Released: 2022
“Before You” by Benson Boone is a soulful heartfelt number that beautifully captures the transformative power of love. It brings the listener on a journey from loneliness and desolation, to the joy and sense of belonging that comes with finding your better half. It’s about Boone’s life getting flipped around by an impressive woman that he can’t remember what it was like before her.
The line, “Why would I want to fly? Be on the last red-eye” is a question Boone asks himself, suggesting he doesn’t see a reason to leave or move on from this partner. Now that he’s found his love, he sees everything as noise, letters without meaning. He’s saying that he found ‘us’, or a sense of belonging with his partner.
When he sings “Darling, if you don’t mind I’ll take your hand tonight,” he’s asking his love if he can hold her hand, a classic gesture of affection. The line “We could just slow down time” suggests that he loves every moment with her and wants to make it last as long as possible.
Boone repeats “I can’t remember life Before you” throughout the song, which means he’s so in love that he can’t remember what his life was like before she came into it. It’s a sincere confession of his deep affection and how pivotal she has become in his existence.
The words, “I bet I was lost and alone I was barely holding on To the thought of a moment Like this” reveal that before his love came into his life, he felt lonely and was barely holding on. But the hope of a moment like this, meeting her and falling for her, kept him going.
At the end, Boone is essentially saying that he’s found his home in this person, and he wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. By repeating “We could just slow down time”, he indicates that he cherishes every moment with her, and if he could, he would make each moment last forever.
