Lord Huron’s “The Night We Met” Lyrics Meaning

Lord Huron’s “The Night We Met” is a very emotional song that has a principal theme of lost love, regrets and intense longing.

The song’s addressee is apparently someone who was once close to Ben Schneider (the narrator). From the lyrics, it’s very likely that said addressee was his lover. They apparently had good times together. However, something bad happened and instantaneously caused the death of their union.

It is not lavishly made clear in the song what happened for them to cease to be together. However, what is copiously clear is that the narrator is presently downcast. He now wishes he could go back to the night he and his former lover met. Again it is not made abundantly clear why he wants to journey back to that time. What’s so special about that time? Does he want to go back to repair the relationship?

“Take me back to the night we met”

On the surface, it looks as though all he craves for is an opportunity to go back into time and undo what happened to tear them apart. The lyrics read as if he feels responsible for making the addressee slip away from his world. Could this be the reason why in the chorus, he talks about being “haunted by the ghost of” the addressee?

Ben Schneider talks about “The Night We Met”

We can find the answers to the questions raised above in Ben Schneider’s own explanation of the meaning of “The Night We Met”.

In an interview with Gigwise, Lord Huron in his own words explained the meaning of this song. According to him, the song is about the regret you feel after the demise of a romantic relationship. And despite you and your ex actually enjoying “many wonderful things together”, you still regret venturing into that relationship because at the end of the day, it wasn’t worth it.

So you now find yourself at a point where you wish you could turn back the hands of time and not start the relationship in the first place. Why? Simply because it was so not worth it!

Conclusion

This is undoubtedly a really good song from Lord Huron, and it reminds us a lot about two classic songs, namely:

• “Unchained Melody”
• R. Kelly’s “If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time”

It shares the same theme with the latter song. Furthermore, there’s a slight similarity to the Kelly classic in terms of the sound.

Release and Success

It is the fourteenth and final track on the track listing of “Strange Trails”. “Strange Tails” is Lord Huron’s official second studio album. The band released the entire project in the United Kingdom and the United States on 7th and 8th April, 2015, respectively. The album was not only critically acclaimed by also successful from a commercial standpoint. As such, it charted in many a country, including America and Britain.

As for “The Night We Met”, it was the most successful song on the aforementioned album. It charted impressively in the music charts in various destinations. For example, it was a top 10 hit in two Billboard charts. One such chart was the “Alternative Airplay” chart, where it reached number 7. It also made it onto the Hot 100 charts itself.

By 2020, the song had sold over 2 million units in America. Owing to this, it holds a multiple platinum status in the United States. And as of the same year in question, the song had been streamed more than half a billion times.

The song actually met with the aforementioned successes after it was featured in Netflix’s famous teen drama series titled “13 Reasons Why“. This was about two years after it was initially released.

Who wrote “The Night We Met”?

This super successful track was penned by Ben Schneider. Schneider, who founded Lord Huron, also produced it. As for Lord Huron, they are an indie band from the United States fronted by Schneider. So far, “The Night We Met” has been the band’s most successful material.

Does Phoebe Bridgers feature on “The Night We Met”?

No and yes. American singer Phoebe Bridgers doesn’t feature on the original version of this song. But Lord Huron released a remix of this song in 2018. It is that version that Bridgers is featured on. That version was also quite successful (but nowhere close to the original’s success). For example, it was unable to enter the Hot 100. However, it charted impressively on at least one official Billboard’s chart. It also entered the official singles chart in France.