I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
A cloud of eiderdown
Draws around me
Softening a sound
Sleepy time, and I lie
With my love by my side
And she's breathing low
And the candle dies
When night comes down
You lock the door
The book falls to the floor
As darkness falls
The waves roll by
The seasons change
The wind is warm
Now wakes the owl
Now sleeps the swan
Behold the dream
The dream is gone
Green fields, a cold rain
Is falling, in a golden dawn
And deep beneath the ground
The early morning sounds
And I go down
Sleepy time, and I lie
With my love by my side
And she's breathing low
And I rise, like a bird
In the haze, when the first rays
Touch the sky
And the night wings die
Draws around me
Softening a sound
Sleepy time, and I lie
With my love by my side
And she's breathing low
And the candle dies
When night comes down
You lock the door
The book falls to the floor
As darkness falls
The waves roll by
The seasons change
The wind is warm
Now wakes the owl
Now sleeps the swan
Behold the dream
The dream is gone
Green fields, a cold rain
Is falling, in a golden dawn
And deep beneath the ground
The early morning sounds
And I go down
Sleepy time, and I lie
With my love by my side
And she's breathing low
And I rise, like a bird
In the haze, when the first rays
Touch the sky
And the night wings die
Lyrics submitted by Demau Senae, edited by Mellow_Harsher, DougJones, Jaxion08
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Dreamwalker
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When We Were Young
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This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
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Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Magical
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How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
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"A Pillow Of Winds"
"A cloud of eider down Draws around me softening the sound"
A 'cloud of eiderdown' is a pillow. The right-sized pillow tends to bunch up a little around your ears, muting the outside world. The song is very much about the otherworldliness of sleep.
"Sleepy time when I lie With my love by my side And she's breathing low And the candle dies."
A candle's dying can be both comforting and ominous.
"When night comes down you lock the door The book falls to the floor"
Or 'boot.' Either way, the daytime world is being put away and they are preparing for the night. Presumably they don't lock the door until they sleep. Otherwise they feel safe with the door unlocked as long as they are home and awake, even at night. But the time of sleep is different as one is truly defenseless against the night. The change to the minor key reminds us of the dual nature of night, it is life-giving but death-like and there is never a guarantee you will wake up.
"As darkness falls the waves roll by The seasons change The wind is warm."
Now they are truly asleep. But for long? When you are asleep you don't really have any sense of time passing. When we fall asleep are we prepared to hibernate? How much time passes when we are dreaming? In any case the wind's being warm is nice and it jumps back up to the earlier chord which sounds quite different in this minor context.
"Now wakes the owl, now sleeps the swan"
The natural order of opposites, day/night. wake/sleep, life/death etc.
"Behold a dream, the dream is gone"
The German word DunstEwigkeitZug (vapor + eternity +whiff) describes the moment when you wake up and you can still for a brief second remember the meaning of your dream and understand everything, and then quickly forget it.
"Green fields A cold rain is falling in a golden dawn."
The 'golden dawn' here is metaphorical because they have not yet woken up. The 'golden dawn' is the dreamscape and it has an implication of being an eden-like afterlife or a post-rapture world.
"And deep beneath the ground The early morning sounds and I go down"
The key change means they are now waking up.
"Sleepy time in my life With my love by my side And she's breathing low And I rise like a bird In the haze and the first rays touch the sky And the night winds die."
Having communed with death he rises like a Phoenix. The ominous night winds are gone.
@MCDIII I like your interpretation. Nice initials. Im also MCD although the II
@MCDIII I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there