James Walker - Just Love

“If this is just love, why can’t I let it go?” was a question that I asked myself for almost half a decade following the breakup of a toxic and turbulent relationship. The constant rumination and obsessive thinking lead to me questioning whether it was “just” love, or indicative of something more like compulsion and unresolved attachment issues.
After six months of therapy for OCD, CPTSD and receiving an ADHD diagnosis, it all makes a little more sense. This song was written as an anthem for the codependent, sonically matching the gritty underbelly of love and relationships that little talk about.
Just Love is a part of a full-length album releasing on Snafu Records (20X GRAMMY-Nominated, 18m monthly listener catalogue), recorded by James himself in studios across Europe. It represents a new sonic direction, as Walker steps into a grittier and more intense sound.
--
Lyrics:
Golden coloured half light hits my eyes
Illuminating feelings I pushed aside
It always takes me by surprise
How much agony can hide
In my laughter lines
Long shadows stretching out across the pavement
Foreshadow all the demons I’ll be facing
When it ends as it begins, with you pressed upon my skin
Each and every time
If it was just love coming undone
Why can’t I let it go?
Why am I tethered to us
Still caught up
Living with your ghost?
I’m stuck in a past life mentality
Where we’re the idealized version of who we could have been
But you were never really you
I am never me, but
But we fit so well together
Didn’t we?
If it was just love coming undone
Why can’t I let it go?
Why am I tethered to us
Still caught up
Living with your ghost?
Now if it was just love
If it was just love
Why can’t I see
That there was someone between us
Someone inside of you and me
If this was just love
If this was just love
If this was just love
Why can’t I let it go?
Dialogue
Every time I get into a relationship, this happens. And I don’t know what do. I don’t know whether it’s worth me dating anyone at all. Part of me just wants to not bother, because it makes me very unhappy. All I'm thinking about is this person, on a loop, for the entire day; why aren’t they talking to me? Why aren’t I seen? Why don’t they love me? Why don’t I-