“Like I Want You” by Giveon
The addressee of Giveon’s “Like I Want You” is his ex. And it is one of those situations in which, most notably, he still has feelings for her and is more or less trying to reestablish their romance. The addressee, on the other hand, appears as if she has already made peace with the fact that they are no longer together. So even though Giveon is still doing stuff like inviting her to dinner, at the same time he is compelled to front like he doesn’t ‘want her’, even though in reality he does.
And if that all sounds a bit complex, so too is the emotional premise behind this lamentation. But what it all seems to be boiling down to is the vocalist – for lack of a more premise way of putting it – afraid of being rejected twice. And what he seems to desire more than anything is for the addressee to admit that she loves him, if such is actually the case.
Facts about “Like I Want You”
“Like I Want You” was released on 21 November 2019 as Giveon’s third single overall.
By the looks of things it was the first of his songs to chart, doing so exclusively in the United States, where it appeared on 3 Billboard listings and made it onto the top 10 of a couple of them (Adult R&B Songs and Hot R&B Songs). And more importantly, this track went double-platinum stateside as of early 2022.
This song served as the lead single from Giveon’s debut EP, “Take Time” (2020). The said EP also produced another very powerful single titled “Heartbreak Anniversary“.
“Like I Want You” was produced by the quartet of Sevn Thomas, River Tiber, Jahaan Sweet and Los Hendrix, all of whom also co-wrote the song with Giveon.
It should be noted that Giveon has insinuated that the featured narrative in this song is not based on his personal experience.
Just to note, Giveon was 24 years old when this song was dropped. And the label behind the song’s release is Epic Records.
Giveon’s “Take Time” EP
“Take Time” is American singer Giveon’s first career EP. This project was officially made public on March 27 of 2020. This EP was released by the collaborative effort of record labels Epic Records and Not So Fast Records.
Two singles were issued from this project, with the first being “Like I Want You”, which dropped on November 20 of 2019. “Heartbreak Anniversary”, one of the EP’s most popular songs, was issued as the second single from this project. Its issuance date was on February 21 of 2020.
Also to note, Giveon was part of the production team that handled this project.
Locally, this EP enjoyed a moderate performance, peaking at #35 on the Billboard 200. It also had a similar performance on several charts internationally.
In 2021 “Take Time” was among the nominees at the Grammys. It was shortlisted in the “Best R&B Album” category. It lost to John Legend’s seventh studio project, “Bigger Love”. Ant Clemons’ “Happy 2 Be Here” and Gregory Porter’s “All Rise” were also nominated in the said category.
