girl in red—aka Norwegian singer-songwriter Marie Ulven—is all grown up and moving on from her past. That’s what she wants people to know with her latest single, “October Passed Me By,” a sort of sequel to her 2018 hit “i fell in love in october.” The acoustic track arrived on Friday and has since climbed its way into the Top 20 on the Genius Top Songs chart.
While “i fell in love in october” was set amidst the blissful stages of a relationship, “October Passed Me By” takes place long after that relationship has ended. Ulven is looking back with a level heart now, but it took her a while to see all the good that came from the experience—and the original song that it inspired.
“Every fall since I put out ‘we fell in love in october’ in 2018, I was encouraged to do things on social media to talk about the song again,” Ulven explained in a statement. “I’m not in the same place as I was when I wrote the song, emotionally or artistically, so pretending to be so felt boring and uninteresting. So, I never did any of that; but last year something happened in my personal love life that brought up a lot of feelings that I had to confront internally. ‘October Passed Me By’ is where I’m at today, emotionally and musically. Grateful for what has been, and full of love for a very special person that made a huge impact on me as a person.”
On the first verse, Ulven admits she never fully let go of her ex.
I keep the letters that you wrote in a secret place
Every now and then, I go down memory lane
She recounts how the relationship ended on the second verse. Things got irrevocably bitter between the two of them, and Ulven knows it was a mutual feeling.
Yeah, I got bitter when you got cold
And could you really blame me though?
’Cause I’m still tied up when you go
You know this song is about you
Who else could it be?
On the third verse, Ulven can see where things went wrong. The relationship fell apart as soon as they tried to put a label on it.
It wasn’t all good, yeah, it wasn’t all pretty
Lost our grip while tryna go steady
Ulven credits some of their downfall to bad timing on the bridge.
I met you at the wrong time, didn’t wanna see
I was busy with the stars, you were looking at me
On the outro, Ulven chooses to hold onto fond memories of her former lover.
I made you my whole world
Screaming at the top of my lungs, “I love you, my girl”
Always in the back of my mind, you’ll be my girl
“October Passed Me By” was co-produced by The National’s Aaron Dessner, who is behind most of Taylor Swift’s acclaimed Folklore and Evermore albums. Ulven already had the song written when she reached out to the multi-instrumentalist and producer. “I met Aaron Dessner in the fall of 2021,” Ulven explained in a statement. “I told him I had this song that I had written and wanted to make but I hadn’t started recording it yet. I had never worked with him, so for me, it felt like an interesting and also lowkey thing to try out.”
You can read all the lyrics to “October Passed Me By” on Genius now.
