Music Review // Mike Evin "I Almost Called You Babe"

 

This is the song where the title could be taken one of two different ways but the way that it comes across with the lyrics is a lesson in punctuation.   On one hand, this title could mean "I Almost Called You Babe" in the way that you got so down you almost made that phone call.  And maybe in some ways if you try to dig deep enough you can find that meaning within these lyrics.   When you're really trying to move on from someone, you have to let them go by not calling them any more.

But in that sense the title would've been "I Almost Called You, Babe" which it is not.   So as the title would suggest this is a song about someone almost calling someone else the word "babe", which I think is kind of funny.   While there are people who like to use the word "babe" as a term of endearment I've never been a fan of it because there are too many meanings that just make it funny or inappropriate.

One of these such examples is in the movie "Hot Rod" there is a scene where Will Arnett's character says the word "babe" so many times it begins to lose meaning.   On the more serious side, the term "babe" can come from "baby" and so to think of your significant other as an infant is kind of weird, right?  And I know "baby" is used throughout music as well but it's still something I'd never say.  To top off all of that, there is the movie "Babe Pig In The City" so if you want to be compared with a pig then this is a good word for you.

All of that aside, Mike Evin has created a beautiful song here with the use of only his voice and the piano.  It's got that slow, ballad type of lullaby that you might think of when listening to certain songs by Billy Joel.   Having it be about this subject matter, about calling someone babe being a mistake, is great for me because I really don't like the word in that context.