Louis Tomlinson is gearing up to release his sophomore solo album, Faith in the Future, on Friday, and yesterday, he dropped another taste off the project, “Silver Tongues.” The song follows previous singles “Out of My System” and “Bigger Than Me,” and it quickly climbed into the Top 20 of the Genius Top Songs chart.
“Silver Tongues” was written by Tomlinson, Scottish singer-songwriter David Sneddon, U.K. synthpop duo Hurts lead vocalist Theo Hutchcraft, and producer Joe Cross. Tomlinson says working with fellow artists produced a different type of song than he would normally write—and that set the tone for the rest of Faith in the Future.
“What you get with that is a different level of care and love for what you’re doing, instead of making it about money and trying to get the single,” Tomlinson explained in an interview with Euphoria magazine. “It’s not trying to be anything that it’s not. We were not trying to write a single, and there’s just a certain level of energy to it.”
Lyrically, “Silver Tongues” finds Tomlinson already nostalgic for a life that’s still happening in the present. On the first verse, he paints a vivid picture of these happy times. He’s wearing Nike Air Max’s with the song’s titular silver tongues, he’s smoking and drinking, and he’s with someone who’s a bit of a pessimist about love.
Air Max’s and silver tongues
Settle in for another heavy one
You said love was a pretty lie
And I choked when your smoke got in my eye
Bad logic and empty cans
On the pre-chorus, that same pessimist is also the person he shares a deep connection with.
I know nobody understands
Me like you do
Despite their disagreements, Tomlinson knows that it’s nights like these that they’ll look back fondly on.
You know it’s times like these
We’re so much happier
Nights like these
We’ll remember those stupid jokes
Only we know
On the second verse, Tomlinson feels on top of the world when he’s with this person.
But I’m king on a 50-metre road
We stand up tall and beat our chest
On the bridge, he insists that he wouldn’t want to make these memories with anyone else.
You and me until the end
Waking up to start again
There’s nowhere else that I would rather be
Faith in the Future drops this Friday, November 11. While you wait for the project, you can read all the lyrics to “Silver Tongues” on Genius now.
