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"
Soft sheets
What's this about?
Inside your mahogany Cyprus
As long as we're me and you
We should not lose terrain
Wild and young, we got seasick
On your seven
Get off cheap
That sits with her
And the warmth of it splatters
We all can wring her neck
First we gain new terrain
When we're young, we get seasick
On your seven
We're upset, real tush
Oh, why I sneeze like no-one
Like most, you snip soft sheets
What's this about?
Inside your mahogany Cyprus
As long as we're me and you
We should not lose terrain
Wild and young, we got seasick
On your seven soft sheets
What's this about?
Inside your mahogany Cyprus
As long as we're me and you
We should not lose terrain
Wild and young, we got seasick
On your seven
Get off cheap
That sits with her
And the warmth of it splatters
We all can wring her neck
First we gain new terrain
When we're young, we get seasick
On your seven
We're upset, real tush
Oh, why I sneeze like no-one
Like most, you snip soft sheets
What's this about?
Inside your mahogany Cyprus
As long as we're me and you
We should not lose terrain
Wild and young, we got seasick
On your seven soft sheets
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
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
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.
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
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.
On the daytrotter live session (08-24-09), Jonas sings:
Soft sheets, What's this about? Inside your mahogany cyprus, as long as we're me and you We should not lose terrain Wild and young, we got seasick on your seventh (?) cheek that sits with her and the warmth of it splatters
We all can wring her neck First, we gain new terrain When we're young, we get seasick on your seven soft sheets
Repeat (x3)
I'm new to Mew, but does anyone see a parallel between Nervous and New Terrain? It seems like a relationship between a girl and a guy but a third party (parent? affair?) comes in and the guy loses his love to this third party.
The guy does not want the third person involved (We all can wring her neck) and he's terrified/nervous of this third person ruining their relationship.
By telling his love: As long as we're me and you/ We should not lose terrain
it's an assurance that there'll be nothing to harm them, but
They're out to get you In a way i couldn't see you.
The third party wants to destroy their relationship, yet his love decides to face this outsider and she is harmed.
And then you regret And they're not safe buildings Should have stayed at home in bed When the walls are out of focus
He wishes he could save her and thoroughly regrets hesitating and living in the denial that what they have would not be ruined.
(As long as we're me and you/ We should not lose terrain)
(Nervous instead And I wish that I could save you Each time)
Also, to 'gain new terrain' could mean to start anew, maybe something the speaker yearns for, a place of innocence and safety.
What do you guys think?
Yes.<br /> The parallel between Nervous and New Terrain is that one is the other backwards. Ii'm not sure which one is the backwards one though. I think it's New Terrain.
It's sort of difficult for me to get much out of the New Terrain lyrics yet, but I do see parallels between the songs (other than the obvious 'they're the same song!' thing) and it sort of seems like they're meant to be played back to back (out of context with the rest of the album of course). I like how New Terrain sets the stage with cautious, self-conscious optimism and then morphs into the disappointing defeat of Nervous.
Here are the official lyrics
Soft sheets, What's this about? Inside your mahogany cyprus, As long as we're me and you We should not lose terrain Wild and young, we got seasick On your seven Get off cheap That sits with her And the warmth of it splatters We all can wring her neck First, we gain new terrain When we're young, we get seasick On your seven
We're upset, real tush Ooh why I sneeze like no one Like most, you snip soft sheets What's this about Inside your mahogany cyprus, As long as we're me and you We should not lose terrain Wild and young, we got seasick On your seven soft sheets
Straight from the booklet:
onethirtybpm.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/123.jpg
I'm sorry it took a while to make corrections. I have been preoccupied with school adn work. :) <br /> <br /> Hope you enjoy the new record.
A mahogany cyprus is a type of table; whether this is what he is really singing about beats me. Here is an example: laplaceusa.com/mahcontab.html
If this is what he is referring to I would guess the point is that this is a fancy grown-up furniture sort of thing you would see in your aunt's house. It is generally used to store napkins and table linens ("sheets").
Which means this could be the first of the many songs that reference Johan leaving the band for the family life. Is the mahogany cyprus something he saw when "they took us in to see their new apartment?" And is there maybe a bit of anger there toward Jonas' girlfriend for taking him away from the band? "We all can wring her neck." Yep.
I meant JOHAN'S girlfriend above, obviously
"It means we're on new terrain/While we're young we got seasick/On your seven..."
=
Should be "We should not lose terrain/Wild and young, we got seasick/On your seven soft sheets..."
:)
Thank you! I couldn't figure that out for the life of me. :)
Listening to the live audio he sings 'Wild and young' but on the album I'm pretty sure he sings something different. Maybe it was just that once?
Also, in Nervous I can't hear the parts written in red. Is it just me?
It's very faint in the background. Towards the end when he sings "Each time" you can hear "I wish that I could save you".
i cannot stop listening to this song. its goddamn miraculous.
lyrics are very close, though i cant do much better as i cant say what he actually says. some things are more clear in the live version though ( youtube.com/watch ) - whoever recorded it missed a little bit of the beginning, but its still incredible.
at the 'he dances with her' part i hear whatever (from the previous line) 'on your seven ___ that sits with her', dont know if that helps anyone else out though..
also, in the live one, he definitely switches off and says 'when we were young we got seasick' and 'while we're young we get seasick'
lovelovelovelovelovelove mew to death though. very much hoping to see them open for nin in a month in chicago.
New Terrain is such a great opening to No More Stories... Creepy yet comforting. As soon as I heard it, I knew that the rest of the album would be awesome. No More Stories... is different but still undeniably Mew.
I agree with couleurs in his/her interpretation of this song and I too believe that there's a certain parallel between this song and Nervous. In general, I think this song is about finding true love (gaining new terrain) and then finding out it's not as pure and true as u imagined.
on your seventh, milk tree- lol
i dont think its supposed to sound like this good way to make song those, see what sounds like words then make it so
This song talks about the same thing as in the song "Nervous". The persona says her girlfriend has been stalked by someone else. That "someone else" is making them "lose terrain". Because of the stalking, the relatioship is getting tough. (Obviously.) When is said "first we gain new terrain", what is meant is "going to somewhere far from the stalker".
Well... I think this is it.
The persona says HIS girlfriend*<br /> (Sorry, I'm not that good in english.)