Something Worth Saving

Background and Inspiration

On July 15, 2016, DeGraw announced that Something Worth Saving was on its way and on September 9 of the same year, he delivered. Gavin grew up in New York and produced his first album in 2003 named Chariot and aside from his new release, has recorded three other studio albums along with a greatest hits collection all while becoming a famed name. Like some of his previous music, this new album has a happy, cheery sound with many different moods represented that seems a seasonal wrap-up to the summer of 2016.

Degraw began working on Something Worth Saving right after his album release Make a Move in October 2013. In 2014, he released two new singles (“You Got Me” and “Fire”) followed by a greatest hits album that fall. Aside from touring, Degraw was pretty much out of the public eye in 2015, leaving many to wonder if this was the time when he did most of the writing for his new album.

Per a USA Today interview about the 2016 album release, Degraw said he looks to music icons including The Beatles, David Bowie and Prince while writing. “’I lean toward classic stuff for inspiration, and those influences really haven’t changed. The ones that have stood the test of time ultimately have the ingredients that belong in every songwriting kitchen.’"

Lyrically, Something Worth Saving seems to be inspired by a girl (evidenced by songs like “Kite Like Girl,” “You Make My Heart Sing Louder,” and “Making Love With the Radio On”). When an interviewer from BUILD Series in New York asked Gavin how life was going after jokingly listing track names from the album, Degraw answered “I know some people, they like to make music that is strictly sexy. Some people like to make stuff that sounds a little bit more aggressive. I like pretty music, and I like music that makes people feel uplifted and empowered. I think that people need to feel empowered and (love) makes people feel empowered. So for the most part, that’s the type of thing I enjoy writing about. I enjoy writing about something that makes people feel like things are going their way rather than being in their way.” Understandably, Degraw is known for being tight-lipped about his relationships or his social life in public. You don’t hear him speak about much other than his music. So even if there was a girl who inspired this album, it would be difficult to know. There is a track on the album called “Annalee” about a mystery girl whose “eyes are bright as chandeliers” and “got them falling from the roof hypnotized and paralyzed” but there has been no answer as to who Annalee is. Of all the rumors about Degraw’s romantic life, none have been confirmed by him over the years.

In an audio clip on MTV, Degraw speaks about the friction that occurs when you write your own music as an artist. “I think something interesting happens when you’re a songwriter and when you’re an artist as a songwriter. It’s that sometimes when you’re writing, you may just want to write something fictional just because you think it’s cool and you like the way it sounds. So, in some ways (as an artist), sometimes you feel like you are inhibiting yourself, (by) not exploring something super fictional just because it’s cool. You may go ‘oh, well as an artist you’re going to be held somehow accountable for whatever these words are, whatever perspective this is, whatever this sound is.’ Whereas, all you’re thinking about as a writer is that you want to try something cool out."

Aside from Degraw’s own personal inspiration, which seems only to be experimenting with new sounds and bringing positive music to the world, there were many co-writers for Something Worth Saving. Only two of the ten tracks on the album are solely attributed to Degraw, and he speaks often about collaborating with the other writers and producers in the video of the BUILD series interview. In the same video, when asked which track is his baby, he says he can’t pick a favorite but the one he probably worked the hardest on to get it just right was “You Make My Heart Sing Louder” with Ricky Reed. He also notes that in the studio, Ricky and Gavin originally nicknamed the track “My Well and Wall.” It’s his mother’s favorite track from the album.

Promotion

She Sets The City On Fire

The hit single for Something Worth Saving was She Sets The City On Fire, released on July 15, 2016, which received a corresponding music video on August 31, 2016, nine days before the album itself released. It launched on DeGraw’s official VEVO YouTube channel, prefaced by a lyric video that came out a month prior. The music video, directed by Daniel Cz, depicts DeGraw with the girl who set the city on fire, acted by supermodel Jessica Vargas. The woman isn’t given a name, but in the video appears to be a programmer involved in product development who has “set the city on fire” with technologies that she has worked hard to develop. It opens up with her showing off a new holographic phone technology to a board of venture capitalists and potential investors, and flashes back to presumably the woman’s time in college, working hard on some sort of streaming video technology that appears to be remarkably similar to the Pokémon Series’ Videophone. As it stands, no lawsuits have been brought to the table.

Critical Reception

His first album in three years, fans had high expectations for this new album. Gavin DeGraw’s Something Worth Saving has been considered more “upbeat and bubbly” than his past work. Fans have expressed mixed opinions about the difference in tone and soul behind the music. Degraw told USA Today that he wanted to make something “very modern” where he explored many different genres that haven’t been featured on past albums. “There’s something so modern about this, yet something so classic about this at the same time,” he claimed. Many people have said that this album is very different from past albums, which seems to be the main reason some fans voiced negative feedback.

Tour

In May 2016, Gavin DeGraw announced his upcoming North American tour where he would be performing with Andy Grammer through early November 2016. This tour kicks off near Gavin DeGraw’s hometown in Bethel, New York, on August 28, 2016 and ends November 9th, 2016 in Boca Raton, Florida. Tickets went on sale May 20, 2016 and pre-sale tickets went on sale May 17 at 10AM local time. The show scheduled for November 7, 2016 was later canceled due to illness. Throughout this tour Gavin DeGraw shared samples of music he had been working on and would later include on Something Worth Saving.