Robyn - “Hang With Me”
This song reminds me of hanging with my gay friends. Like how there’s always a line to hold between friendship and anything else, that fun should be the end goal off all hang outs, and that trust is something that’s reciprocated.
If “Mr. Brightside” is about a painful coming out, “When You Were Young” is about falling in love with a guy for the first time. I listened to this song a lot during college whenever I felt lonely and wanting romantic company, wishing that the lyrics could just consume whatever is on my mind.
The first stanza is always what gets me. I would imagine myself at a club/party/coffee shop “sitting there in (my) heartache, waiting on some beautiful boy to save (me) from my old ways,” of wanting someone but never being able to act on it, of expecting too much out of things, of being forced to be content with solitude. Conversely, it could mean wanting someone to save one from old habits, past wrongs and love in the wrong places.
Suddenly, a really handsome guy comes my way. Awestruck, I note that “he doesn’t look a thing like Jesus but talks like a gentleman,” that he is not handsome in a conventional sense or one that I would normally notice, but has a charm that just lures me in and makes me forget how lonely I’ve been all my life. My feelings return to an innocent, young state as I rejoice in this simple happiness and all the damaging experiences from before just disappear.
Yeah, it’s a little over-dramatic but loneliness, romantic or otherwise, can drive a person to such feelings and this song let me indulge in them, at least for a few minutes. Even though I’m in a relationship now, there’s always something alluring and exciting about the chase. But I have to remember that the chase lasts for a fleeting moment. It’s what happens after that fateful night that matters more, whether we “can climb that mountain (and) take it slow.”
