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A high-flying guitar riff, big, bright major chords, a driving rhythm, and a sing-along chorus. May as well be the Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt on the Mount Rushmore of great powerpop songwriting. Because with those four ingredients, The Extensions have given us, “Say I Can,” one of the best singles of 2024! Hard to fathom for a song that’s already been out for six years. Here’s what we mean…
In 2018, Brian Erickson was wrapping up year number ten in his previous band, The Paper Jets, whose final album Everyday Forever contained “Say I Can” as well. And while it was a set list staple toward the end of The Paper Jets’ run, Erickson felt it never quite got the reception it deserved. When he and drummer Pete Stern founded The Extensions the following year, the rest of the band seemed to think so, too.
An EP, an LP, and a global pandemic later, and we finally get this updated take. While we enjoyed original with its top-to-bottom build, its sense of pleading desperation, and of course, its peerless musicianship, The Extensions manage to make the song entirely theirs without changing the structure, the tempo, or the melody in any noticeable way. Instead, the differences are in the new version’s wide-eyed production choices. The Extensions add keyboard, piano, acoustic guitar, and backing vocals, filling in the empty space and saturating the tape with music. Erickson’s voice has aged almost imperceptibly as he rounds the edges off, imbuing the song with a sense of heightened joy; as though he’s singing through a smile the whole time.
Becca Cristino’s stellar guitar parts and Lisa LoVell’s unifying keyboards are what separates new from old the most, adding color, flourish, and grit; knowing exactly when to ramp up or pull back. Meanwhile, Pete Stern and Will Blakey retain their title as New Jersey’s most deft rhythm section, keeping this rather simple song moving along with a sense of perpetual momentum. They’ve dazzled in fancier ways before, but sometimes keeping things simple serves the song best, and that’s what they’ve chosen here.
As impressive as the music remains, the lyrics are criminally overlooked. Written by Erickson and longtime collaborator Jeff Fiedler, “Say I Can” isn’t so much a story song as it is an argument on the merits of truth over withholding. Across his catalogue, most of Erickson’s lyrical concerns lie within the contradictory nature of human behavior. Not only does Fiedler match these themes punch-for-punch, but he echoes Erickson’s imagery and adds internal rhymes across different verses, creating a small mirror between the song’s first half (which Erickson wrote) and its second half (which Fiedler did). Some might argue that too much time is being spent on the lyrics of a regional band from New Jersey to which this writer suggests that if more songwriters wrote the way The Extensions and their collaborators did, maybe we’d all start paying closer attention.
“Say I Can” is not just a standalone single but part of a six-song EP called Gravitas, slated for release later this year on Mint 400 Records. Even if the rest of the EP turns out to be great, “Say I Can” should remain a highlight. It has proven itself evergreen, recorded across two separate decades by two separate groups.
It’s rare that a song this special comes along, stumbles on arrival (by no fault of its creators), then gets the second chance it deserves, but yet here it is! And when the history of New Jersey music is one day written, “Say I Can” deserves a a mention as one of the finest songs of its era.
Follow The Extensions on Instagram, Spotify, and TikTok. Listen to the original version of “Say I Can” by The Paper Jets.
