“Places We Won’t Walk” by Bruno Major

The album cover for “A Song for Every Moon.” 
Credit: July Records

In “Places We Won’t Walk,” British singer-songwriter Bruno Major explores the various settings that he won’t experience with a lost love — from a forest filled with red birds to a dizzying nighttime cityscape. With scratchy vocals and simple piano chords, Major guides listeners down their own unbeaten tracks, culminating with the enigmatic chorus:

Children cry and laugh and play
Slowly hair will turn to gray
We will smile to end each day
In places we won’t walk

“The song’s central conceit is the focus on the beauty of the world,” Major told The Independent. “All the amazing things that the protagonist won’t experience alongside their lost love.” Whether that love is a relationship that ended, or the loss of a partner who died, the outcome remains the same: The protagonist is left alone, walking the world without them.

Major’s Motivation for “Places We Won’t Walk”

Singer-songwriter Bruno Major.
Credit: Bruno Major / YouTube

“Places We Won’t Walk” is the tenth song on Major’s 2017 debut album, “A Song for Every Moon.” The album was conceived when Major challenged himself to write, record and release a song for each full moon over the course of a year. “I had to learn to let go, as whatever happened at the end of each month I had to put something out, even if I thought it sucked,” Major told NME.

Luckily, it didn’t. And Major has since released two other albums — “Let a Good Thing Die” (2020) and “Columbo” (2023). On his latest album, Major addresses death more directly: “Tears in the Rain” is dedicated to the memory of his grandmother, while “18” is about a childhood friend who died by suicide. Major has also experienced what he called an “ego death,” when he realized his fame and success were ephemeral — resulting in a months-long binge drinking spree, according to Why Now.

Yet in “Places We Won’t Walk,” the experiences depicted in the lyrics remain: the sunlight dancing on leaves; the glow of neon city lights. And with them, some hope: There may be loss, but no matter what we’re going through, the world is not bereft of joy and light.

You can listen to Bruno Major singing “Places We Won’t Walk” below.