Never Let Me Go

Produced by

Florence Welch and Paul Epworth wrote this R&B-tinged piano ballad. The band first premiered the song during a concert at New York’s Creators Project on 15 October 2011. … Read More

Oct. 28, 20111 viewer214.9K views

Never Let Me Go Lyrics

[Verse 1]
Looking up from underneath
Fractured moonlight on the sea
Reflections still look the same to me
As before I went under
And it's peaceful in the deep
Cathedral where you cannot breathe
No need to pray, no need to speak
Now I am under all

[Pre-Chorus]
And it's breaking over me
A thousand miles down to the sea bed
Found the place to rest my head
Never let me go, never let me go
Never let me go, never let me go

[Chorus]
And the arms of the ocean are carrying me
And all this devotion was rushing out of me
And the crashes are heaven for a sinner like me
But the arms of the ocean delivered me

[Verse 2]
Though the pressure's hard to take
It's the only way I can escape
It seems a heavy choice to make
And now I am under, oh

About

Florence Welch and Paul Epworth wrote this R&B-tinged piano ballad. The band first premiered the song during a concert at New York’s Creators Project on 15 October 2011.

Talking about the track, Welch said:

The gospel thing comes from my obsession with hymns. I’m drawn to anything that has a hymnal quality, be it spiritualized or dusty old albums by Georgian choirs.

It was released as the fourth single from the album on April 2, 2012.

Tabitha Denholm, the music video’s director, and the director of the “Rabbit Heart”, describes the visuals as:

A flipside of the sun-drenched “Rabbit Heart” video. In our mind it was the spirit of the drowned girl who had achieved some kind of reprieve for the night. She is drawn to the ice. There she dreams about a lover but she is inevitably reclaimed by the dark water.

“Never Let Me Go”’s lyrics describe going down in the water and being carried by the ocean. Lyrically, the song serves as a continuation of the previous track in Ceremonials, “What the Water Gave Me”, which narrates entering the water with the purpose of drowning.

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

Translations:

Portuguese Translation

What did Florence + the Machine say about "Never Let Me Go"?

Talking about the track, Welch said:

The gospel thing comes from my obsession with hymns. I’m drawn to anything that has a hymnal quality, be it spiritualized or dusty old albums by Georgian choirs.

Why did Florence stop performing this song for a long time?

In April 2022, in the opening night of the Dance Fever Tour, Florence Welch told the audience why she stopped playing “Never Let Me Go”, and why she was about to sing it for the first time in almost 10 years:

I had a lot of time to think – as many of us did – and I reassessed a lot of the old material. I think I rejected it because it symbolically seemed like so much pressure. And I think you being here and listening to the music for the last 10 years has changed everything.

It used to symbolise a person under a huge amount of pressure. But every time I try to push a song away, you love it the most and you bring it back to me. I’m so grateful to you for that. Like the tide bringing it back to me, I wanted to give it back to you.

Who produced “Never Let Me Go” by Florence + the Machine?

When did Florence + the Machine release “Never Let Me Go”?

Who wrote “Never Let Me Go” by Florence + the Machine?