It feels like not a day goes by before somebody laments the absence of true romantic love in today’s world.The men complain that women nowadays are only after money.The women,on the other hand,complain that men nowadays are only after sex.
Against this background has risen the distinctively modern phenomenon of the situationship.
According to the Camridge Dictionary,a situationship is “a romantic relationship between two people who do not yet consider themselves a couple but who have more than a friendship”.Google simply defines it as “a romantic or sexual relationship that is not considered to be formal or established”.
The situationship is the ultimate gray area.Somewhere beyond just platonic but also not really anything official.It is compromise for those who can’t resist the lure of love but also don’t want the commitment.
Coming in at Track Number 5 on Adedamola,Fireboy DML’s fourth studio album,”Letting Go” captures the futile anguish of a situationship that doesn’t have anything resembling a road ahead of it.It is a rueful sermon against holding on tightly in cases where it is not only unnecessary,but also unwise.
The melancholic mood is set before a single lyric is sung,built by the mournful humming against a backdrop of stirring guitar strings that actually spread out the rest of the instrumental.
Lojay follows this theme with an intro dripping with poignancy.”Sometimes you’re rude sometimes you hold it back” demonstrating clearly the inconsistency such as which makes a love doomed.He further bemoans the fact that he was head over heels in love,but also promptly announces that his feet are now fully back on the ground and he is exiting the hole he has been stuck in.
That is the note at which Fireboy kicks off the chorus,sorrowfully trying to make sense of the end by rationalising that sometimes,loving is letting go.But remember,this is a situationship so it can’t be that black and white.
In the very next line he declares that as she is well aware,he will always be there for her.Anybody who has experienced the push and pull feelings of such a scenario will no doubt feel seen and understood.
The reassurance is only a set up for the hope he still expresses that him and his love interest can still be a thing,captured perfectly by the third line of the chorus,the plaintive melody with which “And if you love me let me know” is delivered,betraying the irrational optimism he can’t help but harbour that this evidently doomed relationship can still be saved.
But that optimism,irrational as it is,is still a cautious one,as his interest in knowing if she loves him or not is only so that he doesn’t end up embarrassed by the lack of requition of his love.
Fireboy’s first verse provides the context for how he has ended up in the situation he is in,as he tells the listener all about Julie who has been his best friend since uni and swears she loves him truly.He concludes by describing her beauty as akin to that of a leading lady in a James Bond movie.
The rhyming is wonderful,but it is the choice of lyrics that is most compelling to me.The term “best friend” used to describe one’s closest or favourite friend.And in some ways it still does.But it also has an added definition today,especially if the “best friends” are of opposite sexes.
A girl best friend for a guy tends to be the person with whom he shares everything he would with his girlfriend,only in this case that official designation doesn’t exist.So in short,the perfect candidate for a situationship.
Lojay takes the wheel again,lamenting his quickness in falling in love,only for her to evidently be cheating too.That is a whole new other angle which suggests that Lojay has caught feelings in what wasn’t supposed to be an exclusive relationship.Because if she is cheating too it means he is cheating as well,which begs the question of why Lojay would expect her to be loyal.But such is the dizzying lack of logic that typifies situationships.
He ends by ruing the time he has wasted on her,asking her to put herself in his position in order to understand his feelings.Concluding with the delightful line “And you’re my happily never after,baby” is an exhibition of Lojay’s lyrical mastery,but it also further cements the theme of irrationality.
Fireboy takes the reins for the final time,ensuring that this ode to the complicated reality of the situationship ends on the same sad note it begins on.”I found you and I lost my mind” underlines the emotional conflict that is inherent in a relationship that lacks boundaries.It will drive you crazy in both good and bad ways.
He seems to arrive at some level of clarity with the way he implores her not to waste his time,concluding by noting that although she is holding tightly onto him as much as he is holding onto her,the sane thing would be to let go and go separate ways.
Letting Go has not received the same attention as other songs on the new album,which is partly a result of the track numbering.The first four songs are all bops so by the time the listener arrives at the fifth they are perhaps beginning to take Fireboy’s brilliance for granted.
Adedamola has been described as Fireboy going back to what made him so special on his debut album Laughter Tears & Goosebumps,which is making painfully relatable songs.”Letting Go” is perhaps the most convincing proof of that assertion.
