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,
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I'd say it's your general breakup song. English major coming through, so prepare yourself for an excessively long, in-depth over analysis. I've also had a bit too much Ritalin too so....
"Into the heart That won't come back to Into your heart It's been hard on you"
As the opening lyrics, these set the scene for the rest of the song. First, we get a heart (an obvious symbol of love, emotion, etc.) that won't come back. Then we are presented with a second, different heart ('your' heart versus 'the' heart) to which the first won't come back to, which leaves our speaker's heart (?) with a hard time dealing with it (I know some of this may seem blindingly obvious, but when it comes to analysing lyrics, it's a good to spell it out for the sake of clarity and remove ambiguity (ambiguity which is notorious within shoegaze songs), so bear with me).
"What's in the mud That love falls into Open or close It is all it was"
The mud seems to me a way of describing a messy love, or even just the messiness of love in general, arguments, difficulties in a relationship, differences in personality, etc. In questioning what's in the mud that love falls into, it seems as though the speaker is troubled about what the problems in love are, and where they come from.
"Open or close" may hint at what the issues in this relationship were - maybe there wasn't enough openness between the two, or maybe too much. It also sets us up with a binary, two opposing ideas that are incompatible (because how could something be open and closed simultaneously?). It's probably safe to say that it's just an expression of an inherent incompatibility between these two hearts. In this case, it seems to put the questioning of the mud into context, as it suggests that the speaker is trying to find an answer for this incompatibility.
That said, listening to the song, it almost sounds as though Bilinda is saying "open your clothes," which, given MBV's use of vague vocal overdubs, seems entirely possible too. In this case, it could suggest a relationship based heavily on sexual elements, which seems to put the following line of "it is all it was" into perspective, that this love was...not false or fake necessarily, but based on different desires, hearkening back to that idea of inherent incompatibility within the relationship.
"Only tomorrow The love comes easy What should I do It is all it was"
As far as the lyric "Only tomorrow" goes, I'd say it's that general feeling that the pain of a love that's lost becoming easier to deal with the more time passes. Of course, there's a sad wistfulness in the idea that love will only come easy tomorrow, as no matter what you do, tomorrow is always the next day, placing a sense of resolution always just a day away. As such, the speaker then laments that they're unsure what the next step is (if there even is one). "What should I do" places our speaker within the realms of indecision.
Alternatively, you could see it as the resurgence of new love (to be more specific, the idea that it could get easier to love someone new the more that time passes). But it seems to me to have the same issue with the previous line of "only tomorrow," as once again it puts this idea finding a new love a day away. Then again, you could also read this as the speaker holding on to a sense of hopefulness, that a resolution that a new or faded love could offer is merely a day away.
"It is all it was" seems to me like the speaker is somewhat disheartened idea that love is all they'd gotten, suggesting a feeling of discontent. Perhaps they wanted more out of it, (a family? a lifetime spent together? eternal love?) but then what more can you ask for from love? It could also be seen as a sentiment of resignation, in that the relationship is all it was, and that there indeed is not much more you can ask for, and the speaker is coming to terms with the idea that it's over. It seems to me to be almost an existential resignation, that all it was was love. In this light, "what should I do," then becomes a similarly existential resignation, in that any sense of meaning has been lost, or only thought to have been there, in which case, if all it was was love, it holds no inherent meaning either. It was just love, meaningless.
But yeah that's my take on it.
This is a "typical" breakup song. Except it's incredible!
The song is saying that breaking up was hard on you. But that the love you thought you had was never there. "It is all it was".