“Anywhere Away from Here” by Rag’n’Bone Man & Pink

The term “anywhere away from here” is well-known in and of itself. That’s not to say that you’d easily find it in an idiom dictionary. But still, everybody knows what it means. And that’s when a person is so uncomfortable or tight in the place they’re at, that they’re desiring to be “anywhere away from” that particular locality, if you will. 

Or rather as presented in this song, what the singers are feening to flee from is not a place but a situation. And said situation is not specified. Rather as intended, the wording has more of a general applicability. And concerning said situation, the vocalists didn’t find themselves trapped in it just like that. But the reason they have met such an unfavorable fate is due to the types of decision making processes which perhaps we all suffer from time-to-time.

Rag’n’Bone Man

Rag’n’Bone Man sets the scene by recounting a moment in time whereas he and his co-vocalist were “wild and running”, being totally ‘fearless’ in their approach to life. He seems to be insinuating, using logical reasoning, that this was back in the days when they were young, as youth tend to have such an indomitable outlook on the future.

Pink

But by the time the second verse rolls around and Pink takes over, talking about the present instead of the past, things have changed.  And simply put, it would appear that at some point in time the aforementioned optimism was rather replaced with fear.

What she seems to be saying, all wordings considered, is something like they decided to play it safe – complying with the mainstream so to say – and in the process ‘sold their souls’. 

Then to make matters worse, even in terms of keeping up with the Joneses and “trying to belong” they have “failed”. So now they are suffering from one of the worst fates whom someone who was once free-spirited can ever endure – growing old and being discontent in the process. 

And yes, the lyrics do, to some extent, read as if the two singers may be a couple. But more evidently than whether or not they are lovers is the fact that they both made beds which they no longer want to lie in.

“Anywhere Away from Here”

So that brings us once again back to the title. And conclusively, it doesn’t appear that the two featured characters will ever overcome this predicament. Instead it’s like the best they can do is fantasize or pray for someone to materialize who would take them “anywhere away from here”. 

So the lesson behind it all, if there is one, is that the listener should endeavor not to end up like these characters.

Music Video

This song’s music video was filmed in London at a venue known as Duke of York’s Theater. Its director’s name is Joe Connor.

Has Pink collaborated with Rag’n’Bone Man before “Anywhere Away from Here”?

No. This is the first collaboration between Pink, a well-tenured American pop artist and Rag’n’Bone Man, who at the time is more of an up-and-coming musician from England. 

That is to say that he has only dropped one full-length to date, 2017’s “Human”, which proved to be especially successful in his homeland. More specifically the album topped the UK Albums Chart and has been certified quadruple-platinum across the pond.  However stateside, that same project only managed to make it onto the lower half of the Billboard 200.

According to Pink, she and Rag’n’Bone Man first crossed paths in Europe some time in 2017. She was already enamored by his voice beforehand. And according to her, upon getting to know him, she “quickly learned he has a beautiful soul too”. 

Furthermore, she also felt that “Anywhere Away from Here” was the perfect song for the two of them to collaborate on. And from his perspective, he feels it “an honor” to work with the legendary Pink.

Rag’n’Bone Man, an artist who has made a name for himself as a composer as well as vocalist, gets both songwriting and production credit for “Anywhere Away from Here”. Another musician and prior collaborator, Ben Jackson Cook, also receives the same.  And the other producer is Mike Elizondo and the other co-writers Dan Priddy, Simon Aldred and Mark Crew.

Release Date of “Anywhere Away from Here”

Columbia Records officially released this track on the date of 9 April 2021. It is the second single from RnB Man’s second studio-album, “Life by Misadventure”. 

The first single that came out from the project, “All You Ever Wanted” (2021), didn’t really perform that well chart-wise except in Belgium, where it reached number two on the Ultratop listing.

Meanwhile Pink’s last studio project prior to this song was 2019’s “Hurt 2B Human”. That album was a major success as far as charting goes, accomplishing the notable feat of topping the Billboard 200 as well as the UK Albums Chart. 

And the last single she dropped before this, which was actually a standalone issuance, was “Cover Me in Sunshine” (2021). It is a collaborative effort with her then nine year-old daughter, Willow Sage Hart, and the song managed to chart in about 20 nations across 3 continents.