This Year's Love

The best song on the White Ladder album, and one of the best (in my opinion) of all time.The most under rated song ive ever heard.Its just genius.

I performed this song to my fiancee before I asked her to marry me.. and she said yes!.. so my singer-songwriter friend will be performing this song for our first dance.. To anyone who is alone.. be yourself.. have hope.. and don't try too hard. Just be yourself.. believe you will find that special person.. and it will happen when it's right. peace, love and unity! :)

It is definitely a song with multiple meanings. Clearly it is about the fear of being hurt in a relationship. However, being a David Gray song, it has a lot more to it than that. One possible meaning is this:

David Gray's use of the second person (you) suggests that he is explaining his love to someone i.e. to this year's love. Of course, he doesn't just explain it, he lavishes the song with suggestions of differing interpretations of love.

The first verse has the wonderful explanation of the situation of his fear and of how much in love he is this time. Especially, as there are moments when this year’s love makes him forget his pain and he is able to feel the love - presumably his love and her love. Concepts that we can all identify with.

The first part of the second verse is a further explanation of the pain that he has suffered over the years. This is followed by the line ‘before I open up my arms and fall, losing all control’ suggesting that he is with-holding a part of his love because he is scared of letting her too close (and presumably in doing so, able to cause greater pain). He then asks for assurance and proof of her love, before he will let her in and allow himself to love her without restraint.

An interesting line in this verse is that one about losing control, suggesting that love isn’t about control but rather the opposite.

I imagine, somewhere between the second and the third verses he realizes that his request for assurance is in fact control and a ridiculous request i.e. it is better to love totally with a positive view rather than control the amount of love out of fear.

Hence the change in attitude in the third verse which appears to be the REAL declaration of love, in that he has grown beyond the fears and is prepared to give ALL his love (including that which he was withholding in the second verse).

What I love about this reversal is that there is also a suggestion that he telling her to overcome her fears too. That perhaps, we all have fears of being hurt, of commitment etc. and that the only way to true love is for both people to just GO FOR IT.

Wonderful views of love.

David talks about some pretty painful stuff (heartbreak, constant uncertainty in relationships), but i doubt this song was written as a representation of what david might say to a new love interest. Its too raw for that. To me, this song sounds like the thoughts going through the head of someone in a long term on/off relationship, those fears and doubts that have had time to cultivate and grow within you through a long,and unstable relationship.

"Turning circles when time again It cuts like a knife oh yeah If you love me got to know for sure Cos it takes something more this time Than sweet sweet lies"

You think about these fears that the pattern will repeat and pray that it wont, but even though it eats away at you, you cant tell the person to their face how scared you are that they will hurt you again, like they did the last time, and the last time. He alludes to some pretty destructive relationship patterns

"But when you hold me like you do/ it feels so right/ i start to forget /How my heart gets torn/ When that hurt gets thrown"

perhaps my interpretation is the way it is because ive had my heart broken many times by the same person, but nonetheless, i think that it at least provides a slightly different angle to the most popular opinions, which also work well

this is what i love about music, it sounds different to everyone!

This song interests me very much. I LOVE THIS SONG! I think it's because I can see it in a few different ways. It's probably because this is the level I can most relate on, but MY FAVORITE interpretation is as follows...

I think that the writer is just fed up with relationships and quite possibly the idea of love in general. He's tried it before, and judging by the lyrics--

"When you hold me like you do It feels so right, oh now Start to forget how my heart gets torn When that hurt gets thrown"

--he always ends up hurt.

"Turning circles time again, it cut's like a knife."

It's a pattern. Sounds like he's got this routine of falling and getting hurt down to a science. Sooo sad!!

And this time, he's obviously fallen pretty hard, or is thinking about falling pretty hard, for someone new. When she holds him, it feels right. But he doesn't want to trust it. After all, the second he trusts it, he will open himself up to all kinds of vulnerability, and once again, he risks getting hurt. BUT I think he ultimately decides to risk feeling vulnerable again, and chaulks up his pride by saying, "this year's love- had better last."

I feel that saying this, to an extent, is talking himself into the pending relationship. I really do. After all, as UNFUN as getting hurt can be, he realizes it's nothing he hasn't dealt with before. Life goes on.

"So whose to worry If our hearts get torn When that hurt gets thrown Don't you know this life goes on?"

It's almost like he's saying, "hey, look, there's no sense worrying. I've been through this before. And you know what, life goes on. This, THIS could be something terrific."

And I like that logic. LOVE it actually. I'm pretty surethat's why I LOVE THIS SONG so much...

Gray acknowledges vulnerability and a reluctance to act on something because of that vulnerability. However, I get the impression that in the context of this song, vulnerability is an obstacle as opposed to a roadblock. I believe he gets past it, and pursues the relationship. It's so refreshing to hear a song where the vulnerability emotion doesn't just loom there dooming something. It's acknowledged, and then dismissed. LOVE it. Brilliant brilliant BRILLIANT songwriting.

My FAVORITE lines in the song are: "If you love me, got to know for sure. Cause it takes something more this time, More than sweet sweet lies Before I open up my arms and fall."

I think it might be his way of asking her to prove herself to him. His way of figuring out if this is indeed worth pursuing. If she doesn't love him, he doesn't want to get hurt all for naught. O:-)

Anyone else think that the way Gray sings the line "This years love had better last" sounds likes: "This years love, it'll last"? Cause the second way, for me, amplifies the idea that he's trying to talk himself into going for it.

This song is so beautiful. I heard it for the first time on the movie "The Girl Next Door" and it just made the entire scene so perfectly romantic.

I think what I like best about this song is the combination of hope and the underlying despair -- the song is all about the willingness to take another shot at love, the intense need for it, the glory of the process combined with the fear of pain, and yet, ultimately, the singer doesn't really believe it's going to work. It is, after all, "this year's" love, which means there was last year's love, and that there will probably be next year's love after this. Wonderfully heartbreaking.

Probably my favorite David Gray song, and there are many that I really love.

Lovely song. So refreshing to listen to such a song from a guy's perspective.

This is song about fear of falling in love, again. Although this person seems to be glad to FINALLY be in a relationship, he is holding back a little, probably because he's been hurt several times before and doesn't want to live that pain again.

In other words, this person is "damaged goods", if I may. It's almost as if he wants to be sure that this person is THE ONE, because he doesn't want to be broken-hearted again in case it fails.

But finally, as the title says, it's "this year's love" so, it probably won't last...

i agree. "every dream inside my soul..."

I loooooooooooooooooooooooove this song. Wow!