Sydney’s Caligula has a history that genuinely earns it some context. They came up in the early 90s alt-rock electronica scene, became Triple J and Triple M staples, toured with Depeche Mode, The Beastie Boys, and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, and their debut album “Rubenesque” went Top 20 on the ARIA charts. After reforming in 2018, they’ve been building toward a second album due later in 2026. “Mother Please Forgive Me” dropped March 6th as the latest single from that record, and it’s the most personal thing they’ve put out – frontman Ash Rothschild wrote it about losing his mother, and the central lyric she left him with: “Just be yourself.”
Musically, the drum machine sound associated with 90s electronica works incredibly well for creating a moody atmosphere here. It brings the melancholy to a completely different level and with a completely different flavor than if they went for a halftime post-rock kind of thing with the rhythm section. That choice brings the urgency of the line “It’s the last chance to see you smile” to the forefront in a way that feels right. The guitar riffs complement the vocals without taking up too much space, which gives the vocals the breathing room the song needs to land.
The subject matter is as raw as it gets – grief, regret, the things you didn’t say while you still could. Rothschild’s quote about it is straightforward and honest: the song is his way of saying what he didn’t get to say while she was still here. That kind of specificity is what separates a song about loss from a song about his loss, and “Mother Please Forgive Me” is clearly the latter. With the full album still coming, this is a meaningful marker of where Caligula are headed.
Don’t miss watching Caligula on
- Saturday 23 May – The Old Bar, Melbourne
- Saturday 6 June – Waywards, Sydney
