A Timeless Love Anew – David Gray’s ‘This Year’s Love’
Soulful, brutally honest, and disarmingly affectionate; that’s David Gray’s candid perspective in his heartfelt classic, ‘This Year’s Love’. Conveyed under Atlantic Records UK in 1998, the lyrics adroitly combine the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of love, expressing a profound authenticity that nullifies the boundaries of Pop, Singer/Songwriter, and Alternative Rock genres.
The song opens with ‘This year’s love had better last’, setting the tone of longing, anticipation, and emotional vulnerability that permeates throughout. Gray seems to encapsulate the lonely human condition awaiting the fortitude of relationships that ‘had better last’. The refrain ‘Heaven knows it’s high time’ alludes to the urgency of this desire, as if it has been a pursuit much delayed.
The lyric ‘And when you hold me like you do, it feels so right, oh now, I start to forget how my heart gets torn when that hurt gets thrown’ beautifully blends the dualistic nature of love – the euphoria of being in someone’s arms and the pangs of heartbreak and betrayal when ‘that hurt gets thrown’.
Interestingly, the writer takes an atmospheric turn with lyrics like ‘Turning circles and time again, Cut like a knife, oh now’. This vivid imagery serves as an appeal to the senses and an echo of the ceaseless cycle of love’s sweetness and soreness. The added touch of the character asking for more than ‘sweet, sweet lies’ before ‘losing all control’ further amplifies the earnestness of his quest.
The conclusion circles back to the song’s signature line, ‘This year’s love had better last’, and a light, optimistic note closes the piece with ‘Don’t you notice life goes on?’. It suggests an acceptance, an understanding that love, in all its fiery trials and comforting warmth, is a part of life’s unending cycle, to be cherished and endured, and definitely worth the wait.
Gray’s ‘This Year’s Love’ is a testament that love, much like our lives, is an ever-transforming journey. And even after 25 years, and nearly 185 million Spotify streams as of 2023, the song continues its hold on listeners’ hearts worldwide, making them yearn for a love ‘that had better last’.