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"
The city's saving grace
But whoever knows, nobody knows
Why he rolled the eyes back
Why he rolled those eyes, those heartless eyes
I won't pretend to lie once more
Protect my mind aside
You say goodbye
Keep all the things, you mark the place where I exist
Our world is calling
So I'm crawling back to sea
Against the surge of waves that
Held us, with that ancient grip beneath
Retreat to safer waters
Still learning what chaos kills
But whoever cares, nobody cares like you do
Why we don't bend in time, just shut the door
Why we come to the wall, claim less is more
The city's saving grace
But whoever knows, nobody knows
But I won't pretend to lie once more
Protect my mind aside
You say goodbye
Keep all the things, you mark the place where I exist
Our world is calling
So I'm crawling back to sea
Against the surge of waves that
Held us, with that ancient grip beneath
Retreat to safer waters
That world is calling
So I'm crawling back to sea
Against the surge of waves that
Held us, with that ancient grip beneath
Retreat to safer waters
The city's saving grace
But whoever knows, nobody knows
But whoever knows, nobody knows
Why he rolled the eyes back
Why he rolled those eyes, those heartless eyes
I won't pretend to lie once more
Protect my mind aside
You say goodbye
Keep all the things, you mark the place where I exist
Our world is calling
So I'm crawling back to sea
Against the surge of waves that
Held us, with that ancient grip beneath
Retreat to safer waters
Still learning what chaos kills
But whoever cares, nobody cares like you do
Why we don't bend in time, just shut the door
Why we come to the wall, claim less is more
The city's saving grace
But whoever knows, nobody knows
But I won't pretend to lie once more
Protect my mind aside
You say goodbye
Keep all the things, you mark the place where I exist
Our world is calling
So I'm crawling back to sea
Against the surge of waves that
Held us, with that ancient grip beneath
Retreat to safer waters
That world is calling
So I'm crawling back to sea
Against the surge of waves that
Held us, with that ancient grip beneath
Retreat to safer waters
The city's saving grace
But whoever knows, nobody knows
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But also, I'd like to add, that this song does have an evolutionary influence, but it's not the main point of the song. It's not about the "sins" of man but more of our culture and how we've changed to behave this way. Maybe it's our culture that's evolved into something horrible, and he just wants to get away from all this. Obviously, a lot of Chevelle's songs show discontent of our modern day culture, how we put our priorities in order (being money and fame at the top) influenced us to become selfish and arrogant.