“So Many Personalities Ago” is the latest single from the upcoming Matt Boroff album Beautiful Machine. “I used to think that some things never changed,” the veteran artist sings, before dropping the other shoe: “Until I became someone else.” It’s a stark exploration of the ways our lives are affected by the things we can’t foresee or control. The song’s narrator comes to the hard-won realization that “I can’t hold on to what I can’t change/ That was then, this is now” as detached, almost ethereal synths rise and fall against an insistent electronic rhythm, creating a compelling contrast. “No one here stays the same,” he sings over and over as the song moves toward a close. As delivered in the artist’s weary but not-yet-resigned voice, it’s simultaneously a lament and a reason for hope.