| Mute Math – Burden Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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This song really identifies with me. In my interpretation,it's about a person who believes in humanity, but is frusterated by their actions. Crime in the currency Fire down a bending wall Or would you care to be In all of the gambling that got started No one is better off Hope is a candle lit night No one is meant to be On anything afloat To me, this is the person's perception of the world as it is now and as it has been through history: a corrupt, chaotic place. The last few lines, "No one is better off. Hope is a candle lit night" etc describes this person's fear that the world, and the people in it are beyond saving. We just lie awake in a stolen thought We lie awake and imagine what we are We hide and wait for some golden star And hope the dirt is wearing off We all know how screwed up things are, but the vast majority of us don't think we can change anything. We're confused, lost, imagining what our purpose is, do we even have a purpose? Why do we exist? Who are we as a people? We're hiding from our problems, and many of us making things worse. Those who aren't that cynical are hoping that a miracle will save us, that something will enlighten us, magically make us cooperate and work together, and we're hope that our sins will wash themselves away. Most people in the world are either consumed by their own greed, depravity, and sadism, or they don't believe people are capable of improving. I think this person is one of those few people who still believes and loves humanity, and that love is what frusterates him/her, because they keep disappointing him/her. S/he isn't a blind optimist, but this person believes that humanity the potential to do anything if they WORK for it, but is driven insane by the cynicism of others. Fall like a domino Lob up another mistake Humanity's perpetual downfalls and setbacks make this person bitter. I see this person shaking his/her head while watching the news, an empty look on his/her face. All of it’s killing me Let’s find a bitter end and restart it It hurts this person to see humanity do the things it does. Sometimes s/he just wants it all to end, to let humanity destroy itself and let something else take its place. Love isn’t what you want Hold if you can’t believe In his/her mind, this person lashes out at society, chastising it. "Hold if you can't believe" implies that people don't even realize how far gone they are. Facing a loaded gun In time to take a look at what’s causing all the fuss We musn’t buckle all at once The gun is the eventual fate of humanity, destruction, if they continue down the path they're on, and they wont realize this until it's too late. "We musn't buckle all at once" means that we can't all just give in and let our civilization fall. We have to stand up for something, believe in something, if we have any hope of surviving. I just can’t hold it together This line, and the music after it, is what's going through this person's mind: all the chaos and hopelessness as s/he watches humanity tear itself apart; it's all just too much to handle sometimes The devil is not the nature that is around us But the nature that is within us all This is the core of this person's beliefs: that most of the world's problems are self-inflicted. We have the potential to solve any problem that comes our way, but we refuse to cooperate, we refuse to believe in anything, because it's easy to be cynical, it's easy to think that the world is just a horrible place by nature, and there's nothing we can do to change it, but in reality, the only reason the world is still the way it is is because of US. The "devil" is the self-doubt, and cynicism within most of us, and the the blind optimism that everything will fix itself on its own (the "golden star") in the rest of us. All in all, this song is about what humanity is and what humanity can be. This "person" the song is about, is anyone who has seen the good side and the bad side of humanity, anyone who knows the potential of human-kind, and is enraged at how they're wasting that potential. This song is almost an anthem to me, a message to anyone who believes they can change the world, anyone who is fed up with people who are too afraid to believe, too afraid to be hurt, anyone whose willing to fight to make things right in the world Now, I'm sure this probably isn't what MuteMath meant when they wrote the lyrics of this song, but that's what it means to me, and whenever I hear it, it gets me mad, but it also makes me hopeful that maybe, there's someone else out there whose trying to prove that there's good left in this world, and it's worth defending. Thanks for reading this far, I hope what I said makes sense, but it's hard to put my interpretation of this song into words. :P |
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| The Thermals – A Pillar of Salt Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Someone may have already said this, but this song is literally the escape from Sodom and Gamorha put into song. Like I said in my comment on "Returning to the Fold", these guys don't have anything against religion in general, or Christianity, just when it's abused and used to keep people from thinking freely. In the "Returning to the Fold" comments page, someone posted a direct quote from the lead singer talking about his views on Christianity: Basically, he was raised a Christian and was very active in church when he was a teen. Now, he wants to believe in God, at least in some form, but he feels like all his life he was never "really convinced". So it's not an anti-religious song, because he himself is an agnostic with Christian roots. For those of you who don't know the story of Sodom and Gamorha, there was basically this city where everyone was sinning. Many people use this story to justify their hatred towards gays and "Sodomy" but that was only a very small part of their "sinning". They were incredibly cruel to beggars and a major portion of the story revolves around their hatred and mistreatment towards outsiders. Because of this, God destroyed the city, but sparred a man named Lot and his family. Two angels in the form of humans guided them out of the city and told them not to look back at the destruction, but Lot's wife disobeyed and was turned into a pillar of salt, hence the song's name. On the band's website the song is the story of a couple who are trying to flee from a fascist government of "Faux-christians". "Faux" means "Fake" or "False", which is evidence that they don't hate Christians per se, just people who use and abuse it for their own agendas Sorry for the long comment, but this pretty much sums it up: The song, as well as the whole album, is about a couple fleeing from an unjust government that uses Christianity to oppress the people. This song in particular is ironic in that they're comparing their fleeing from their country to a biblical story where a couple also tries to escape an unjust non-Christian government, so they're trying to say that Christianity isn't the problem, but anytime a government uses an idea to oppress its people. |
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| The Thermals – Returning to the Fold Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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This is purely my own opinion regarding this song: I think this song is related to the album's recurring theme of faith and opression. I personally don't think they have anything against faith in general, just when people exploit it and use it to control others. I think this song is about someone who was raised in a strict, religious society and escaped it, hating religion and God for years, but now he realizes how empty he feels without having faith in ANYTHING and his life is just as bad as when he was a religious zealot. Now he's escaping again just hoping that somehow he can find a balance between the life he used to lead and the life he's leading now, hoping it will give him some peace. "But I still have eyes....but I still have feet". I think he's trying to say that even though he has no idea where to turn and how to find peace, he still has a chance at some sort of "enlightenment" And to the person who made the comment about Pillar of Salt being about a "Totalitarian Religious government" I have to disagree. The title is a direct quote from the escape from Soddom in the Bible where, if I remember right, several people escape from a city that God is about to destroy because of the sins of the people, mostly because of their treatment of beggars, and animosity towards strangers. I'll post a more detailed comment on that page if you want to know more. Once again this is just my humble opinion, and i'm new at this so if i'm completely wrong go easy on me :] |
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