Each Measure Review: Michellar
FEATURE
There’s an old adage that says, “Great art takes time.” That’s not always true – there have been spur-of-the-moment masterpieces – but in general, brilliant bodies of work tend to develop iteratively, through the processes of growth and reflection that come with time.
No artist embodies this concept better than Michellar. She’s been featured on Each Measure many times in the past, and each release I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing from her has been better than the last. Those of us who have followed her career for a while can tell how much she’s grown as an artist, and her original single, “Can’t get you out of my mind,” which was released on the 24th of July, 2026, is evidence of how far she’s come.
Michellar’s artistic journey has been a unique one. She first dipped her toes into the songwriting craft at the age of 15. After taking a 40-year hiatus, she decided to prove that it’s never too late to answer your calling and re-entered the music business, going on to release 22 singles in only 9 months.
That 40-year hiatus may have been more important to Michellar’s artistry than anyone realizes. If time makes us wiser and more mature, then the deeply personal and introspective qualities of her work might be owed to that period of growth during which to us appeared to be silence. The hiatus may also have given her the opportunity to experience many different genres before synthesizing them into her own voice. Sonically, nothing is off limits for Michellar. She has a remarkably versatile catalogue, ranging from country and pop to Latin and reggae. Her home city of San Franciso affords her exposure to a rich and diverse musical tapestry, which certainly includes the haunting psychedelic-folk sound of “Can get you out of my mind.”
A quick history lesson: in the 1960s, San Francisco, was known as the global Mecca of counterculture, home to psychedelic juggernauts like Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, and Big Brother and the Holding Company. Echoes of that legendary period still reverberate through the city, and Michellar manages to evoke them powerfully on “Can’t get you out of my mind,” deepening the timeless accessibility of folk with more esoteric psychedelic textures.
Parallel to her music career, Michellar is also an accomplished visual artist with a particular talent for abstract painting. In fact, it was her 2023 acceptance to the deYoung Museum Open Call Exhibition that gave her the confidence to pursue songwriting. Michellar has personally created the cover art for all of her releases, including “Can’t get you out of my mind.”
For the cover of “Can’t get you out of my mind,” she chooses chaotic swathes of blacks and grays swirling around a yellow and orange center. It’s a poignant and mysterious image, in perfect keeping with the eerie tone and subject matter of the song. “Can’t get you out of my mind” is an intense psychological portrait of a woman in the thrall of a romantic obsession. The description under the track on Soundcloud simply reads “A tragic obsession,” and Michellar herself admits that the song came from a personal place. She describes it as emerging from her “need to express obsessions that had previously remained internal – tragic, uncontrollable thoughts finally given voice through music.”
In many ways, the track is an exercise in release, and through it, Michellar purges the some of the demons that have been plaguing her. It also gives her another opportunity to showcase her mastery of structure as a songwriter. She builds tension gradually throughout each verse and chorus, teasing out new meanings and perspectives on her theme of obsession before reaching the final cathartic climax.
The track begins unassumingly with a soft acoustic guitar melody in an eerie minor key. This is where Michellar establishes her theme of romantic yearning, describing a moment in which she lies under the stars and gazes into the darkness while thinking only of her lover while “wondering only if you’re coming to my calling.” She sets a familiar scene, and underscored by the mysterious guitar melody, it’s an effective way to put us directly into the singer’s mindset.
It also leads fluidly into the chorus, which in my opinion, is the strongest moment of the song. As with much of Michellar’s art, the genius of the chorus lies in its simplicity. It’s only one line long – “Can’t get you out of my mind” – but it’s repeated six times in the first chorus, and in Michellar’s ghostly alto, it sounds almost like a chant or a mantra. In essence, she creates a musical impression of the feeling of obsession, evoking a fugue-like state with her repetition that spirals deeper and deeper into itself.
Bolstering the atmosphere of mania are the frantic-sounding drums and bass and whining electric guitar that kick in towards the end of the chorus. They push Michellar’s voice to new heights as she reckons with an uncomfortable truth: the longer we’re forced to wait for something, the harder it becomes to live without. In Verse 3, Michellar explores that concept with mounting hysteria, singing “Why are we postponing / All the love that’s flowing / Right inside our minds?” This is a relationship that feels more like addiction than love, and the tragic paradox is that it’s as destructive as it is euphoric.
An interesting feature of Michellar’s work, which I have commented on before, is her habit of changing the chorus slightly each time it is repeated. It’s an ingenious way of showing how words can take on evolving meanings depending on context. In the case of “Can’t get you out of my head,” the change between choruses is subtle: the second time she sings the chorus, she repeats it seven times, accompanied by a flurry of shadowy echoes. The implication of this is clear: her obsession is growing.
One of the most painful aspects of harboring an obsession is being unable to share it with anyone else. Often, it’s a burden we have to bear alone, and that can make us crave it even more. Verse 3 muses on the ways in which the singer’s obsession is a painful secret shared between two people, as Michellar sings, “Nobody knows the love that we have / Nobody knows the sparks when we touch / Nobody knows the cravings we have.” By giving a voice to her obsession and sharing it with the world, Michellar frees herself from it, and the catharsis of that act shines through in her delivery. Micheller’s voice reaches a new height of desperation and agony. Michellar is more than just a singer. She’s also a performer who isn’t afraid to mine her own soul for the sake of her art, and it’s her willingness to let her voice quiver a little that makes “Can’t get you out of my mind” so powerful.
After a stirring electric guitar solo with classic psychedelic reverb, Michellar croons a final chorus, this time repeating it a total of 10 times. It’s the climax of the song, the logical conclusion of her obsession, and the culmination of all the tension she has so skillfully built.
Just like an obsession, “Can’t get you out of my mind” is a song that sticks in your mind and syncs with your heartbeat. It’s one of Michellar’s first forays into the psychedelic genre, but it won’t be her last. “Cant get you out of my mind” is a teaser of things to come. Michellar is currently working on a full-length psychedelic album, which is slated for release in Spring 2027.
For fans of Michellar, that might seem like a long time to wait for more, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned from her work, it’s that good things come to those who wait.
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