow (“thinkin’ that I’ll get another day now, no”) and is ready to move forward in the “here and now.”
Macklemore also recognizes that “the world” doesn’t owe him anything in his life pursuits and that he’s entitled to nothing. However ….
He uses profanity to express that opinion “the universe doesn’t owe me s—.” He also uses the f-word once to express that he’s ready for what’s to come.
Elsewhere, Macklemore feels as if 2021 was the year “God group texted the world and dumped us.”
The music video for this track features Macklemore pressing through all obstacles to live a better life…until he finds that his wife has had a baby with another man.
Grammy-award winning duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are back with an optimistic track that eagerly looks forward to a new year for a fresh start and renewed ambitions. And although I would say this track attempts to be mainly positive, the unnecessarily harsh language might make that message hard to hear.
Kristin Smith joined the Plugged In team in 2017. Formerly a Spanish and English teacher, Kristin loves reading literature and eating authentic Mexican tacos. She and her husband, Eddy, love raising their children Judah and Selah. Kristin also has a deep affection for coffee, music, her dog (Cali) and cat (Aslan).
