“Next to Me” by Rüfüs Du Sol

"Next to Me" was the second taste of Surrender, the fourth album from Australian alternative dance group Rüfüs Du Sol, and it arrived in 2021 as an unabashed love song. Jon George pitched it as a song of devotion and compassion, and a return to what the band love doing most: four-on-the-floor house with a big, warm vocal riding on top. At home it entered the ARIA Singles Chart at number 60.

It opens on a handful of spare piano notes, and ABC's Al Newstead heard a bittersweet banger in it, with Tyrone's vocal catching the ache of pandemic-era separation from loved ones stranded across closed borders. Rolling Stone Australia's Tyler Jenkins heard a new maturity and a feel-good lift, a long way from the haunted mood of "Alive". Tom Norris mixed it.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.