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"
I keep hanging around your kitchenette
And I'm gonna get a pot to cook you in
I stick my fingers in your biscuit jar
And crush all your Gingerbread Men
'Cause I want you
Yeah I want you to be my friend
Yeah I want you
Yeah I wanna be your solitary man
You try not to wake the executioner
He's sleeping with a fireman's axe
He leaves his glass eye on the pillow babe
And his dentures floating there in a glass
How come he makes it hard to relax
He makes it hard to relax
When I want you
When I want you to be my friend
(Ah, c'mon)
(Yeah it's getting hard)
(It's getting hard to relax)
(It's getting hard to get my act together)
(At some point I'm going to open the window and jump outside)
What's this husband of yours ever given to you
Oprah Winfrey on a plasma screen
And a brood of junkie buck-toothed imbeciles
The ugliest fucking kids I've ever seen
Oh baby I want you
Yeah I want you to be my girlfriend
Now will you send those kids to play down the street
And shouldn't you, shouldn't you put shoes on their feet?
It's getting hard to relax
It's getting hard to relax
(I look out the window, who's that, who's that coming up the back stairs)
(Tippy toe, tippy toe, tippy toe, tippy toe, coming up the back stairs)
I can see that you don't really dig him
And I can see that you want it to quit
But if you want to get your hand out of the cookie jar
You're gonna have to let go of the biscuit
Oh babe, I want you
Yeah I want you to be my girlfriend
Yeah I want you
Yeah I wanna be your sidekick man
I wanna be that man
(Tippy toe, tippy toe, coming)
(Aw man, is that really the time)
(Better go and open up the window)
(Look outside)
(Tippy toe, tippy toe, coming up the stairs)
Hey maybe I should take the kids out
It's hard to relax
It's hard to relax
It's hard to relax
It's hard to relax
And get my act together
And get my act together
And I'm gonna get a pot to cook you in
I stick my fingers in your biscuit jar
And crush all your Gingerbread Men
'Cause I want you
Yeah I want you to be my friend
Yeah I want you
Yeah I wanna be your solitary man
You try not to wake the executioner
He's sleeping with a fireman's axe
He leaves his glass eye on the pillow babe
And his dentures floating there in a glass
How come he makes it hard to relax
He makes it hard to relax
When I want you
When I want you to be my friend
(Ah, c'mon)
(Yeah it's getting hard)
(It's getting hard to relax)
(It's getting hard to get my act together)
(At some point I'm going to open the window and jump outside)
What's this husband of yours ever given to you
Oprah Winfrey on a plasma screen
And a brood of junkie buck-toothed imbeciles
The ugliest fucking kids I've ever seen
Oh baby I want you
Yeah I want you to be my girlfriend
Now will you send those kids to play down the street
And shouldn't you, shouldn't you put shoes on their feet?
It's getting hard to relax
It's getting hard to relax
(I look out the window, who's that, who's that coming up the back stairs)
(Tippy toe, tippy toe, tippy toe, tippy toe, coming up the back stairs)
I can see that you don't really dig him
And I can see that you want it to quit
But if you want to get your hand out of the cookie jar
You're gonna have to let go of the biscuit
Oh babe, I want you
Yeah I want you to be my girlfriend
Yeah I want you
Yeah I wanna be your sidekick man
I wanna be that man
(Tippy toe, tippy toe, coming)
(Aw man, is that really the time)
(Better go and open up the window)
(Look outside)
(Tippy toe, tippy toe, coming up the stairs)
Hey maybe I should take the kids out
It's hard to relax
It's hard to relax
It's hard to relax
It's hard to relax
And get my act together
And get my act together
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The Night We Met
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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”
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
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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.
No Surprises
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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.
could someone please help me interpreting this song? i'm writing a paper about it, comparing it to "The Death of Bunny Munro", actually.