B-Side Guys

Michael Rexen’s voice floats through Real World Studios like smoke through cathedral ruins, carrying lyrics that transform physical violence into metaphysical questioning. “My Heart” emerges from this collision between sacred space and profane imagery, where John Parish’s co-production sensibilities create room for contradictions to coexist without resolution.

The track’s minimalistic approach serves Rexen’s philosophical wrestling rather than obscuring it. Sparse arrangements allow his vocals to carry full emotional weight while drums provide subtle pulse that suggests heartbeat without literalizing the metaphor. Parish’s mixing expertise, honed through years with PJ Harvey and Sparklehorse, understands how silence can amplify rather than diminish impact.

Rexen’s Arabian Gulf background informs his approach to mystical imagery without announcing itself overtly. The repeated invocation of “wild creatures” that watch over sleep suggests protective spirits from multiple spiritual traditions, while his treatment of the soul as unspoken word reflects both Western existential anxiety and Middle Eastern concepts of divine names too sacred to utter.

The song’s central tension—between describing the heart as “pummeled muscle / all black and blue” versus wishful thinking about protective wild creatures—reveals an artist comfortable with psychological complexity. Rather than choosing between brutal realism and comforting fantasy, Rexen presents both simultaneously, understanding that human consciousness operates on multiple levels of truth.

What distinguishes “My Heart” from typical singer-songwriter confessional material is its refusal to pathologize emotional damage. The “black and blue” heart isn’t presented as condition requiring healing but as current reality requiring acknowledgment. This represents mature acceptance rather than victimhood.

The psychedelic folk elements surface through Rexen’s vocal treatment and the song’s dreamlike progression rather than obvious instrumental effects. His approach to altered consciousness feels earned through contemplation rather than chemically induced, suggesting an artist who’s found transcendence through introspection rather than external means.