This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Precious and fragile things
Need special handling
My God, what have we done to you?
We always try to share
The tenderest of care
Now look what we have put you through
Things get damaged
Things get broken
I thought we'd manage
But words left unspoken
Left us so brittle
There was so little left to give
Angels with silver wings
Shouldn't know suffering
I wish I could take the pain for you
If God has a master plan
That only He understands
I hope it's your eyes He's seeing through
Things get damaged
Things get broken
I thought we'd manage
But words left unspoken
Left us so brittle
There was so little left to give
I pray you learn to trust
Have faith in both of us
And keep room in your hearts for two
Things get damaged
Things get broken
I thought we'd manage
But words left unspoken
Left us so brittle
There was so little left to give
Need special handling
My God, what have we done to you?
We always try to share
The tenderest of care
Now look what we have put you through
Things get damaged
Things get broken
I thought we'd manage
But words left unspoken
Left us so brittle
There was so little left to give
Angels with silver wings
Shouldn't know suffering
I wish I could take the pain for you
If God has a master plan
That only He understands
I hope it's your eyes He's seeing through
Things get damaged
Things get broken
I thought we'd manage
But words left unspoken
Left us so brittle
There was so little left to give
I pray you learn to trust
Have faith in both of us
And keep room in your hearts for two
Things get damaged
Things get broken
I thought we'd manage
But words left unspoken
Left us so brittle
There was so little left to give
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More Featured Meanings
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
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.
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
To me it's seems like it's idealism in love. Witnessing your loved ones beauty and optimism in the face of a very apathetic and bleak humanity, and believing that love and all things good will prevail in the end.
Inevitably, their soft heart is crushed under the weight of the masses expectations of survival in the world, and that initial beauty you fell in love with in regards to them is slowly fading away. Kind of like the innocence of a child being destroyed, and wanting to hang on to that fragile quality for as long as possible because it's so few and far in the "real world".
The narrator wants to save this trait and laments the loss of it in an equally beautiful way.
"If God has a master plan That only He understands I hope it's your eyes He's seeing through"
The persons vision was so pure and wholehearted that it was Paradise, and if God knows what he's doing all along and will eventually bring prosperity, the person hopes that it's through their loved ones eyes because nothing can get more perfect than the vision they previously had.
you literally spoke my soul up there with the above comment.....i wish i could have said it better,AND before you did,but life flows in their own way.<br /> <br /> <br /> regarding the song,i do believe it's about something,but not ONLY intended for one understanding nor for one listening....<br /> <br /> <br /> (on my count i'm at least at 12,3435,7690...and going further : )<br /> <br /> i AM sorry for my english.
Another fine example of how Martin Gore has the ability to see things from a perspective of absolute clarity. Having been a child that went through divorce I would have liked to think that my parents thought this way, but I don't believe they did. It is an ugly process, and in families with children there is unavoidable collateral damage. In a way only Gore can craft, his plea to God is groundshaking. I hope if you have a master plan, that you are seeing the result of what you have created through the eyes of the innocent that are sentenced to live through the strife. That is absolute revelation that he understands the situation his children find themselves in. If Martin Gore had lived and died a long time ago, no doubt he would be held in the same breath of some of the poets and literaries that the world holds dear today.
"angels with silver wings Shouldn't know suffering I wish I could take the pain for you"
I agree
"If God has a master plan That only He understands I hope it's your eyes He's seeing through"
Great lyrics.
Well, I'm sorry to say this if it is not a public knowledge. Martin is/was currently undergoing a divorce and this song is said to be written about his children.
The song is very Depeche-like. Nothing new but hey, it sounds good, anyway. Dave's vocals are amazing.
this is a great song and the lyrics are on point about the delicate and difficult process of divorce and how the child is caught in the middle
Wanting to protect your girlfriend :) that's the impression I get, or someone you love... you feel like they don't deserve the pain that life brings :)
i know it all
I agree with the divorce scenario.. Dave does sound amazing just as ever. DM still has it after all these years. and will continue to outlast all the passing trends of today.
Ekizzle get off this board