Come On Get Higher

In this sultry song, Matt Nathanson is filled with desire, really missing his girl when he's not with her, particularly the sex. It came from a place of passion, which might be why it has connected with listeners and endured as his most popular song. It's a very conflicted song, though. Nathanson's marriage was falling apart, which inspired the Some Mad Hope album. In "Come On Get Higher," the girl he's lusting after isn't his wife, and he's not sure whether to abstain or give in. At the end of the song you'll hear him shake out this dilemma in the line, "It's all wrong, it's so right." "It's a song about celebration and loss," he explained in a 2020 livestream. "Because I only feel joy when something is taken away. I feel the most when I'm denied something. It's trying to be as honest as I can in portraying this."

The song is best understood in context with the album. It's track 2, following "Car Crash," where Nathanson is looking for some excitement so he can once again feel alive. That feeling continues into "Come On Get Higher," where he's not thinking so much about saving his marriage and is consumed with the other woman. That changes as the album goes on, and by the last track, "All We Are," he's contrite, ready to devote himself to his wife. "That record is a seminal moment in my life on many levels," he said in a Songfacts interview. "It's a heartbreaking time about a relationship and tells a story. Of all my records, it's the one that really benefits from being played as a whole. The songs segue into each other in a way that's really important."

"Come On Get Higher" is Matt Nathanson's most popular song by a wide margin. The single is certified Triple Platinum for 3 million units, with 2 million of those coming after 2009, two years after the song was released. This shows that it is consistently not just streamed, but also downloaded, an indication that it has a very strong bond with listeners.