What About Love

A.CHAL

**"What About Love"** is a song by American singer and songwriter Banks . It is the closing track off her third full-length album, *III*.

## Theme

The song is a naive take on a situation where Banks has feelings for a man who is with someone else. As Banks said on the Editor's Note of her Apple Music: "It feels like it's written from the exact thing that I feel like my album is about: the life cycle. It's an adult situation—‘I belong to no one, and you belong to someone else’—yet it's sung from this really innocent perspective of, but what about love? It doesn't matter if that's an unrealistic situation, what about love? Love can make it work."

On her interview for Harper's Bazaar Banks stated that this song and "Sawzall" have the same feel, that she wanted in the album: "[They] feel to me like they come from this really pure place, when you’re really bright-eyed and young, before you’ve gone through stuff. It’s not that you’re naïve, but you haven’t been hurt yet, so you view things with a different-colored glasses on. I never wanna lose that. It was really important for me to capture that type of energy on this album."

Banks also talked about this song on her interview for The Line of Best Fit: "It’s a really guttural song about love, that ends with my little pure, perfect niece saying ‘I love you’, I wanted to end on that note: no matter what happens, you’re going to go through so many ups and downs, you’re going to dig deep and have some pain to get over. Life happens, but no matter what, I always want to feel hopeful and I always want to have a little bit of that romantic naïveté. I never want to be jaded, or bitter, but I also always want to feel like I’m learning and becoming wiser."

## Lyrics

Hey, yeah

Ah, ah

Ah, ah

I belong to no one

You belong to someone else, but

Maybe if we just rewind the tape

Give me one more chance to

Give me one more chance to show you, baby

Maybe if you just realized what we could be

Maybe if you just relearned my name, mmm

Maybe if you just relearned my name, mmm

What about the life that we could make?

We could grow older

What about love?

What about love?

What about love?

What about love?

I belong to no one

You belong to someone else, but

Maybe if we just go back in time

Hurts to see you in real life, but

I can talk to you like this, is that okay?

That's the only way, that’s the only way, that's the only way

Promised me you would never love another, mmm

You said it when we were under the covers

What about the way we kiss the same?

We could grow older

What about love?

What about love?

What about love?

What about love?

Yeah

Ah, ah

Ah yeah, ah

Ah yeah, ah, ah

Ah, ah, ah

What about, what about, what about

What about love, what about love, babe?

What about, what about, what about

What about love, what about love?

What about, what about, what about

What about love, what about love, babe?

What about, what about, what about

What about love, what about love?

I love you

I love you

## Trivia

* While she says she has no favourites among the songs she’s written, she’s called this one ‘life-changing’ and claims she ‘wouldn’t shut up about it’.
* The closing lines are spoken by Banks’s 4 year old niece and seem to be part of the ‘romantic naïveté’ she was hoping to convey.

## References

<references>

1. ↑ https://music.apple.com/us/album/iii/1467545091
2. ↑ https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/art-books-music/a28156927/banks-iii-album-interview/
3. ↑ https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/features/longread/banks-empress-of-empathy-interview