Joe Doonan’s new single, “Before You Leave,” is a hushed, movie-ready meditation on the loveliness and sadness of relationships we know won’t live to see their last dawn, instead of aiming for grand statements, Doonan homes in on something far more intimate.
The song is about the internal limbo of coexisting with both happiness and fear. There is a wonder at another world where love endures, and a slow realization that reality will pull you back. Doonan captures that tension honestly, leaving the listener to rest in the quiet pain of loving someone you must release. It’s such a human thing, and he conveys it with such restraint and emotional lucidity.
Doonan, a popular singer-songwriter, shares tales of his love, loss, and hopes through his story songs. Some of Ross’s best overall work to date is on his most recent collection of albums, created with hit pop songwriters including Paddy Byrne (bmg) from Dublin, Ireland, and Rob Wells (emi), a Canada-born writer who has written songs that have carried several artists to platinum records and an Emmy. You can sense that lineage here, not in shiny for shiny’s sake, but in how exacting and deliberate this song is. Recognition has made Doonan’s journey from gaining a place at Liverpool’s official Eurovision Festival, Eurofest, to headlining London’s prestigious Bedford. With “before you leave,” he offers us a song that feels personal and universal. It’s an honest portrait of love’s fleeting hours and the painful silence of when to call it quits.
In a world made of big hooks and even bigger gestures, Joe Doonan stands as a reminder that some of the best tales are those spun just before saying goodbye.