Stephen Jaymes has a knack for tapping into the creeping, existential dread of modern life and turning it into something you can sing along to.
His new single, “Baby Can’t Be Helped” is no exception – part folk-punk catharsis, part psychological diagnosis, and entirely too relevant for comfort. It’s the kind of song that makes you laugh a little at how doomed we all are before hitting you with the realization that, actually, we might not be.
At the heart of the track is Baby, the part of the human brain that just flat-out refuses to accept help, no matter how obvious, simple or necessary that help may be.
Baby clings to suffering with a white-knuckled grip, resenting the mere suggestion that things could improve. And in 2025, with the world teetering on the edge of what feels like irreversible collapse, it’s hard to shake the feeling that Baby isn’t just some rogue impulse in our own heads. It’s in charge of everything.
Jaymes, ever the sharp observer, delivers this message with a mix of deadpan humor and real frustration.
The song opens with a heavy and brooding guitar progression, played just softly enough to feel unsettling. When his vocals come in, he is almost talking at first, calm and measured, like a doctor trying to explain a difficult diagnosis. And then the chorus hits with its rolling, bluesy ascension.
And then there is the realiseation that, of course, Baby can’t be helped.
It’s an addictive cycle, both musically and thematically – building toward clarity, then crumbling under the weight of that same old resistance.
The structure of the song mirrors exactly what it’s describing – the fight to reason with a world that refuses to be reasoned with. It’s maddening, it’s darkly funny, and, it’s deeply relatable.
But there’s something else happening here, too. Jaymes isn’t just throwing his hands up in despair. This track is part of his larger message entitle “#VISION2025” – a call to recognize those forces keeping us locked in this endless tantrum, and to actually do something about it. It’s a reminder that before we can change the world, we have to confront that part of ourselves that refuses to change.
And the funny thing is that we all know Baby. We have seen it in people we love, in people we can’t stand, and in ourselces. Maybe if we start recognising when Baby is pulling the strings, we can finally start taking the rattle away.
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Modern Mystery 