Chicago-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ben Aubergine shapes indie rock with Americana warmth and lived-in clarity. After stepping away from songwriting to build a career in medicine, he returns with sharpened focus and intention. Now, his latest release, The Man’s Always Getting Me Down, captures the quiet grind of daily life and routines that subtly wear you down as you keep moving forward.
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The Man’s Always Getting Me Down opens on a mellow, fingerpicked acoustic guitar line that immediately sets a worn-in, end-of-day tone. It sounds unassuming at first, the delivery feels unguarded, almost conversational. Lines like “always takin’ my money downtown” and “I make my wage at the end of the day and wait for the man to come round” land with weary honesty, like a thought you’ve repeated to yourself too many times to fight anymore.
Lyrically, the song focuses on the slow grind of adulthood rather than a single breaking point. References to money, bills, and routine obligations circle constantly, especially in the cascading list of taxes, “food tax… income tax… taxes on taxes.” That repetition mirrors the feeling of pressure piling up in the background of everyday life. Nothing explodes, yet nothing lets up either. The writing captures resignation more than rebellion, framing work and survival as a loop you step back into each day.
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Musically, the softness of the arrangement sharpens that contrast. The melody lures you with a deceptively sweet, almost honeyed sound, even as the lyrics show life wearing you down. Meanwhile, the band gradually fills the space with warm chords and restrained rhythms, never overpowering the song’s quiet frustration. By the time the guitar solo arrives, it feels reflective rather than triumphant.
The Man’s Always Getting Me Down places you inside ordinary routines—paydays, expenses, small disappointments—where you feel functional yet quietly drained. Instead of dramatizing struggle, the song normalizes it, showing how money constantly circles life and never lets go. It shifts, breathes, and lingers like late-night thoughts you can’t quite shake, subtle, honest, and deeply familiar.
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Figuring out my path while actively plotting ten others. Serious about my dreams with somewhat chaotic ambition. Will do anything for cats.
