Hear Aaron Lee Tasjan’s Swirling New Song ‘Heart Slows Down’

On August 31st, Aaron Lee Tasjan will release Karma for Cheap, the follow-up to his critically acclaimed 2016 album Silver Tears. Tasjan has already previewed a couple tunes from the record, and today he released another, “Heart Slows Down.”

“Heart Slows Down” is a gently psychedelic rocker with shades of Tom Petty’s melodicism, the Beatles’ off-kilter pop arrangements, and a healthy dose of Yardbirds-esque jangle. In the chorus, Tasjan offers, “Honey if your heart slows down, I will always be around,” a message that stands in warm contrast to other lyrical images like “doctor’s drugs” and “bones rattl[ing] like a dropped tambourine.”

Much of Karma for Cheap grapples with speaking up and reaching out, as heard in previously released songs like “If Not Now When.” In a recent interview with Rolling Stone Country, Tasjan said of the album, “I wanted to work really hard lyrically to create a record that wasn’t drawing lines in the sand from a humanitarian point of view. Trying to say something that’s more of a comfort, and to try and be a cheerleader to the people who are on the front lines of all this stuff.”