Where Memory Meets Myth: Judy Pearson’s Poetic New Single "Afterthought"

September 25, 2025

Where Memory Meets Myth: Judy Pearson’s Poetic New Single "Afterthought"

In a world in which sorrow so easily dissolves into nothingness, Judy Pearson would rather sing. Her new song, Afterthought released on September 19 is mythic legend turned modern confession. She reaches out to Epimetheus, "hindsight," to sing of an ex who didn't even know her until the sky came crashing down. "He only recalled me when all was not well," she feels, and the line grows into something more: a caution, a grievance, and at last, a vow that she will not be shaped by the rearview mirror.

What's so captivating about Judy is that she exists at the crossroads of vulnerability and belligerence. Her voice shudders between anguish and steel, wistfulness and resolve, like a mood ring that shifts color. She shares Gracie Abrams' diary-like transparency, Olivia Rodrigo's snarky cheekiness, and Taylor Swift's melodramatic emotional highs and lows, but the sorcery is her own. Each of these songs is as much reflection as action, echoing back at her listeners the tales they have stored in their own bosoms.

This is not Judy's first waltz with history, or last. In 2024, she borrowed from Tudor England, recalling a line King Henry VIII once wrote to Anne Boleyn in Remember Me. Now she borrows from Greek mythology, reinterpreting the story of Epimetheus and making it exquisitely intimate. It's a pattern that characterizes her artistry: tracing myth and memory into songs that are both eternal and searingly personal. Every song combines the past and the present, until her discography is a patchwork of eras, sadness, and optimism.

And it's heard. With more than four million streams and a debut EP already in progress, Judy is starting off her shiniest season ever. In preparation for the release of the EP, she will provide fans with a couple of extra singles—a holiday Christmas single included—each another thread in the fabric that she is crafting. For the time being, though, Afterthought is her rallying cry: a reminder that hindsight has well and truly expired, but a voice at its peak precisely on cue.