Before By NIKI From the second studio album "Nicole" Track nhạc đầu tiên "Before" thuộc thể loại Pop nói về việc suy ngẫm về mối quan hệ trong quá khứ và chấp nhận sự thật rằng mọi thứ không còn như xưa nữa. Lời bài hát mô tả cảm giác hoài niệm, tiếc nuối và khao khát đi kèm với một mối tình tan vỡ. Ký ức của người kể chuyện về mối quan hệ ùa về khi họ đến thăm những địa điểm và khoảnh khắc quen thuộc mà họ đã chia sẻ với người yêu cũ. Bài hát nêu bật sự đan xen của những kỷ niệm mà họ trân trọng và thực tế là mối quan hệ đã kết thúc và họ không thể ở bên nhau được nữa. Lời bài hát (English) You hid me in your dorm room It was Halloweekend, I just flew across the globe Twenty-two hours just to see you Just to barely fit on your twin-sized bed And talk about your cool new friend Who I never met, who you dated as soon as I left Carolina autumn It had been a year since I saw you Since we ended it Had a year to grow into the girl you always wanted Now we're holding hands as not quite friends But not quite lovers Well, we'll just pretend You say, "It's complicated to make amends" Well, is that the way that we're headed then? And you couldn't answer me Though you could pull me in while I brushed my teeth And let your hands both freely speak Like I wasn't ever gonna leave, leave You were all I'd ever known And now I'm supposed to love you from a distance Like it's nothing, like it's instant And you say, "Let's just see where this goes" And I don't know how or why you seem just fine "Cause I" m having to grasp that you're somehow not mine anymore It's so cruel how things are only almost like they were before Like they were before Like they were before Like they were before We walk downtown and it's charming You're alarmingly disarming Yeah, we've got forty-eight hours left Before I fly back to my death While you stay just fine and feel alive South of the Mason-Dixon line Where everyone closes shop at nine Where you could somehow finally find What you were desperately looking for Funny how you thought that was gonna be New York With our chalkboard walls and slanted floors Oh, we could've had that and so much more Ask your new lover what it's like to be given A real fighting chance before you wish her, "Good riddance" Did anything ever really count Or was I just a two-year practice round? You were all I'd ever known And now I'm feeling stupid, you're forbidden They say, yeah, we were something, too bad we were children Ooh, I don't know where to go And I don't know how or why you seem just fine "Cause I" m looking at you and God knows you're not mine anymore It's so cruel how things will never be the way they were before Like they were before It's almost just like how it was before But it's not anymore