This Just In: Young Rising Sons Characterize Human Relationships and Memories in “Halloween”

Young Rising Sons’ “Halloween” delineates a story that is perhaps not necessarily specific to the holiday itself, but the general feelings of longing between former lovers.

It’s often easy to associate certain holidays with certain people. Be them good or bad, these special days and their connected counterparts create memories that become difficult to shed. On “Halloween,” the newest single from pop rockers Young Rising Sons, these sentiments are felt tenfold.

“Halloween” serves as the first single for Young Rising Sons in over two years; the song also serves as their first output since the band decided to create their pop project Camden Welles in 2019. Now, with Young Rising Sons making a return, these two bands will live concurrently to one another, supplementing each other with unique musical yields. Young Rising Sons will do what it does best: anthemic alt-rock-pop that leaves tinges of hope in its narratives, while Camden Welles will continue to curate poignant pop tunes whose relevant commentary never feels short-sighted. Nonetheless, the bands’ members, Andy Tongren, Steve Patrick, and Julian Dimagiba, will maintain an enviable artistry that feels fully matchless.

“Halloween” navigates feeling heartsick with specific memories of a lost love, utilizing the autumn holiday as a backdrop for an overarching theme of melancholy.

Between you and me I’m a bit lonely
I type out a hundred texts
I can’t bring myself to send
Between you and me, yeah I’m still hurting
So I drink my emotions down
At our favorite bar uptown
Do you only really miss me when you’re gone?

The song remains powerfully redolent, tackling emotionality with unique personability. “Halloween” feels intimate with its listener, inciting sympathies with its narrative and Tongren’s powerful vocal prowess.

You say you’re thinking of me
And that you’re sad we barely talk
But it’s hard to believe
When there’s a million miles between
Between you and me I guess I’m still learning
Maybe it’s weird, I guess
Pretending you never left
Do you only really miss me when you’re gone?
If you hate me then why’d you even call?

“Halloween” delineates a story that is perhaps not necessarily specific to the holiday itself, but the general feelings of longing between former lovers. The song journeys through a wide variety of emotions, aligning with this forlornness while not leaving itself completely confined to it. “Halloween” certainly fosters an unequaled yearning, yet it also capitulates a knowledge and understanding of why things exist as they do.

To say you’re thinking of me
And that you’re sad we barely talk
But it’s hard to believe
When there’s a million miles between
It’s Halloween and I’m alone again
Dressed up as a skeleton
Typing texts I’ll never send to you

Young Rising Sons delineate a desire for clarity in their feelings as “Halloween” maneuvers through its percipient sensitivities.

It is not difficult to feel attached to a specific holiday or moment in time because of a specific person or situation. These instances help cultivate the human experience in its purest form, allowing one’s personal attachments to dictate the sentimentality. As unique individuals with unique feelings, it is not outlandish to believe that the lives we live in certain pockets of time will become ingrained in our psyche in particular ways.

“Whether good or bad, our past experiences are inherently engrained in us, in particular those memories specific to holidays. They stay with us and each year we’re reminded of the sadness, joy, or anger we might have felt years before,” Tongren explains of the track. “‘Halloween’ is about how occasionally reliving those experiences again and again changes the foundation of what a holiday might mean to us.”

Why’d I even put this stupid costume on?
Halloween without you just feels wrong
If you hate me then why’d you even call?

Young Rising Sons masterfully characterize humanness in “Halloween,” explicating affectations of yearning sentimentality, expounding on this explicitly human condition with unparalleled panache. The song denotes that things did not work out favorably, accepting its fate with grace. “Halloween” perhaps wishes for things to be different, but doesn’t necessarily force any sort of change that could be unwanted.