Once you wrap you head around the concept of "After Me" you find that Morgan Johnston has come up with a fairly neat little idea for essentially a break up song. Could it take losing someone special to make you re-evaluate your life so much that you become the person that she would not have left in the first place!!
As Morgan opens the song we find out some of those changes
"After me - you take time to call your Mum back
See the greener in your own grass
Found the place to plant you feet"
It leads to a wistful observation
I wish I could've seen this version of you when I was yours"
It's more explicitly spelt out in the chorus
If I had you after you had me - bet you would have loved a little differently
I'd have the man I knew you could be"
The second verse outlines more things that have changed
"After me she'll never have to wonder , she'll be damn sure that you love her"
There are a couple of other little gems hidden in the lyrics that really elevate the song above the pack where Morgan plays with the chorus, at one point adding the line
"Do you ever think how that would be!"
and then the final
"I'd have the man I knew you could be" comes with Morgan delivering a delightfully extended "be"
before closing out with the killer line
"Well there wouldn't be no After Me" - it could have been the perfect match!!
It does somewhat bode the question that if he's so wonderful now why she doesn't just hook up again with him however we'll have to assume he is now otherwise engaged or that the split was acrimonious and one does not want to travel back over a burned bridge. It the single takes off it surely also opens the door for a reply song from an aspiring songwriter giving the other side of the story!!
Morgan sells the song well , there is no vitriol in her vocals, it's an odd mix of sounding almost proud at the progress being made with a hint of regret that she was not getting to be the one to benefit from this renaissance.
If Morgan is a new name then there are plenty of little nuggets of gold to be mined from her back catalogue, from her last single "The End" which sees her on the edge of making a momentous decison through to "Good Guy" which again see Morgan twist the expected narrative keeping things fresh and entertaining, being just two worthy of further investigation.