Still Young
The Cat Empire · Steal the Light
Eyes so wild beneath your hair
Coat worn blacker than the sun
Shook your head like Strummer strummed
We stood like soldiers in a line
Heard the bells of midnight chime
We turned grey walls to fields of green
The only fate that we could scream was
While you're still young
Find your heart and find your song
Now where have you gone?
No matter where you're going
And no matter where you've been
You never needed anybody else's call now
I never met a one like you, never met a one like you
Never met a one like you, don't bring me down
There's a dream that haunts my nights
Of wild black horses out in flight
The kind of free I'd never been
A kind of beast I'd never seen
Why do all things end in pain?
I call the ghosts and ask their names
Is that love you're running from?
If you lead then I will come
And while you're still young
Find your heart and find your song
Now where have you gone?
No matter where you're going
And no matter where you've been
You never needed anybody else's call now
I never met a one like you, never met a one like you
Never met a one like you, don't bring me down
Basta de cuentos (Enough fables/lies)
Es tiempo de lo nuestro (It's time of what is ours)
Tengo tu alma (I've got your soul)
Bien metida adentro (Embedded in me)
Basta de cuentos (Enough fables/lies)
Es tiempo de lo nuestro (It's time of what is ours)
Tengo tu alma (I've got your soul)
Bien metida adentro (Embedded in me)
While you're still young
Find your heart and find your song
While you're still young
Find your heart and find your song
While you're still young
Find your heart and find your song
Now where have you gone?
Oh oh oh...
No matter where you're going
And no matter where you've been
You never needed anybody else's call now
I never met a one like you, never met a one like you
Never met a one like you, don't bring me down
The Cat Empire give ‘Still Young’ a ska lift
‘Still Young’ begins with a vivid encounter—a wild-eyed stranger in a worn black coat—and grows into a portrait of attraction mixed with uncertainty. The narrator urges this person to find their own heart and song, then wonders whether they are running from love or from something less easy to name. Images of wild horses and ghosts lend the lyric a restless, almost mythic quality, while the repeated chorus keeps bringing it back to youthful possibility. The song is not simply carefree: its questions about endings and pain sit alongside its insistence that there is still time to choose a direction.
The track appears on *Steal the Light*, The Cat Empire’s sixth studio album, released in 2013. The Melbourne group is known for folding ska, reggae, Latin and pop into a lively, genre-mixing sound. In its review, Clash described the album’s overall approach as uplifting and original, and specifically characterized ‘Still Young’ as mostly ska. That gives the recording a rhythmic bounce that sits in contrast with the lyric’s more searching passages. The bilingual Spanish verse also reflects the band’s broad musical vocabulary, though the song remains primarily an English-language narrative.
Clash rated the album 8/10, praising its loose, energetic compositions and the way they could change shape in live performance. That is an album review with a specific observation about this track’s style, not evidence that ‘Still Young’ was a chart hit or a separately acclaimed single. The number’s strength is its balance: an urgent, danceable ska arrangement carries a lyric about the freedom and vulnerability of being young. Instead of defining youth as an age alone, the chorus makes it sound like a moment of self-discovery—finding a voice before someone else tells you what your story should be.