There’s something disorienting about going home and not recognising it anymore. Ouida gets that feeling exactly right on her new song “The City We Grew Up In.”
The track opens with those stacked harmonies; heartfelt is the right word for them, before her voice slides in with a smooth timbre.
The production sits in this groove-driven middle ground between soul music and contemporary R&B, the kind of track that sounds like you are living in the moment.
What I like is how honest she is about the grief of it all. “Don’t recognise these buildings / Guess it’s humbling / To be a stranger numbing / These memories where I’ve been.”
It’s gentrification in a few blunt lines. Ouida is not trying to be poetic about it; she’s just naming what it feels like to lose your landmarks, your corner stores, the shortcuts only locals knew.
It’s personal, and if you’re from any city changing faster than you can keep up with, you know exactly what she means.
The song doesn’t wallow, though. There’s a turn in the chorus, “But the streets that took me home / Made me the girl I know / That love goes where you go,” where she shifts from mourning what’s gone to claiming what stays with you.
It’s a simple idea, but the way she delivers it, with that texture in her voice, makes it relatable.
Ouida defines nostalgia as both longing, and holding onto identity when everything around you is being erased or rewritten.
She posted on Instagram about “trinkets and crafts that feel like little portals,” and this really comes through in the song.
She’s not just talking about missing old haunts; she’s talking about what happens when the physical markers of your culture start disappearing.
The instrumentation shifts subtly, like seasons changing, so the track feels like you’re walking through your old neighbourhood half-remembering, half-discovering.
To be overly critical, the bridge (“I know when I leave / My people stay with me”) could have pushed somewhere unexpected instead of restating the theme. But honestly? That repetition also feels intentional, like she’s reminding herself as much as us.
This is the kind of soul music that actually earns the word “soulful.” Ouida’s not performing nostalgia, she’s processing it in real time, and inviting you to do the same. It’s mature, specific, and surprisingly hopeful for a song about loss.
The song is worth your time, especially if you’ve ever felt like a stranger in the place that made you.
“The City We Grew Up In” is part of her new EP So Bitter, So Sweet, out now!
