"Dallas Green's sixth studio album as City and Colour is more than a record, more than a collection of songs. The Love Still Held Me Near is a journey: a story of pain and healing that begins in the throes of anguish and hopelessness and ends with a glimmer of hope. The record came as a result of Green losing his best friend in 2019; the misery he feels is evident in every lyric, his pain relatable to anyone who has ever experienced tragedy.
"Then the morning came / And the sun started rising / But I was missing my friend / So, how do I carry on?" he asks on opening track "Meant To Be." He questions the way things are, doubts that the grief and heaviness he feels are the only way forward, and offers quiet but poignant attacks on a world unfit to cradle the pain of loss. Condemning capitalism and a world that values work as a measure of worth, Green grapples with our increasingly empathy-free existence. " Erica Commisso; Exclaim!