PREMIERE: Listen to Aaron Lee Tasjan’s New Single, “I Love America Better Than You”

Today, Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Aaron Lee Tasjan has released the final single from his new album Stellar Evolution, which is due out tomorrow, April 12th via Blue Élan. “I Love America Better Than You” finds the Nashville multi-hyphenate exploring cosmic, liberating connections through anthemic and folklorish wonderments. The new track celebrates love while protesting a patriotism that’s been commodified by ugly consumerism and harmful rhetoric. “I love America better than you / Her crowded cities and her hotdogs, too / Land of immigrants / Queer Trans feminists,” Tasjan sings, atop a bevy of fingerpicked strings and methodical, vibrant percussion.

“The song was my response to how the meaning behind celebrating of the 4th of July is so complicated,” Tasjan says. “In terms of form, it’s a modern version of a protest song. Protest songs are a bit tricky to write because you have to find a way to be both timely and timeless in the lyric. That’s why ‘Ohio’ by Neil Young still works today. The words written so many years ago still have meaning in today’s world. So lyrically, I’m walking that line on this song. As a queer person living in the southern United States in 2024, I am examining my country’s complexities, contradictions and hard truths in a way that’s conversational. I’m reaching out to a lot of different kinds of people in this song and doing it with an awareness that only love can change someone’s mind.”

Listen to “I Love America Better Than You” below.