submissions
| Rosie Thomas – Dialogue Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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I just discovered this Rosie song playing on my Pandora station, and it surprised me. It's pensive and melancholy and gorgeous. The minimal piano is gorgeous, and I love the ethereal ambient sound. Way to go, Rosie; you are one talented girl. |
submissions
| Caedmon's Call – Love Is Different Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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I appreciate your comment, even though it's two and a half years since you wrote it. I'm the girl on the other side, and this song is also comforting to me for the same reasons. In many ways, I'm finding that love is deciding to overcome your own doubts and reach out to someone, committing to them when it's hard, not because they are difficult to love, but because it is difficult to LOVE--to overcome one's own inconstancy in order to extend unconditional support. |
submissions
| Iron & Wine – Naked as We Came Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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I think this song is a lot simpler than some people are making it out to be.
"She says wake up, it's no use pretending
I'll keep stealing, breathing her"
= He's lying in bed pretending to sleep so that he can stay close to her.
"Birds are leaving over autumn's ending
One of us will die inside these arms"
= Birds foreshadow the winter of the lovers' lives. They are so close that they'll probably die in one another's arms.
"Eyes wide open
Naked as we came
One will spread our
Ashes round the yard"
= The couple is savoring every moment together. "Naked as we came" can be literal and figurative: their physical intimacy and their innocence in love. Being together makes them feel like children, like newborns. They are happy, they have a home that they'll never leave; one of them will spread the other's ashes around the place they've loved together.
"She says if I leave before you darling
Don't you waste me in the ground"
= The couple talks about dying. She asks him not to bury her, but use her ashes to fertilize the ground.
"I lay smiling like our sleeping children
One of us will die inside these arms"
= This is not a sad conversation. It's comforting for them to talk about being together until death. Young couple, not old, with children.
Absolutely gorgeous love song, beautifully crafted musically and lyrically. |
submissions
| Jars of Clay – Shipwrecked Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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This song is gorgeous, and not often found because it's from The Essential Jars of Clay amongst previous releases. The musical qualities and vocals in this song are wonderful. |
submissions
| Jars of Clay – Closer Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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I really love this song. I love the imagery of "kite strings tangled in my trees all wrapped up." Normally having a tangled kite is a bad thing, but the point here is that even though relationships can be messy, the writer would rather work through those entanglements than be alone. Being attached to someone means the denial of your own independence--instead of being free like a kite, you're tangled up in someone else's needs and desires. But most of the time we'd rather be that way than be alone. Love the complexity of those lyrics. |
submissions
| Jon Foreman – Learning How To Die Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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The lyric "he takes our body slow" reminds me of Theodore Roethke's poem "The Waking." http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/912.html "I wake to sleep and take my waking slow..."
Could just be a coincidence, but I don't doubt that Jon Foreman is well-read. |
submissions
| Jon Foreman – In My Arms Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I like your wedding explanation, lifebound. I'm not married, but being committed to purity before marrriage, I've often thought that the best thought on the day before your wedding is that the next day you'll simply be able to hold the other person in your arms until you both fall asleep. |
submissions
| MeShell NdegeOcello – Beautiful Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Gorgeous. First heard it on this season of So You Think You Can Dance in the Mia Michaels routine danced by Mark and Chelsie. I go to sleep to this song now. |
submissions
| Leeland – Opposite Way Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I haven't been a huge Leeland fan, but this song really won me over. It's got a great, catchy melody and full instrumentals. Sticks in my head, and great message. |
submissions
| David Crowder Band – You're Everything Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I *love* this song. I discovered it randomly by putting all of my David Crowder on shuffle, and I kept coming back to this one. His vocal performance is great and the lyrics speak to our inadequacy and his perfection, which really hits home for me. Fantastic song. |
submissions
| Jon Foreman – A Mirror Is Harder To Hold Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Um, wow.
