"Used to Love You" | ||||||||
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Single by Gwen Stefani | ||||||||
from the album This Is What the Truth Feels Like | ||||||||
Released | October 20, 2015 | |||||||
Format | Digital download | |||||||
Recorded | 2015; Westlake Studios (Los Angeles) | |||||||
Genre | Synthpop | |||||||
Length | 3:47 | |||||||
Label | Interscope | |||||||
Writer(s) |
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Producer(s) | Jonathan "J.R." Rotem | |||||||
Gwen Stefani singles chronology | ||||||||
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"Used to Love You" is a song recorded by American singer Gwen Stefani for her third studio album, This Is What the Truth Feels Like (2016). It was written by Stefani, Justin Tranter, Julia Michaels, Jonathan "J.R." Rotem and Teal Douville, and produced by Rotem. After scrapping the album and its two singles, "Baby Don't Lie" and "Spark the Fire", in favor to start over, Interscope Records released "Used to Love You" as the album's first official single on October 20, 2015. It was then serviced to mainstream radio on October 27, 2015.
"Used to Love You" is an emotional midtempo synthpop ballad, with its instrumentation consisting of a piano, restrained synths and drum taps. Lyrically, the song talks about a painful break-up, with the protagonist questioning why she fell in love. Stefani described the song as being inspired by the end of her 13-year marriage with Bush lead singer, Gavin Rossdale.
"Used to Love You" was critically acclaimed, with many critics noting its lyrical content and Stefani's emotional delivery. Others appreciated it for being a heartbreaking song. Critics viewed the single as an improvement over her 2014 releases, which Stefani herself later described as "rushed". Stefani first premiered the song during a concert on October 17, 2015 and its music video was released three days later. The music video is a single shot of Stefani on a black background, displaying her emotions, and occasionally mouthing some of the words of the song. The song received its first televised performance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on October 26, 2015.
In October 2014, Stefani released her first solo single in six years, "Baby Don't Lie", and following its moderate impact and reception, a new single, "Spark the Fire", was released in December of the same year. However, both singles underperformed on the charts, prompting the album to be postponed for a 2015 release. After months with no updates on the album, Stefani revealed in an interview for Entertainment Weekly that she scrapped the entire album in favor of starting over, since she did not feel fulfilled and totally involved with the previous project. Stefani started writing new material in June 2015, and following her divorce from Gavin Rossdale a month later, she felt very inspired. In the same interview, Stefani claimed: "I needed to go through what I needed to go through to write the record that I needed to write. [...] These songs are really natural — they’re from not worrying about what happened or what’s going to happen but about living in the moment, from trying to be present and trying to feel."