"If we drink ourselves to death, would you know how much you mean to me?" songwriter Nick Carpenter asks tenderly in the chorus of "Especially Me." It's a sobering question — but it's apt for the Alaska-based songwriter, who performs as Medium Build and who takes his friendships seriously. Carpenter describes his relationships with three different friends in the song, recounting the bonds their shared loneliness created, the ways they'd pass the time doing drugs in a parking lot or dancing on a back porch. Sweetly enough, Carpenter said on Instagram that the first verse is about going on tour with Quinn Christopherson (who won the 2019 Tiny Desk Contest) — and Christopherson's "Take Your Time" was written in response to "Especially Me." The embellished production that characterizes much of Medium Build's music washes away here, leaving listeners with Carpenter's vivid storytelling, steady voice and a gentle reminder: Tell your friends you love them.
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