Ashe Strips Down ‘Love Is Not Enough’ With Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith

Two years ago, singer-songwriter Ashlyn Wilson introduced herself to the world with “Moral of the Story,” a raw, detailed chronicle of her divorce. Co-produced by Finneas O’Connell, and helped along by a Netflix placement, the song struck a chord, to the tune of several hundred-million streams and counting. This summer, Ashe is poised for a bigger breakout, with a well-received set at Lollapalooza, a Kimmel appearance this week, and, most notably, her recent debut, Ashlyn, which blends classic California pop with more modern sounds and shows Ashe’s gift for melodies both golden and meanderingly eccentric. 

Album standout “Love Is Not Enough” is another detailed chronicle of a romance. This time, it seems to start in the middle of a spat, with Ashe telling an unnamed lover, “You can slam the door, tell me that I’m like my mother.” But things get more tender from there, as Ashe finds comfort in connection, a momentary respite, even if the future is deeply uncertain.

On the album version, the song grows to a dreamy swell that feels like a distant cousin of Pet Sounds. By contrast, this live version showcases the deceptively simple tune — one of those golden melodies — lurking at the heart, trading the more ornate arrangement for acoustic guitar played by one of the song’s co-writers, Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, who sings one of the verses here. Shot at L.A.’s Million Dollar Theater, where Ashe also shot the video for the album track, the clip strips down Ashe’s portrait of contentment in the moment, but still feels dreamy in the right ways. “I’ve been an embarrassingly big fan of Dawes and Taylor’s writing for years,” Ashe said. “He is kind and has such a unique approach to writing. I feel so lucky we got to write together. Getting to sing our song together is out of this world. How is this my life?”