B-Side Guys

Eliza Noxon wrote “You” in a dark, chilly dorm room in May 2021, little over a year after her brother’s death. The song documents what hadn’t changed in those twelve months—grief still all-consuming, isolation from people around her, being stuck in a loop of missing him, seeing him in everything, wishing for time reversal. Simple in construction and lyrics but raw in ways she’d found difficult to access, “You” functions as darker, angrier version of grief than she’d expressed before—a way to scream and kick and channel rage, fear, and loss into connection.

The production, handled by Rilo Kiley bassist Pierre de Reeder with Jake Reed’s driving drums, brings the song fully alive. What Noxon started alone in that dorm room becomes mass catharsis in the studio, the arrangement expanding to hold voices of everyone who’s lost their person and had to figure out how to keep living with that hole. Her sonic touchstones—Big Thief, Typhoon, Pinegrove, Feist—surface in the blend of folk and indie-rock sensibility, open tunings creating space for emotional clarity over polish.

The lyrics capture the specific trap of grief: every moment to yourself, every book, every movie, everything that makes you who you are—all done for or blamed on the person who’s gone. When curled up on the floor unable to take anymore, you remember them. When everyone’s moving on, you remain theirs until you’re gone, trapped in the same repeating day, watching from far away. There’s acceptance without resolution in “at least I’ll still have you”—recognizing that connection to the dead becomes the only constant available.

Featured on Good Monsters with Bad Habits (out February 27th), “You” represents a turning point for Noxon. The album began as attempt to make sense of early adulthood but became lifeline after her brother’s 2019 death. She’s stated plainly that writing these songs saved her life, allowing her to express grief’s depths without fear of judgment. The result tells a story of survival and reassembling fractured identity in the years since.

For someone who debuted at twelve with “Hummingbird” (featured on Orange is the New Black, over eight million streams), Noxon has grown into an artist who favors emotional honesty over protection. “You” doesn’t offer comfort—it documents what grief actually feels like when it won’t let go.