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"
While I was watching you did a slow dissolve
While I was watching you did a slow dissolve
While I was watching you did a slow dissolve
Did I imagine or do the walls have eyes
Did I imagine they held us hypnotized
Did I imagine or do the walls have eyes
Life in slow motion somehow it don't feel real
Life in slow motion somehow it don't feel real
Life in slow motion somehow it don't feel real
Snowflakes are falling I'll catch them in my hands
Snowflakes are falling I'll catch them in my hands
Snowflakes are falling now you're my long lost friend
While I was watching you did a slow dissolve
While I was watching you did a slow dissolve
Did I imagine or do the walls have eyes
Did I imagine they held us hypnotized
Did I imagine or do the walls have eyes
Life in slow motion somehow it don't feel real
Life in slow motion somehow it don't feel real
Life in slow motion somehow it don't feel real
Snowflakes are falling I'll catch them in my hands
Snowflakes are falling I'll catch them in my hands
Snowflakes are falling now you're my long lost friend
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
the lyrics, as well as this song's tune, have a very hypnotic tone to them (the repetition of phrases and the slow, melodic lull of gray's voice)
for me the song is about that moment when life overwhelms you and, in this specific instance, the moment you realize someone you love is slipping away from you (be it from death or lost ties etc)
i feel like he's reached that moment where everything around him is moving in slow motion, like he's stuck and doesn't know what to do.
he imagines the walls having eyes (think of those horror movies where everything is exaggerated and scary in the dark), like everything is judging/staring at him
before escaping to the outdoors where he lets the snow fall around him, almost like just that tiny pleasure has led him to accepting the loss of his friend/loved one
"for me the song is about that moment when life overwhelms you and, in this specific instance, the moment you realize someone you love is slipping away from you (be it from death or lost ties etc)
i feel like he's reached that moment where everything around him is moving in slow motion, like he's stuck and doesn't know what to do.
he imagines the walls having eyes (think of those horror movies where everything is exaggerated and scary in the dark), like everything is judging/staring at him"
I agree with you, bakemeacake161. Then, when he says, "Snowflakes are falling / I'll catch them in my hands / Snowflakes are falling / Now you're my long lost friend," I think that he is still talking about the impermanence of things. Just like the person did, the snowflakes disappear after he catches them (snowflakes do a "slow dissolve" in your hands after you catch them). Just like these snowflakes, the person is gone. Now, he or she is his "long lost friend" rather than the friend who is still there and still a real part of his life.
This song is about being overwhelmed by the temporary nature of life, and love and everything.
yeah i agree and its like time itself slows down so you can take it all in...
This song sounds so beautiful. I think the lyrics are about a friend of his dying in front of him ("while I was watching"), with "dissolve" reffering to their life disappearing.
The 2nd verse may be describing the connection that they had right before the friend passed away, and the state of mind that he had being virtually "hypnotised" as he focuses everything he has on his friend. (I'm not sure about this verse though)
"Life in slow motion somehow it don't feel real" - He can't believe what is happening and everything seems to be happening in slow motion due to the shock and grief that he is feeling. When you lose someone you can sometimes feel like the world is not right anymore, and that you are isolated from everyone around you because they are not sharing your loss.
"Snowflakes are falling I'll catch them in my hands" - From now on he will treasure all the precious things in life such as friendship, make the most of them while he can, and not take them for granted.
"Now you're my long lost friend" - His friend is gone forever.
That's my interpretation of the song, and whether it's right or not that's how I will think of it because it makes it very moving to listen to.
this is one my new favorite songs
ugh what?
Anyway, don't really know what this song means but I love the somehow it don't feel real part.
Good Song!
This has become one of my favorite DG songs. To me, it's about how some moments in your life seem to just defy time. Raindrops, snowflakes, and even people sometimes seem almost suspended in time. I really like the simplicity, it keeps it such a beautiful sort of sacred sentiment. "While I was watching, you did a slow dissolve" ... and you can almost see her dissapearing gradually.
imo, its about taking bad news i.e. cheating wife/ death etc.
First heard this on ER, and it's one of my fave songs at the moment. It's a really lovely song, and I love the repetition in it.
I definitely think this song is about someone close to him dying of an illness. A friend of mine died of cancer just before I heard this song, and it was an incredibly long, painful process. When I heard Slow Motion, it clicked with the situation.
"Snowflakes are falling, now you're my long lost friend"- it's beautiful...actually, that entire last verse gets me every time. It shows a change in season. Everything was frozen in time as the person was dying- you get closed off within the walls that the person is bound by and that becomes your reality, but after they died, it's like he realized that life moved on- the seasons change, and it sets in. "You're my long lost friend". Time has truly continued to move- everything is real.
The beginning is pretty somber and very introspective of the situation, but the end...it feels like a triumphant celebration of a beautiful friendship.
One of Gray's finest works- no doubt!