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Leaving

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First released in 2012, this song was the second single from the Pet Shop Boys album Elysium. This song is about death, the death of a loved one, the death of a relationship, the death of anyone or anything meaningful to a person. It's also about love, and despite its primary subject matter being death, it's a surprisingly positive and powerful song. The overriding message of the song is that the people and things we love may leave our lives, but they never leave our memories, and we can hold on to them for as long as we want. This gives us reason to always believe in love.

This song has a very special meaning for me. It always will. When I finally left the abusive relationship described on the previous page, I literally had nobody to turn to. On any given day, it was all I could do to make sure I was able to eat and had somewhere inside to sleep by the time the sun set. This left me feeling like my entire world was about to collapse and I could do nothing to stop it. As each day passed, I grew more and more afraid, and after a week, I was absolutely terrified. It seemed like everywhere I went for help, nobody wanted to help me, and this would intensify my fear. I felt completely alone, like I was the only person in the world. It was, by far, the lowest point in my life. I spent most of the day talking myself out of the decision to go back. It would have solved the food and sleep issues, but the abuse would have gotten worse, the difficulty to leave would have grown greater, and my sense of self-worth would be absolutely non-existent. Then this album was released, and the first song on the album is "Leaving".

I was able to find the new album online and downloaded it, but I began to listen to it with only half-hearted enthusiasm. The song grabbed me immediately. The melody was so soft, so comforting. I felt myself being pulled into the song, and for the first time in so long, I began to feel hopeful. The lyrics really hit home for me, and I began to cry. I cried, and cried, and cried, and cried some more. I cried for so long I ran out of tears. If you don't know how that feels, let me tell, it hurts. It hurts like hell. Despite this, I kept crying. I couldn't stop myself from crying. All the pain from the last year of my life, began to come to the surface. All the negativity started swirling around in my head. All the thoughts of feeling worthless began to scream at me in my ears, and I cried. I don't know how long I cried, a few hours, a few days, a month. I really don't know. What I do know is that when the crying stopped, when all the negative thoughts began quiet down, my mind cleared, and a feeling of calmness came over me. Although my eyes hurt so much, I wanted to scream, I began to feel at peace. Suddenly, there was only one thought going through my head, repeating itself over and over, insisting that I acknowledge it. I knew I had made the right decision to leave, and I felt grateful to be where I was without him. I knew that no matter how difficult it would get, it would still be easier than going back to him. It was because of this experience that I decided to stay on course. It's difficult to know hearing this song when I did saved me untold abuse and manipulation.

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I know enough's enough
And you're leaving
You've had enough time to decide
On your freedom
But I can still find some hope
To believe in love

Our love is dead
But the dead don't go away
They made us what we are
They're with us every day
Our love is dead
But the dead are still alive
In memory and thought
And the context they provide

I know enough's enough
And you're leaving
You've had enough time to decide
On your freedom
But I can still find some hope
To believe in love

Our love is dead
(Our love is dead)
But the dead are here to stay
(Don't go away)
They made us what we are
(That's what we are)
They're with us every day
(Oh, every day)
In darkest night
(In darkest night)
Their memory keeps us strong
(It keeps us strong)
And if our love is dead
(Our love is dead)
It won't be dead for long
(No, not for long)

I know enough's enough
And you're leaving
You've had enough time to decide
On your freedom
But I can still find some hope
To believe in love

Believe in love
Don't go away

Written by Tenant/Lowe

Works Cited

A large part of this song analysis was attained from the Pet Shop Boys fansite Geowayne: Commentary, Interpretation, and Analysis of Every Song by Pet Shop Boys. Retrieved from http://www.geowayne.com/newDesign/other/inside.htm

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