Kell O’Donnell turns emotional wreckage into a defiant anthem on “Don’t Worry About Me (I’ve Already Got Someone New)”

Kell O’Donnell doesn’t go around the truth on “Don’t Worry About Me (I’ve Already Got Someone New)." Instead, he goes headfirst into the song that’s honest and oddly healing, one that chronicles the end of a seven-year relationship that had ended four years before it was written. But it’s the failed marriage proposal, trapped in the wreckage of an alcoholic, co-dependent relationship, that provides the emotional core to this testimony.

“Don’t Worry About Me (I’ve Already Got Someone New)" captures a time when clarity remains unavailable but self-awareness starts to flash. In abandoning any pretense of sounding cool, O’Donnell opts for sincerity over perfection. That decision drives the song’s cutting edge, in which rebellion is a defense mechanism and pretense is a cover for deep-seated hurt. 

O’Donnell also lets the repulsiveness stand out without excuse, which allows for one of those rare moments of permission on this record, when listening to yourself as a train wreck doesn’t turn into hearing yourself as an accomplished performer who’s already figured it out. But there is of hope amid the uneasiness. 

Recorded in a house in Los Angeles, “Don’t Worry About Me (I’ve Already Got Someone New)” is a cry from the wreck, it’s proof that sometimes the strongest songs are rooted in having too much backbone to lie to yourself, even when the truth might make you wince.

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