Riptide

For me this is a song about a man who is in an emotional riptide. He loves the beauty of his woman and all the great things they experienced, but at the same time he realises that he adjusted to her and she has the wrong perception of him. Although a breakup is most reasonable, his emotions do not allow him to escape the riptide and thus he will be pulled underwater and possibly end up in an unhappy relationship.

"I was scared of dentists and the dark I was scared of pretty girls and starting conversations" He was often scared and shy towards girls he liked. But then he got this girl now and "Oh, all my friends are turning green You're the magician's assistant in their dreams". As she is very beautiful his friends are jealous.

"Oh, and they come unstuck" But their relationship has failed.

"Lady, running down to the riptide Taken away to the dark side" A vortex pulls his girl away from him, she changed from what he used to know her be like (light side) and now becomes the opposite (dark side).

"I wanna be your left hand man" A left hand man is also referred to as a person who is cockblocking someone i.e. making bad comments about other males in front of the girl and thus preventing her from getting to know them or even to get in a relationship. Here he wants to do anything to not let anyone else have his girl.

"I love you when you're singing that song and I got a lump in my throat cause You're gonna sing the words wrong" This could either be a metaphor for their (past) relationship or how he perceives her. In the latter case he cannot see or doesn't care about her flaws. For him she's still perfect. In the former case he expected their relationship to go a much better way and didn't think that it would develop differently ("gonna"). But he might have even expected it or at least there were hints ('lump in his throat' as something you cannot control and might even overlook if not paying close attention or being distracted).

"There's this movie that I think you'll like This guy decides to quit his job and heads to New York City" He knows how much she likes people who are full of confidence and determination to make life changing decisions. He also knows that in reality he is not this type of person:

"This cowboy's running from himself" His insight that he has ran away from who he really is. He might have pretended to be someone completely different or have hidden his fears such as those mentioned in the first verse. He was not he. Meanwhile "she's been living on the highest shelf". She was on the top, enjoying herself, maybe doing whatever she wanted and received everything from him as he just lived for her and ignored his real feelings and wishes (the cowboy verse).

"I just wanna, I just wanna know If you're gonna, if you're gonna stay I just gotta, I just gotta know I can't have it, I can't have it any other way" He needs to where where he stands and if she still feels the same way. Under no circumstances he can wait.

"I swear she's destined for the screen Closest thing to Michelle Pfeiffer that you've ever seen, oh" Another reference to her beauty that she's one of those women you could be seeing on TV. As this is part of the the verse above where he needs a decision from her and realises things can't go on like this anymore, but now suddenly falls back talking about her beauty, shows his inner emotional riptide. Her beauty should not add anything to her decision anyways, so it's completely irrelvant. But he is blinded by her beauty and cannot think of anything else for too long.

[3x chorus] It might be interesting to note that this part being repeated three times in a more silent and monotonous way underlines the "riptide", water which is seemingly endlessly running in circles - as are his emotions.

He realises, this girl has flaws and she has let him become someone who he is not, but he is still blinded by her beauty and their memories that he can't get over her and cannot decide to break up. This would seem to be the most reasonable thing to do but he couldn't accept that anyone else would have this beautiful girl - not even his friends. These thoughts are running in circles and repeat themselves just like a riptide but he cannot break out of it. He might also be afraid that his original fears come back once she is gone. However, if this goes on, one day he might be pulled underwater and cannot escape anymore and has to stay with her which will most likely not satisfy him in the long run.