Someone You Loved – Song Review

I found this song purely randomly while listening to music when at work. Youtube just started playing it based on my previous music preferences.

It is the third song from the EP of Lewis Capaldi called Breach, and the fourth song from his single released album until now, Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent.

The song quickly became Capaldi’s first number one on the UK Singles Chart, and kept it’s position for seven weeks. Later it became the best selling song of the year in the UK, reaching number one on the Irish Singles Chart in March 2019. After six months that took the song to be written, I think it is a pretty good reward.

You can find complete song lyrics here.

The song tells the story of a person who feels like being alone, like there is no one to support him any more.

He (and I am saying he because most of the songs are written from the perspective of the singer) was used to the presence of a woman in his life, or at least a person that was there no matter what. He had it all and now he has nothing at all, and feels he is going crazy, he feels that he is losing control.

I’m going under and this time I fear there’s no one to save me
This all or nothing really got a way of driving me crazy

He needs someone beside him, someone to whom he could give all his love and affection, someone that can mend his wounds and make him forget about all the problems.

I need somebody to heal
Somebody to know
Somebody to have
Somebody to hold
It’s easy to say
But it’s never the same
I guess I kinda liked the way you numbed all the pain

The chorus reflects the person sitting at sunshine (the day bleeds into nightfwall), thinking that he is alone, that the ones he loves are not there anymore. Moreover, he trully believed that the ones next to him are faithful and cannot harm him, but he was wrong. He wasn’t careful any more and devoted all his heart an soul to people who betrayed him, people who made him suffer. And pain is even stronger as he spent his days thinking he is loved, got used to the idea and now all of the sudden the person is not there any more to give him the love he was used to.

Now the day bleeds
Into nightfall
And you’re not here
To get me through it all
I let my guard down
And then you pulled the rug
I was getting kinda used to being someone you loved.

The second strophe talks about the author’s need to run into someone’s arms when he has problems. He now feels like he is sinking, drowning with no chance of escape, but this time has no one next to him whom he can go to. He has to face the problems all by himself. Everybody tells him to forget the people who made him suffer, but he knows that the task isn’t as easy as it looks, especially as he got used to the person next to him to help him run away from sandness and problems.

I’m going under and this time I fear there’s no one to turn to
This all or nothing way of loving got me sleeping without you
Now, I need somebody to know
Somebody to heal
Somebody to have
Just to know how it feels
It’s easy to say but it’s never the same
I guess I kinda liked the way you helped me escape

Although the song lyrics are not very complex, they are very deep. The repeating of the chorus over and over throughout the song reflects the intensity of the person’s feelings and how he wants to go back to his life the way it was.

The song was written first of all as a consequence of a recently ended relationship and some people in his family passing away. He needed to write a song that would cover the feelings for both, so this is how it was created “Someone you Loved”.

Usually a song is about transmitting to the others your feelings. If an author manages to do this he really touched the sky. But Lewis Capaldi did more. He managed to make people transmit to him their emotions and stories. Made them open up and find a reason to go on.

Second of all, he wrote the song for the people, because he wanted people to come to him and find their own life in the song. That is why he kept an open ending for the song, cause he didn’t want to impose his story to the other ones.

The song video is even more touching than the lyrics. It tells the story of a man (Peter Capaldi) who has to cope with the death of his wife. But he decided to give away her heart to another young woman, saving her life and reuniting a family with a little child, giving hope for life. The video was created in order to increase the awarness for organ donating initiatives.

The video is created simetrically, starting and ending with the beating of the heart, introducing us even from the beginning into the story. The beating of the heart somehow reflects also the lyrics, as the heart is most of the times associated with emotions and love. The disease of the wife in the video and the fact that her heart saved a life tells us that in our hearts resides hope, love, life and hapiness. Our heart is the motor of our lives. The symetrical construction of the video tells us that everything starts and ends with a heartbeat. This is all that it takes for us to be happy.

Complete song lyrics

© picnicontheshelf, June 3, 2019