Dev Lemons — “in the middle of the night”

Meeting someone halfway sounds incredibly reasonable until you realize Dev Lemons has already reorganized the bedroom. On “in the middle of the night,” the second track from her new album hunting what we already killed, she makes a seemingly casual proposition: come over, don't think twice, I'll even leave the light on. Easy. Relaxed. Absolutely no emotional stakes here whatsoever.

Except there's a nightstand now.

Specifically, a nightstand on your side of the bed. Dev has moved things around in anticipation of someone staying while simultaneously watching them put their shoes back on. It's such a painfully good little image of getting ahead of a relationship while trying desperately to sound like you aren't. She asks this person to meet her in the middle, but emotionally she's already crossed the median, taken their exit and started looking at property.

And that's where “in the middle of the night” gets us. The song has this easy, immediately likable pull while Dev's brain is doing considerably less easy things underneath it. She's reading faces for signs of disappearing passion. She's wondering whether she's too much. She's promising not to make this a big deal while making enough room in her life for another person's furniture. The heart has moved in. The relationship appears to still be reviewing the application.

The track lands on hunting what we already killed, Dev Lemons' second album and her first since partnering with ONErpm. The record follows the viral success of “eat the pavement” and a run of previews including “only one way to know” and “best friend.” But “in the middle of the night” makes its case with something much smaller: wanting someone enough to leave the light on, then lying awake wondering whether they'll ever actually need it.