This speaks really profoundly to me right now as I'm about to leave a place that I've spent a year in and that I probably won't ever return to. I have to say goodbye to people all over again, and I'm realizing more and more that even when people drive you crazy, it's better to have them around. None of us are perfect. We all need to be accepted. A mirror is so much harder to hold. |
submissions
| Rosie Thomas – Have You Seen My Love? Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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The lyrics of this song are so simple, some may even call them cheesy. But Rosie steeps her music in such heartfelt emotion that you can't help but fall in love with it. Sometimes it's okay to just say it without all the metaphors. She just...says it. And it's lovely. |
submissions
| Iron & Wine – Upward Over the Mountain Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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This is hands down one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard. Although I won't understand the mother-son relationship unless I have a son of my own someday, this song makes me think of my brother, and... it's just exquisite. |
submissions
| Iron & Wine – Passing Afternoon Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I recently discovered this song, and it's gorgeous. Although the interpretation of a man losing a woman he loved makes perfect sense, the reason I truly love this song is that it reminds me of my mother. There are so many images in the lyrics that remind me of her, including the seeds, quilt, "perfect bed she made," mending clothes, ferns, naked arms... It's lovely. |
submissions
| Rosie Thomas – The One I Love Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Absolutely gorgeous. I don't know how the repeated refrain of the word "fire" can be so compelling, but it IS. Sufjan and Denison complement Rosie's vocals perfectly. This song is golden. |
submissions
| Mute Math – You Are Mine Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Although I guess it could be talking about God, this sounds like a love song to me. It would make a great first dance at a wedding, I think. |
submissions
| Sara Groves – Something Changed Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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This song is fantastic. Sara often relies on her unique method of conversational lyrics (hence the title of her first record, "Conversations") but in this song she breaks the mold a bit and writes very cleanly and simply. "And I cannot make it / And I cannot fake it / And I can't afford it / But it's mine" are simply perfect lyrics. Suitably vague to bend to interpretation, but sung with enough power to make you sure of their meaning. |
submissions
| Derek Webb – better than wine Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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This is a gorgeous song. I love the versions on One Zero (Acoustic) and One Zero Remix. The Sigur Ros-styled electronica complements Derek's voice surprisingly well. |
submissions
| Over the Rhine – The Trumpet Child Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I'm still vacillating in my decision to be an Over the Rhine fan, but this song is gorgeous. Sultry, rich, and swaying, with a touch of the holidays, and the lyrics are haunting. |
submissions
| Feist – The Park Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I agree with the meaning posed by tattiebird. This song is the author talking to herself, and it makes more sense if you hear the lyrics in the end, as I do, as saying, "Why would you think the boy could become / the man who could make you sure he was the one?"
She thought there was something meaningful in the relationship that would span the ocean; she hopes beyond hope that he would follow her there. But he doesn't, and all she's left wistful and melancholy, and all she has to go on is the past. "There's hope to have in the past..." |
submissions
| Caedmon's Call – What You Want Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I don't know the personal background behind this song, whether it's about a girl, a friend, God, or all three, but when you've gotten to the end of your rope with feeling disregarded and unneeded, this song is therapy. It sounds like Derek almost breaks his voice on the chorus, it's so gorgeously strained and painful. He's a master at vocal expression. |
submissions
| Caedmon's Call – Somewhere North Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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This song is criminally underrated, but in a way, it's a good thing, because it makes it more personal; retains more melancholy.
I love this song. The way Derek's voice cracks and soars lends itself beautifully to the heart-wrenching sentiment in these lyrics. "We wouldn't have to talk above the crowd / we wouldn't have to talk so loud..." This will be my song until I find that person. "I'm always driving in my mind, and wearing out the road..." |
submissions
| Nickel Creek – Doubting Thomas Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I think the meaning is a bit deeper and broader, expressing some really general doubts about faith and about how the author lives his life, especially if he is leading others. "Can I be used to help others find truth if I'm scared I'll find proof that it's a lie?" It's also about repentance and pleading for God's patience: "Please give me time to decipher the signs, please forgive me for time that I've wasted..." And in the end, it's about what it says:
"I'm a doubting Thomas
I'll take your promise
Though I know nothing's safe." |
submissions
| Ryan Adams – Wonderwall (Oasis cover) Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I don't know if anyone knows why Oasis named this song "Wonderwall," but it seems to be an allusion to the 1968 movie "Wonderwall" by Joe Massot. The soundtrack for it was composed by Beatle George Harrison. In the movie, a reclusive scientist finds light beaming through a hole in his wall. When he looks through it, he finds a beautiful model posing for her photographer boyfriend and becomes infatuated with her. As time goes on, the scientist makes more and more holes in the wall as the photo shoots continue, falling more and more in love with the girl.
If the song has anything to do with this plot point, I think it's a wonderful metaphor for discovering someone and falling in love with them. It happens slowly, it breaks down barriers, and it brings light to darkness. It's beautiful.
"and after all
you're my wonderwall" |
submissions
| Ryan Adams – The Shadowlands Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I really love this song. The music breaks me in two. I do, however, concur with those who have corrected the lyrics to read "sometimes you just can't be a man," because that's what I've always heard and it seems to make more logical sense. Can anyone prove either way which is correct? |
submissions
| Sufjan Stevens – Decatur, or Round of Applause for Your Stepmother! Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Apart from the historically charged lyrics, the sound of this song is fantastic. I keep thinking that I've picked my favorite song from the Illinoise album, only to find yet another one that completely captivates me. The rhyme and rhythm in this song work together flawlessly; it's a pleasure to listen to. |
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