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"
All these words you speak to me
Are from a foreign land
You're telling me that birds don't fly
How can it be that you love her?
You don't have to raise your voice
I still don't understand
There's me and you, and you and me
So how can it be that you love her?
It was alchemy
To sing to me your freedom song
To make love where there was none
Alchemy, now it's all gone
Here's the golden one
Alchemy, now it's all gone
She is the golden one
So what are you saying?
We've got to dismantle it all
Rip off the paper, smash up the walls
How can it be that you love her?
Take all of the things
We so carefully made
Take all of the lies that you've betrayed
How can it be that you love her?
It was alchemy
To sing to me your freedom song
To make love where there was none
Alchemy, now it's all gone
She is the golden one
It was alchemy
To sing to me your freedom song
To make love where there was none
Alchemy, now it's all gone
She is the golden one
Are from a foreign land
You're telling me that birds don't fly
How can it be that you love her?
You don't have to raise your voice
I still don't understand
There's me and you, and you and me
So how can it be that you love her?
It was alchemy
To sing to me your freedom song
To make love where there was none
Alchemy, now it's all gone
Here's the golden one
Alchemy, now it's all gone
She is the golden one
So what are you saying?
We've got to dismantle it all
Rip off the paper, smash up the walls
How can it be that you love her?
Take all of the things
We so carefully made
Take all of the lies that you've betrayed
How can it be that you love her?
It was alchemy
To sing to me your freedom song
To make love where there was none
Alchemy, now it's all gone
She is the golden one
It was alchemy
To sing to me your freedom song
To make love where there was none
Alchemy, now it's all gone
She is the golden one
Lyrics submitted by BrokenWing18, edited by andrewrk
Alchemy Lyrics as written by Jonathan David Grant Anthony Patrick James Mcguinness
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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The Night We Met
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@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
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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,
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.
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Alchemy was a medieval practice and the rudimentary precursor to chemistry. The ultimate goal in alchemy was to learn how to turn metal into gold. The song is essentially about the volatile and unpredictable nature of relationships. The metaphor fits nicely, as the lyrics suggests the heartbroken woman feels she was a failed/precursor experiment. Lamenting that "she's the golden one"
"Alchemy is the art of liberating parts of the Cosmos from temporal existence and achieving perfection which, for metals is gold, and for man, longevity, then immortality and, finally, redemption". from Wikipedia..
It was alchemy to sing to me your freedom song To make love where there was none Alchemy, now it's all gone She is the golden one
So what are you saying, we've got to dismantle it all Rip off the paper, smash up the walls, how can it be that you love her? Take all of the things we so carefully made Take all of the life that you've betrayed How can it be that you love her
The first impression that I got it is that is someone that kinda refuses to accept that her loved one doesnt love her anymore, love someone else "how can it be that you love her".
Still trying to figure it out what exactly is alchemy. maybe the thing that brought then together in the first place and now is the thing that make him love someone else?
I think Alchemy is like intuition or the "chemistry" and the speaker is depressed because it's gone.<br /> <br /> "It was Alchemy <br /> To sing to me <br /> Your freedom song <br /> To make love where there was none <br /> Alchemy <br /> Now it’s all gone <br /> And she is the golden one. "<br /> <br /> She is saying that there was once a time when things clicked between them but the other lover moved on for the "golden one." Like she's depressed because she's not.
He is breaking up with the singer. She is in disbelief; she almost cannot understand the words he is saying.
When he breaks up with her, the singer expresses her disbelief to him, which causes him to raise his voice. She explains that she heard him the first time, but further emphasizes that she can't believe this is happening.
This stanza is particularly clever, simultaneously playing with the definition of alchemy as well as "make love". Alchemy is the mystical art of converting cheap metal into gold. In reality, alchemy doesn't actually work, but more on that later. The singer is saying that the antagonist metaphorically used alchemy to "make love where there was none." She is implying that he had sex with someone that he did not love, and now he thinks that he loves her. So there is an implied affair here.
Further, his actions caused their relationship to dissolve, and she completes the alchemy metaphor by saying "she is the golden one." In other words, his actions caused their relationship to disappear, and it is now replaced with the new love affair being the golden one. Now, some alchemists in history claimed that they could convert metal to gold, but it was a sham. In effect they only put a very thin layer of gold over normal metal to trick everybody. So in these lyrics there is an implication that although the new love affair is the golden one, it might not be pure gold as the antagonist is claiming. In other words, he's saying he loves her, but he's either lying or fooling himself. Either way, the singer's relationship with him is gone.
The singer further agonizes over the antagonist's actions. They've put a lot into the relationship, and now it's all for nothing.
Calebus does an excellent job explaining this interesting track. Kudos.