Elizabeth Gerardi's new song "Young Love & Old Money" is an ode to The Great Gatsby, a classic that can be perfectly adapted to modern times.
The slow, haunting piano and lush orchestration fit the aesthetic perfectly. Her lyricism really shines here— the allusions, the phrasing, but it's her voice that really shines through, with the tension building to a lush release in the chorus. She sings, "You and I were made for a season/ forbidden fruit that I was eating/ Oh poor thing, don't look so blue/ It's what I had to do." The way she can embody this character shows her writing prowess. She's giving this character the narrative and the agency that was so overlooked. Gatsby is the hopeless romantic, but Daisy is seen as shallow and careless. Gerardi's version shares a new perspective.
The song took off on TikTok after she shared a short snippet of the song, just showing how that one lost perspective can still make such an impact. Gerardi feels like she's in another world. She can take these characters and translate them into a modern pop sound dripping with nostalgia but never feeling dated. She's definitely an artist to watch.
