Dear Rouge has been around for 13 years, and their latest album, “Lonesome High”, expresses something I didn’t know I needed in their song, “Goon”.

The album was made during Danielle’s pregnancy, which didn’t affect her performance at all, and she played strongly until she was seven months pregnant.

The first song, “Goon”, is about the people in our lives we want to forget, but they still keep reappearing in uncomfortable ways.

Goon / Lonesome High

I wish that the song would let me forget a “Goon” that keeps reappearing in my life. A name and a face I really want to forget and never see for the rest of my life because of how paranoid she made me feel whenever she creepily approached me and popped up unannounced. 

Some bad memories are essential to someone’s growth, and then there’s bad memories that are just unnecessarily taking space in your head that are better erased. I really wish I never had this one interaction with her where she probably developed the wrong idea. While there’s no memory gun I know of, at least there’s a song I can dance to whenever this  unpleasant memory pops in my head uninvited. 

The story behind that song was when Danielle went on a trip in Europe with a friend of hers. They were exploring Paris and ended up at a pub where these two guys would not leave them alone. Those guys lingered long enough to make Danielle and her friend super uncomfortable, so Danielle snapped at them, telling them to go away, and that’s where she got the idea. 

For “Goon”, Dear Rouge collaborated with the producer, Gus Van Go, and he worked with big artists like Hollerado, The Arkells, The Sam Roberts Band, and Metric. They say that Gus sees the person first and brings out the best in them. The sound for “Goon” was inspired by the sound of old bands like the B-53’s and Sonic Youth.

Sometimes, I wish I just did the same. I don’t even care if it would cause a scene because I just had enough. The song’s energy would describe the relief I would have felt.

We all probably have our Goon moments too, but at least some of us can be aware if our presence is unwanted. I applaud Dear Rouge though, for making a song out of an unpleasant memory that I would consider having no use in our heads.