‘We Know Us’ by Ella Langley - Lyrics & Meaning

Appearing at Track No. 4 on Ella Langley’s second studio album, Dandelion, ‘We Know Us’ serves as Langley’s first unreleased song on this project, following the lead singles.

Speaking ahead of its arrival, Langley stressed how she'd ‘clicked’ in her artistry’ on this record, and ‘We Know Us’ epitomises this. It sets the scene of the ‘hungover’ hitmaker resisting the pull of an old flame whilst dreaming of an alternative ending.

‘We Know Us’ starts simply, with quiet echoes of a mandolin, with CMA award winning guitarist Charlie Worsham teasing that the slower tempo might lead us to something bigger.

The chorus opens up immediately into a vibrant, beachy sound and maintains this energy throughout the rest of the song, mirroring Langley’s desire to pretend the outcome could be different. It’s a song about inevitable heartbreak but plays like a carefree summer hit.

Langley explores the familiar tug of war between heart and head when faced with revisiting an old flame. It brings to mind the age-old, ‘nothing changes if nothing changes’ adage where the odds are stacked against you and fate is already written.

Langley writes with a clever attention to detail, changing the tense from present in the first verse, ‘you’re callin’ again, and I wanna answer,’ to future, ‘I bet you’ll show up at my door, I bet I’ll let you win that war’ evoking the image that we are with Langley as she stares at her phone and ponders the outcome of the night.

As the track progresses, we’re her inner voice accepting that resistance is futile and the night will go where it always goes. She ends the final line with a small laugh, exhaling her restraint as the desire for the high wins against the promise of the low.

There's subtle foreshadowing here ahead of ‘Low Lights’, which finds Langley admitting defeat against temptation, but mournfully acknowledging the romance will implode.

“It’s 10pm

You’re callin’ again

And I wanna answer

So damn it i answer

You’re telling me why

It’s different this time

So I give you an answer

It's the same old answer

-

If we know us

It’s gonna take a turn, yeah

If we know us

It’s gonna crash and burn, burn, burn

I know that you know

That we aint gonna say no

Yeah we’re gonna mess this up

If we know us

-

I bet you’ll show up at my door

I bet I’ll let you win that war

We’ll dim the lights and pull the shades

But at the end of the day

Babe

-

If we know us

It’s gonna take a turn, yeah

If we know us

It’s gonna crash and burn, burn, burn

I know that you know

That we aint gonna say no

Yeah we’re gonna mess this up

If we know us

-

We know we’re better off solo

But can’t we just pretend

We don’t know how this ends

-

If we know us

It’s gonna take a turn, yeah

If we know us

It’s gonna crash and burn, burn, burn

I know that you know

That we aint gonna say no

Yeah we’re gonna mess this up

If we know us

-

Yeah we’re gonna mess this up

If we know us”

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Ella Langley

Artist