| Animal Collective – Vertical Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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The Hawaiian island of Kauai was formed by a large number of lava flow rock layers which built upon one another over time. Today the highest point of Kauai reaches over 5000 feet. The island is beautiful and impressive, but it can also give a person vertigo. Many viewpoints have steep drop-offs, and it is also common to tour the island via helicopter. As the island metaphor suggests, the concept of "vertical" represents both the up/down spacial dimension as well as the process of incremental growth over time. The experience of being vertical can be inspiring, dizzying, frightening, and/or illuminating. It is common both to reach for record heights and also to worry about falling abruptly into setbacks. At the same time, one can also question whether reaching high heights is even important at all. The meaning of the parking lot lines is less clear, but the repetition of these lines suggests they are important. Perhaps crossing the parking lot represents a childhood goal that is literally horizontal and rather meaningless by adult standards. Regardless of the true importance of this goal, at some point it is replaced by the desire to climb higher and higher when “everything went vertical.” Another clue about the parking lot is that while the lyrics include many beautiful images about nature, parking lots are considered to be unnatural and ugly. The child could initially be complaining about the ugliness of this parking lot and humanity’s impact on the environment that contributes to the lot's hot surface. When everything goes vertical, however, the child realizes that the parking lot is simply a result of society’s natural vertical growth, which is not unlike trees growing taller in nature. |
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| Animal Collective – Bagels in Kiev Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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This song is about developing an understanding of the present's connection to the past with regard to the current violence and political unrest in the world. The narrator understands that current tensions result from a history of important world events, yet he does not fully understand these connections, remarking that he was not around to witness WWII or the Israelites' escape from Egypt. Without personally witnessing such events, it is difficult to understand why we can't all "just speak love." The narrator wishes he could discuss this history with his deceased grandfather, who lived through WWII and would have interesting perspective. Apparently the family of Avey Tare's grandfather came to the U.S. from Kiev when his grandfather was young (presumably in the early 1940's). For this reason, Avey is especially connected to the current events in Ukraine. His grandfather's parents were also bakers, which explains the bagels. This song resonates with me a lot because, as someone born in the 90's, I've had a lot of similar thoughts and questions lately. Also I like bagels. |
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