'If there was another way
I think about the things we once had
Give it just another try
'Coz you don't want me
'I'll be on my own.'
"On My Own" - a track from Brooklyn indie rock quintet Caveman's third album Otero War (2016) - addresses heartbreak in a relatively generic way. At one point in the song, lead singer Matthew Iwanusa explicitly notes the song's insistence on avoiding specificity of plot and characterisation: 'I don't wanna talk about it'.
But there's an emotive clarity in Iwanusa's voice that makes the track compelling anyway, adding a layer of emotional depth that might be found lacking in its' simple lyricism and steady reliance on atmospheric synths and contemporary indie rock trappings. As CoS' Chris Coplan observes, "On My Own" "manages to combine every sad sack pub rock jam with dance pop grooves, a little ditty with real depth and weight".
It might seemed relatively tame when compared to the anthemic grandness of previous tracks like "In the City", but there's a rare honesty and sincerity being expressed here that makes the song stand out in a different way. Iwanusa's rich and understatedly emotive voice brings out the loneliness, vulnerability and capacity for self-reliance expressed in the refrain 'You don't want me/ 'I'll be on my own', while poignantly evoking separation anxiety in the conversational lyricism of the track's verses. "On My Own" is another example of how so much can be said with so little.
