Lyrically, ``When We Were Young'' deals with themes of the ``fears of getting older,'' a recurrent theme on 25, and ``finds her reconnecting with (an) old acquaintance years after their adolescence, which prompts her to revisit those memories and to wish she could stop time.'' As noted by Maeve McDermott of USA Today, during the reunion, ``Adele wistfully begins mourning before it's even over.'' During the song, she ``watches as her youth slips away in real time,'' singing: ``Let me photograph you in this light, in case it is the last time that we might be exactly like we were, before we realized we were sad of getting old.''
Maeve McDermott
Adele