Let There Be Love Let There Be Loss Let There Be Let There Be
/ Ode To 'Stay' By The Kid Laroi (Ft. Justin Bieber)
For all the speaker-obliterating death metal that kept me alive.
For every acre of post-rock sunsetting through headphones bigger than God.
It is you, The Kid Laroi, with your song - no, hymn - Stay, who strut slid swooshed through my dumb dancefloor heart, my Spotify most-listened-to, since 2021.
The shower nozzle snorts like a watery horse.
Stay erupts from my face-down phone six (million?) times.
What? I dare a glaring towel rail.
At least my t-shirt is gone, even if it was the chorus that swept it off.
Dear shampoo: soon I will be yours but first let me microphone my fist because Justin's verse is two point five seconds away and oh my God.
I drop to my knees and word-perfect it straight into the oddly angled rim of the toilet seat.
The chain, a fan’s outstretched hand I reach for through the crowd.
A twangy ukulele cover of Stay summer’s through my phone.
The sky drips orange streaks like unreachable honey.
Dad, saying Judi Dench used to be an actress and now she’s just an advert.
Dad, saying whatever I do, find someone who makes you feel safe.
The parts of Dad that are left: I need them I need them I need them to stay.
Told you I'd change, even when I knew I never could, The Kid Laroi sings.
I shoot him a direct message.
Songs this good? Don’t you ever change, kid.
The piano version of the Stay spills like low-fi moonlight through a flat that is suddenly just a building, not a home.
No love, just furniture.
No tenderness, just someone handing over your pizza at 1AM and begging to be left a decent review.
O how I galloped through that pulse pulsing city for months!
Riding on the poorly-produced backs of the saddest covers of Stay.
I was drunk on the loneliest desire of all.
To be close to anything but oneself.
I watch the live version of Stay from the VMA awards evening.
When the boys hug, I hold out my arms.
You just killed yourself! is what a headset says to another headset as Mario tumbles off screen.
Almost, someone says, reading a comment beneath the video for Stay, But Slowed Down, as they shuffle pills back into their pill box.
I need.
You.
And you? Who do you need to stay?
Yourself.
Say yourself.
Dear Shampoo: please allow Jim to write more of this. The italics and parenthesis, are a subtle touch yet add more depth.
The song really is that good. Love this post.