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Worry Not There Are Galaxies You Haven’t Heard Of

Worry Not There Are Galaxies You Haven’t Heard Of

Lucy Petroucheva
November 14, 2025

In 2022, I wrote in my notes app:

Sometimes I wonder if anyone has anything to say. What’s nice about Tom Rosenthal is he is evidence that people have things to say. Tom Rosenthal says something.

Tom Rosenthal is a great musician. And podcaster. And dad.

This is him:

I continue in my note, only days after finding his music:

Somehow he captures the depth of life with the depth of the sounds in his music. It’s like he’s in touch with the center of the raw, vulnerable thing that is life.

His music is so sentimental and existential, yet carefree and whimsical and light. He captures the paradox and absurdity of life.

And:

He makes me want to tap into the deepest parts of myself and then to express them in the least ego-focused way ever.

I’ve liked 91 of his songs on Spotify. I flew to Paris to see him live. My friends deemed that summer my Rosenthalean Era.

Today’s artifacts point to why I’m such a fan, and they’re quite sensory, so you’ll want to take some time to click around, listen, and take them in. And you might have a better experience if you do that here instead of in your inbox. Grab a drink and settle in for some joy!

First, a sampling for taste! I feel like you’ll know pretty quickly if you’re into it.

A song that says open your eyes to the world, be free, and improvise:

A song that says there’s no doing it right, so just do your thing:

A song that says Tom Rosenthal’s voice is really good:

1. Song | Uncontrollably

This is the first song of his I ever heard. It begins with him sitting in the room where his father died. I was struck by how graphic he gets—how unflinchingly he confronts what could be repulsive or shameful, as if to say "this too is part of it all, part of being witnessed, part of witnessing."

He wrote an entire album for his dad when he passed away. Later in the album he sings:

I did this thing toward the end, where I put my head up right against your head . . . tried to store up every single vein

Waited up all night and watched you sleep, I’ve never done that before, and you know what? It was the best night of my life

2. Instagram Posts | On Parenting

One time I scrolled all the way to the start of his Instagram page. It’s mostly photos of his kids. And that one scroll, maybe more than any other thing I’ve seen, helped me visualize the kind of parent I hope to be.

One that’s liberated—so that there’s freedom and goofy dancing together:

creating together:

(his daughter composed this when she was 4)

(making songs up about everyday things)

and a lot’s permissible:

and a lot’s observed against the backdrop of the world:

3. Song | Busy and Important

This song pokes fun at self-importance and it cracks me up.¹

And Rosenthal lives up to not taking himself too seriously. He dresses up in costumes. He has a song that’s just (yet not just) counting from 1 to 157. He has a song about watermelon and another about hummus. He has a song made exclusively of five-letter words, inspired by Wordle. And another song made of entries from his fans—”these are the beautiful things we saw on April 4.” He’s not trying to become ultra famous² or ultra rich. He has his own label, Tinpot Records, and he supports emerging artists who create music as sincerely as he does. He also does stuff like this:

4. Podcast | Strangers on a Bench

Perfectly on brand, he started a podcast called Strangers on a Bench. He just talks to normal people and it’s delightful. Somehow it always turns out profound.

The first episode I listened to was with a wonderful man who has terminal cancer.

5. Lyrics | On Self-Imposed Limitation

In Albert Camus, a song about joy in the face of man’s absurd condition, he sings:

“Invited to the feast, I only had one grape.”

For me, this little line is a visceral image.

Imagine walking into a big, delicious, nourishing feast—bursting with flavors and colors and textures and smells—

(in my mind it’s a medieval feast)

—and only allowing yourself to eat a SINGLE grape!!??

This is exactly the self-denial I want to avoid. I want to permit myself—push myself—to see and indulge in the abundance of the world.

Sometimes, very rarely, you get to know an artist well enough that you just trust them to take you wherever they think it’s worth taking you. You know how they think and what they look for, and you know they’ll take you places that resonate with your values and tastes.

Rosenthal is one of those for me.

Should you want an hour of him singing live, you can have it.

June 8, 2022

1 I’m a little self-conscious about focusing so much on my experience of him—my preferences and the ways his stuff has impacted me—but I also think there’s beauty and use in sharing the very personal and subjective ways art hits us.

2 My sense is that Tom Rosenthal is largely unknown. For example, his subreddit has 367 members and there are basically no interviews of him anywhere. He has 127k followers on Instagram but only one person I know follows him. He has 5 million monthly listeners on Spotify but I can count on one hand how many times I’ve met someone who has ever heard of him. Then imagine my surprise and delight when I met my boyfriend—my Tom—and he both knew and loved Rosenthal’s music. ❤️