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"
Starved eyes looking for something soft.
Don’t go astray.
You were in love before tonight.
What made you change your mind,
Was it what she said?
Was it what you said?
Don’t spend your time worried about whats right...
Turn around, walk away and close your eyes.
Imagine what you would say if she treated you that way.
It wouldnt feel good...but this feels better.
Flush skin, glowing from treachery
Plotting an exit.
It never ends as good as it begins.
And what of her?
What will she think?
Does she even need to know?
Don’t spend your time worried about whats right...
Turn around, walk away and close your eyes.
Imagine what you would say if she treated you that way.
It wouldnt feel good enough to risk it all;
To spoil your love...but this feels better.
Don’t go astray.
You were in love before tonight.
What made you change your mind,
Was it what she said?
Was it what you said?
Don’t spend your time worried about whats right...
Turn around, walk away and close your eyes.
Imagine what you would say if she treated you that way.
It wouldnt feel good...but this feels better.
Flush skin, glowing from treachery
Plotting an exit.
It never ends as good as it begins.
And what of her?
What will she think?
Does she even need to know?
Don’t spend your time worried about whats right...
Turn around, walk away and close your eyes.
Imagine what you would say if she treated you that way.
It wouldnt feel good enough to risk it all;
To spoil your love...but this feels better.
Lyrics submitted by yrsbrn
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I think I figured it out. It could possibly be just me projecting my current thoughts and situation on the lyrics, but I think this could be it. This song is a piece of advice or a suggestion from lead singer Casey Crescenzo to a male listener (named in the song as "you") about relationships. From the beginning of the song (Starved eyes looking for something soft/ don't go astray) we get a feeling of a man wanting other women. I think it's just other women in general by the way he says it, not specific but just "something soft". Then "You were in love before tonight/ What made you change your mind" suggests that this is a man in a committed relationship who's having second thoughts about it. "Was it what she said?...(or)...you said?" is asking the dude why this is happening, if it's her 'fault' or if he "said" in the past that he wouldn't settle down with one woman. Then the next line references society's ideas about the right amount of dating and relationships, with "Don’t spend your time worried about whats right", easily meaning that everyone is telling him to not just stay with the first girl he ever dated and to enjoy his younger years by experiencing several different relationships with women, influencing his thinking dramatically. He tells the listener to "Imagine what you would say if she treated you that way/ It wouldnt feel good...", saying his being indecisive with telling the girl that life is short and he wants to explore his options would SUCK if she was doing it to him and the situation was reversed. Crescenzo further implores the listener not to be rash and give up a good thing by pointing out with powerful language the shadiness of what he's doing, "Plotting an exit". He finishes the song with his conclusion, that breaking up with the girl the listener is in love with will not be worth it: "It wouldnt feel good enough to risk it all; To spoil your love...but this feels better". At the end there, he rewords the classic advice: love feels great, don't be so quick to lose it for the chance of something else. Finally, the song title. It's that line in the song, that "Was it what you said?", the most powerful line in the song. Are you just doing this because in the past you never saw yourself having something this nice and staying with one lover? Have you even changed at all? Someone told me the mellow feel of this song reminded them of me. I looked it up, and looked up the lyrics, and my jaw dropped -- this song describes the feelings I've been going through lately with going off to college and leaving my high school girlfriend behind in my hometown SO ACCURATELY. I seriously empathize with this idea, this character, this subject of the song. I will ALWAYS remember this song, and try to keep in mind the lesson of cherishing love as long as I live. For me, this is one of those songs that I just click with. I just discovered The Dear Hunter, but I love their stuff.