Check out the new single from New York City’s TJ Rosenthal. ‘Bad Habits’ surges along, a tuneful, pulsating song that makes you want to move. Rosenthal’s conversational lyrics, offering light-hearted encouragement to a friend are delivered with a compelling melody over bright guitar, rhythmic keys and brass. The instrumental layers give the song, a rich, full feel, in keeping with the theme of living life to the full. Rosenthal explains the sentiment behind the song: “I like to call the song a playful chat between old friends. Where the narrator tries to cheer up an old friend who, ‘doesn’t feel the same since the world shut down.’ He does so by jokingly suggesting they maintain bad habits and poor decision making. As a way to get back in touch with life as it was, ‘way back when,’ before Covid. Overall the sentiment is stay lite, laugh, and have some nighttime fun whenever you can in a heavy world. Which could admittedly be a bit autobiographical, haha.”
This is the third single from Rosenthal’s forthcoming solo album, which has been mixed in Nashville by Justin Shturtz (Dolly Parton, Morgan Wallen). He’s come a long way since his earlier life as a minor league baseball player. When those sporting days were over, he immersed himself in music, attracted by the idea of songwriting. Look out for the new album soon. Rosenthal describes his new musical direction as “…a thank you to the artists, characters and three chords and the truth style songs that have inspired it.” Enjoy.
