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about
I am definitely the sappiest person you will ever meet. I get genuinely weepy at songs and movies that people twice my age roll their eyes at. During lockdown I've been getting really into 1930s Hollywood musicals, real cornball stuff, and, well, one thing led to another and I wrote a Christmas song.
It's around this time each year that my husband and I will drive 7 hours into deep small-town Ontario to visit his extended family, where everyone gets too drunk and too loud and the radio seems to only play the same five songs. I live in fear of this weekend for about a month every year. Now, I miss it. Maybe you have similarly complicated feelings about these family gatherings. The song is about that.
I'm fortunate to not be alone this season; I live with my husband and our loving rescue dog. But I still clearly remember the two years we spent as a long distance couple. It's hard to be apart from the ones you love. The song is also about that.
"This Time Last Year" is a song about being nostalgic for the recent past. Remember those simpler days when we could share food and hug our friends? Those gentler times of yore — you know, ten months ago?
Nostalgia is tricky. It's usually a little dishonest; the past is rarely as good or as simple as we fondly remember it to be. This year, though, I think we've earned an honest nostalgia, a genuine claim to "good old days" that are not, in fact, that old.
So here's to better, simpler times: one in the not so distant past, and one (we hope) in the not so distant future.
- Lucas
lyrics
This time last year I kissed you
Out on a frozen street
The moonlight was dancing
As we were romancing
I felt your warm hand on my cheek
We'd driven all day through snowfall
Your family welcomed me
We wore ugly sweaters
And opened bad presents
Under a plastic tree
With dinner done
We went for an evening wander
Arm in arm
Of you I grew ever fonder
We gathered again next morning
By the fireplace on the TV
On the radio station
Bing Crosby was playing
And it moved your mother to tears
We waved through frosted windows
After taking an early leave
With shaking of hands
Embraces and plans
To return here again
This time next year
I was glad for winter's end, though the season has its charms
But in the end my favourite gift is wrapped in each other's arms
Spring brought us a tragedy that turned our world to dark
Then summer left, now autumn's gone, and still we are apart
I found in the mail this morning
A present you sent to me
The latest best seller
We'll read it together
Across our two distant cities
I'll reach out tonight and touch you
Well, your face on the telephone screen
You'll sing me a carol
And we'll say our farewells
And I'll dry my tears on the sheets
The year rolls on
And the world seems to only turn wronger
In absence long
Of you I grow ever fonder
I wake without you beside me
Just sunlight caresses my cheek
In the morning's stillness
I let myself wish
That once more we will kiss
This time next year
credits
released December 10, 2020
Written, performed, and recorded by Lucas Huang
Mixed and mastered by Inaam Haq
Illustration and handwriting by Yih Lerh Huang
Thank you: José Manuel Calderón Trilla, Amy Macdonald, Michael Pedruski, Andrew Huang, Ollie Haller, Aaron Levin
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