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Usual Places

We used to hang out in the usual places
With the usual faces
It’s a bittersweet taste
All the usual places are gone, are gone

Now there are no remaining traces
Of the warm embraces
From the usual faces
The usual places are gone, are gone

Maybe we’re just getting older
Do you believe it has to make you colder?
All the things that made me feel alive
Still make me feel alive
Make me feel alive
Still make me feel alive

We used to dance in the usual places
With the beautiful faces
Now it’s too late
All the usual places are gone, are gone

Still reminiscing about the old disgraces
The drunken chases
On the staircases
The usual places are gone, are gone

Maybe I’m just getting older
Yearning’s in the eye of this beholder
Holding on to what kept me alive
Still makes me feel alive
Makes me feel alive
Makes me feel alive
Makes me feel alive
Makes me feel alive
Makes me feel alive

Please take me back to the usual places
The crazy nights
And the sweet embraces
The usual places are gone, are gone
Our steps back to the usual places
With the fading faces
Can’t be retraced
All the usual places are gone, are gone

Maybe we’re just getting older
Sweet memories just let them smoulder
All the things that made me feel alive
Still make me feel alive
Make me feel alive
Still make me feel alive
Make me feel alive
Make me feel alive
Still make me feel alive

Maybe I am going crazy
’cause the beautiful faces
Have left no trace
And the usual places are gone, are gone
The beautiful faces are gone, are gone
The usual places are gone
The usual places, the usual faces are gone

The usual places are gone
The beautiful faces are gone
The usual places are gone

Song Notes

“Usual Places” was released as a digital single on August 15th, 2023 and is about old haunts that have disappeared. Tim Wheeler said of the song upon it’s release:

“Originally written as a tribute to long forgotten bars and faces as I was leaving New York, “Usual Places” took on extra significance as the first thing we worked on together post-lockdown. Below the surface of the joy of writing and playing together again, there’s a subconscious grief to all that was lost in those years. Friends and family, pubs and venues. This is our eulogy to them all. No coincidence the video was shot in the Marquis of Lorne, just a walk from Brixton Academy.”

Tim Wheeler speaking to NME in August 2023 added:

“It was definitely an end of an era feeling when I was leaving New York and it was building up for a while. Towards the end of being in New York, I was noticing a lot of the places where I used to hang out when I first moved to New York had disappeared. And so had the people. New York is an especially transient place. So I starting to get nostalgic before I even left New York and then the pandemic happened and I was like finishing the lyrics and thinking ‘these are extra poignant’ because there’s so much more that didn’t last from the pandemic.”

“It’s a little bit about gentrification too, and also facing getting older. As you get older, you get that ‘Usual Places’ feeling more and more. But then there’s some things that still make me feel totally the same, like music. I always feel like I’m young when I’m playing in Ash.”