Michigander
Over Before You Know It

"With Over Before You Know It, Michigander evolves from a deeply personal solo project into a complete, powerhouse band, delivering big arrangements and infectious grooves without ever losing the relatable emotional core."

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Michael Venn, contributor

First things first, I have a confession to make... I'm a Michigander.  By that I mean, I was born in the state of Michigan and spent a lot of summers there in my youth all over the Great Lakes State.
 

Ironically, I first discovered Michigander years ago when the band’s name popped up in my feed. When you’re from Midland, Michigan, and a song appears from a band called Michigander on an EP titled Midland, the city where you were born, you pay attention. And pay attention I did. I sonically devoured every Single and EP he had released up to that point. Back then Michiganger was pretty much just one guy, Jason Singer. 
 

At the time, I even recognized the photograph on the Midland EP cover. I’m fairly certain it was taken at either Carpenter Elementary School or Central Middle School, both of which I attended for brief periods of time. So, before I even heard a note of the music, there was already this strange sense of familiarity and nostalgia pulling me in.
 

Anyway, enough about my Michigan childhood. Let’s get to Michigander’s new album, Over Before You Know It.

Since the project’s inception in 2014, Jason Singer’s songwriting has continued to grow stronger, and his songwriting, in my opinion, was already better than most. Singer has always had a way of capturing the seemingly small moments in life that somehow become the ones we hold onto the longest. I’ve consistently identified with his lyrics and melodies, but on this album, Michigander’s second full-length release, I think for a guy who started out as a multi-instrumentalist singer/songwriter, Jason Singer has truly found his stride. More importantly, this feels like a band.
 

It no longer sounds like a singer-songwriter bringing in a few friends whenever a song needs additional instrumentation. The performances feel connected, intentional and fully realized. The growth has been exponential, and that progression can be heard in both the lyrics and the choice of instrumentation.
 

The most noticeable evolution on Over Before You Know It is Singer’s willingness to explore new sounds, genres and arrangements. Michigander’s earlier material was often centered around Singer’s voice, a guitar and emotionally direct singer-songwriter ballads. Those elements are still here, but now they’re surrounded by infectious bass lines, layered percussion, piano, horns, synths and keys. And honestly, it’s just fun.
 

The opening track, “Starting a Band,” feels perfectly placed. It’s nostalgic for those days when you and a few friends decided to start a band without really knowing where it might lead. Anyone who has ever been there understands that feeling. You find a practice space, plug in a few instruments and convince yourself that something important is about to happen. Personally, I miss those days.
 

“Taxi” feels like another Michigander anthem in the making. The bass line is incredibly infectious, and the lyrics are so relatable that you can’t help but sing along at the top of your lungs while driving the back roads and deliberately taking the long way home. The observation that “everyone is getting older except you” hits with the kind of simple honesty that Singer consistently delivers so well.
 

“YYY” is a relevant and emotionally honest song for anyone who has ever been in love and questioned what to do when that feeling begins slipping away. It captures the helplessness of knowing something is changing while not knowing whether you can, or should, try to save it.
 

“Good Things” takes the album in a different sonic direction, but the band sounds completely locked in. Once again, Singer’s lyrics feel instantly relatable, but it’s the production that really elevates the track. There are subtle layers hidden throughout the arrangement that make it worth listening to through a good pair of headphones. At moments, it sounds as though Michigander may be channeling U2, especially in the atmosphere, guitar textures and emotional scale of the song. Whether that influence was intentional or not I have no idea, but it works.

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“Outlive” opens with a driving drum pulse and a simple piano melody before gradually expanding into something much larger. A beautiful combination of synths and horns carries the song into a massive chorus. Singer’s admission that he doesn’t know “how to stop it” gives the track an emotional weight that continues building until the entire arrangement seems to explode around him.
 

“Freaking Out” feels like a song for a generation beginning to discover how dramatically your perception of life changes once you reach your twenties. It captures the anxiety, uncertainty and constant pressure of trying to figure out who you are while the world continues moving faster around you. It is very much a song for the strange and overwhelming times we currently find ourselves engulfed in, both culturally and politically.
 

“Float,” both lyrically and sonically, might be the most complete song on the album for me. It carries lyrics filled with love and hope, wrapped inside a melody and atmosphere that feels almost Radiohead inspired. It’s dreamy without becoming distant and emotional without feeling forced. Everything about the song works.
 

Then there is the title track, “Over Before You Know It.”

Lyrically, it hits hard. It also feels like the perfect closing song at a show, not only for the album, but eventually for Michigander’s upcoming live shows. It’s the kind of song built to be sung back by an entire audience who all recognize a little bit of themselves in it.
 

The message is simple but difficult to ignore: We spend so much of our lives chasing what comes next that we sometimes fail to recognize how quickly everything is passing by. By the time we finally get things moving in the direction we thought we wanted, the entire experience may already be nearly over.
 

Over Before You Know It feels like the album where Michigander has fully transitioned from Jason Singer’s deeply personal songwriting project into a complete and confident band. The lyrical honesty that first attracted me to his music is still very much intact, but the musical world surrounding those words has grown considerably. The arrangements are bigger. The production is stronger. The grooves are tighter, but...Most importantly, the songs still feel personal.
 

Singer continues to write about the moments, relationships, doubts and passing years that shape our lives, often before we fully understand their importance. This album is the band, Michigander, looking backward with nostalgia, forward with uncertainty and directly at the present with a renewed sense of purpose. It’s relatable, thoughtful, melodic and frequently infectious.
 

And hopefully, I’ll get the chance to see these songs performed live before the tour, and everything else, really is "Over before you know it".