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Nostalgia, Regret, and (Trying To) Moving On
Djo’s “Delete Ya” captures the haunting feeling of 'what if?' Compared with Djo’s previous work, this song is one of his most lyrically dense — threading nostalgia and regret through hazy recollections of a past relationship that never fully came to fruition. The song also captures Djo flexing his vocals a bit more, experimenting with playful pitches over upbeat instrumentals — signaling a potential shift in sound for his upcoming album, The Crux. The peppy instrumentals paired with dense lyrics create an interesting confluence of emotions, leaving the listener to wonder whether the narrator is truly ready to move on or just pretending.
Verse 1: A Disorienting Return
The opening verse drops us into a moment of dislocation:
“Red-eye, last minute flight
I get in early, I was roused by the light
Back in the city, no longer my home
Trying to let it go”
It’s an arrival that feels more like a return, a reluctant homecoming that immediately builds a sense of unease and regret. Later lines bring this point home:
“I take a walk in Hollywood
My old apartment isn't looking too good
Then there's a lyric that, in context, stings
The immediate pain it brings
That song that you used to sing”
We get the sense that Hollywood and this once-familiar apartment no longer feel like home. It’s as if the narrator is trying to move on, trying to make peace with the past, but the ‘lyric’ that stings, ‘the immediate pain it brings,’ reopen these old wounds. The narrator is no longer at peace, and the regretful nostalgia starts to set in.
Pre-Chorus: Nostalgia vs. Letting Go
With the pre-chorus, we’re immediately transported back in time:
“Back on your couch, frozen peas to my head”
The couch and frozen peas imply comfort, as if the partner is helping ease the pain of the ‘lyric that […] stings’ that the narrator feels in the future. Further images — “cramming into your bed,” “our home” — reinforce this comforting dynamic, but with the final lines comes complication.
“It doesn't leave you alone”
The past isn’t just haunting the narrator — it’s relentless for the other person, too.
Chorus: The Struggle to Forget
The chorus acts as a gut punch.
"Oh God, I wish I could delete ya’
Cause nothin’ can compete with ya."
There’s a sense of desperation. The speaker doesn’t want to just move on, they want to forget, erase, overwrite, force the memories out of their head. But the refrain betrays the futility of this:
"I replenish and repeat ya"
It reveals the cyclical nature of trying to move on, and reveals that perhaps the narrator doesn’t actually want to delete this person or these memories. There’s a certain comfort in reliving the memories, even if they’re ultimately causing harm.
Verse 2: Lingering 'What Ifs'
Just as the chorus suggests, the second verse brings us right back into rose-tinted memories, this time with a sense of youthful recklessness.
“Blue and gold Friday night
Team up with Charlie, take these kids for a ride.”
The recurrence of these overwhelming memories is almost jarring given the switch later in the verse:
“I’m locked, she’s the key
I’m a boat that’s sinking, guess who’s the sea.”
The imagery here is overwhelming. It could imply that the narrator sees this partner as the source of their unease, but given the rest of the song, it could also signify that this person is still all-consuming to the narrator. The jarring, immersive memories, the layers of regret throughout the song — it all seems to point to a relationship that never fully took flight, a constant, nagging what if? that refuses to fade.
Second Pre-Chorus: Conflicting Emotions
By the second pre-chorus, the dynamic has soured:
"You kept it tight to the chest at someone else’s expense
That doesn’t sound like real love."
It’s a quiet accusation, almost angry but more so lamenting. It highlights the tension within relationships, navigating the give-and-take when one person wants more intimacy than the other can give.
The Bridge: Self-Awareness or Self-Blame?
The bridge fractures the song’s loop, shifting into a moment of self-awareness.
"I wanna know (Just two weeks, how’d you cut it like that?)
Maybe you show me how (I’m built different, I don’t work like that, huh)."
The perspective toggles between disbelief and resentment — how did one person move on so quickly while the other remains stuck? The nostalgia seems to become a simultaneous source of self-blame and comfort.
“I got to repeat, chew up, spit out
The blame complex in me, me, me.”
The song isn’t just about a failed relationship — it’s about the way we sometimes internalize that failure, trapped in a cycle of self-doubt and regret.
Final Chorus: The Potential That Never Was
The final chorus brings the ‘what if’ into the real world, hinting at an alternate reality:
"One heart could bleed for the future us
If we were young, but this is done."
There’s an acknowledgment that the relationship might have had a different fate under different circumstances, but that version of reality is out of reach. The narrator remains stuck, longing for an alternate past that never existed.
Speculation & Potential Meanings: Who Is 'Delete Ya' About?
Of course, lyrics don’t always reflect an artist’s personal life, but "Delete Ya" has a few lines that invite some speculation. The second verse’s mention of "Charlie" and "kids" — “Team up with Charlie, take these kids for a ride” — could be a nod to Stranger Things co-star Charlie Heaton and the younger cast members. Or maybe it could be a personal reference unrelated to the show — hard to say for sure.
This potential Stranger Things connection naturally raises further questions. Onscreen, Joe Keery’s character, Steve Harrington, dated with Natalia Dyer’s character, Nancy Wheeler. In reality, though, Dyer and Keery were never romantically involved. Instead, Keery was dating actor Maika Monroe during much of his time on Stranger Things, so if the song is pulling from his own life, it could be reflecting on that relationship — or just a general feeling of nostalgia for that era.
More recently, Keery has been linked to actor Chase Sui Wonders, though his current relationship status remains private. If "Delete Ya" is inspired by real events, its subject remains a mystery. Whether drawn from personal experience or pure storytelling, the song’s blurred lines between memory, regret, and longing make it all the more compelling.
The Reality of Moving On
Ultimately, "Delete Ya" isn’t just about moving on — it’s about trying to. Even as the speaker begs for erasure, the song itself is an act of remembrance, signaling that forgetting is never fully possible. The speculation surrounding who the speaker wants to delete —an ex, a friend, a ‘what if’, or someone else entirely —adds another layer of intrigue, reinforcing the idea that memories, once embedded, are difficult to rewrite.
