It’s my 1990s Adult Contemporary FM station all over again…

When I first heard Lewis Capaldi‘s single “Before You Go” in mid-2020, I was indeed hearing it on the old-school radio station I grew up listening to in the ’80s and worked at in the ’90s (that’s 104.5 on your FM dial, kids). It’s funny how much “Before You Go” and, really, Capaldi himself, sounds like a library track from my time at that station.

That’s not bad thing…in fact, you can’t help but be drawn in by Capaldi’s gruff, scratchy, almost grizzly-sounding voice as he pines away about what could be a lost relationship with (what else?) a toxic significant other. Okay, maybe not toxic – but certainly someone who has issues (“If only I’d have known you had a storm to weather / It kills me how your mind can make you feel so worthless“). But more on what this song may be about later…

First, let’s back up for a moment. When I first heard “Before You Go” when it was brand new, I could’ve sworn I’d heard it before. That’s when it hit me; Capaldi’s sound is so distinct that I was thinking of his previous hit, 2019’s “Someone You Loved,” another lovelorn ballad with similar instrumentation and emotion (both tracks are from his debut album, Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent). That song topped the charts in the UK and USA and I remember being impressed with the fact that this husky-sounding Scot was only in his early twenties, sounding many years beyond his age.

That holds water if reports are true that “Before You Go” is actually about suicide, and specifically, the suicide of Capaldi’s aunt when he was a child. It’s heavy stuff, and the adult way in which Capaldi delivers his gut punches (Was there something I could’ve said to make your heart beat better?) strikes with the emotional strength of a man well beyond his years.