| The Shins – Australia Lyrics | 10 years ago |
|
Some good interpretations on this one. Always can count on shins fans to be imaginative and intelligent haha. The line "duo-tone on the wall," just to clear it up (and, of course, I could be mistaken), is a reference to the DuoTone guitar (a hybrid acoustic/electric); which, if this interpretation is correct, then it would be like him giving up on his dreams, as the guitar just sits on the wall. |
|
| Hum – The Very Old Man Lyrics | 11 years ago |
|
Ignore the first part, which are actually the lyrics to "The Scientists" on their second album, "Downward is Heavenward." I agree with the last comment. The whole album "You'd Prefer an Astronaut" follows a lyrical concept, chronologically from the start of a relationship to the end. This song is very dense with imagery, and an almost sonnet-like intensity, so any attempt at trying to dissect the meaning of each line wouldn't yield much. The real depth of the song is taken as a whole. I think at this point the narrator in the relationship is contemplating the idea of monogamy with the "She" of the record. The narrator has a strange idea that it's some sort of kinetic and electric energy which has bonded the two together. The rest of the lyrics follow his thoughts about the dissipation of this energy. But the last stanza upends this thought (another trick of the sonnet) with a beautiful consolation on all the memories created and how "she" has done so much by changing his view to one more expanded. I don't know. I've thought a lot about the lyrics to this record. Matt Talbot is certainly a poet. One of the few rock bands I could say that definitively about the lead singer. I've related to the whole experience of "You'd Prefer an Astronaut." To take such a common human experience (the beginnings and dissolution of a relationship, all the things you learn and concluded from it) and transform it into something powerful because of it's uniqueness, takes a very brave and exacting artist (or group of artists in this case: Hum easily has some of the best musical chops of any 90s rock group). But man, those lyrics. Timeless. |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.