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"
Without a word uttered
A comparison is drawn.
A distant future, a cluttered past
Amid the stars.
Vague and persistent,
Thought lacking consistency.
Unwilling victim of farce.
The loudest voices scream uninspired.
Their numbers vast, their spirits drowned.
Quiet choices sing against the choir
The majority is almost never wrong...
Never wrong... Ever... Never wrong.
A laughable assertion
That there might be some connection
Adorn the walls with mirrors and misdirection,
Or let it go
Or let it go
Or let it go
Or let it go
No common thread,
No ties that bind.
Just grasping and clawing to keep in mind.
Historical analysis
They play us every vote,
But what contributes more to the whole?
Like a saucer ship
Let's separate and shuffle off this conflict.
My armament will suffocate,
And leave you feeling useless.
We are your beginning
And we will be your end.
Affluence permitting, a mutual annihilation.
A laughable assertion
That there might be some connection
Adorn the walls with mirrors and misdirection,
Or let it go
Or let it go
Or let it go
Or let it go
Discussion moves
Our guilt men tended
Aggressive mutes
Stumbling defended
Fiction versus fantasy where factoring's unclear
How you protect both franchises
That's all that anyone cares
We are your beginning
And we will be your end.
Affluence permitting, a mutual annihilation.
I don't care who shot first
Or for the song and dance you've rehearsed. (Mutual annihilation)
I don't care who shot first,
Or for the song and dance you've rehearsed.
The maps are divided
And each I've traversed.
Alignment influx for better or worse.
Is the drain finally swirling
Or are we swirling the drain?
The drought is relieved with acid rain.
This drought is relieved with acid rain.
This drought is relieved with acid rain.
This drought is relieved with acid rain.
(We are) We are your beginning (and the end)
And we will be your end (We will bring your end)
We are your beginning (Your beginning)
And we will be your end (We will bring your end)
Affluence permitting, a mutual annihilation
A comparison is drawn.
A distant future, a cluttered past
Amid the stars.
Vague and persistent,
Thought lacking consistency.
Unwilling victim of farce.
The loudest voices scream uninspired.
Their numbers vast, their spirits drowned.
Quiet choices sing against the choir
The majority is almost never wrong...
Never wrong... Ever... Never wrong.
A laughable assertion
That there might be some connection
Adorn the walls with mirrors and misdirection,
Or let it go
Or let it go
Or let it go
Or let it go
No common thread,
No ties that bind.
Just grasping and clawing to keep in mind.
Historical analysis
They play us every vote,
But what contributes more to the whole?
Like a saucer ship
Let's separate and shuffle off this conflict.
My armament will suffocate,
And leave you feeling useless.
We are your beginning
And we will be your end.
Affluence permitting, a mutual annihilation.
A laughable assertion
That there might be some connection
Adorn the walls with mirrors and misdirection,
Or let it go
Or let it go
Or let it go
Or let it go
Discussion moves
Our guilt men tended
Aggressive mutes
Stumbling defended
Fiction versus fantasy where factoring's unclear
How you protect both franchises
That's all that anyone cares
We are your beginning
And we will be your end.
Affluence permitting, a mutual annihilation.
I don't care who shot first
Or for the song and dance you've rehearsed. (Mutual annihilation)
I don't care who shot first,
Or for the song and dance you've rehearsed.
The maps are divided
And each I've traversed.
Alignment influx for better or worse.
Is the drain finally swirling
Or are we swirling the drain?
The drought is relieved with acid rain.
This drought is relieved with acid rain.
This drought is relieved with acid rain.
This drought is relieved with acid rain.
(We are) We are your beginning (and the end)
And we will be your end (We will bring your end)
We are your beginning (Your beginning)
And we will be your end (We will bring your end)
Affluence permitting, a mutual annihilation
Lyrics submitted by Syco, edited by bobsmith93, Bryhaze
Clarity Lyrics as written by Cameron Mclellan Arif Mirabodlbaghi
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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The Night We Met
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I don't think it's necessarily about sex. It's about wanting to start the day with some love and affection. Maybe a warm cuddle. I'm not alone in interpreting it that way! For example:
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Page
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Of course, I also think the obvious interpretation is the song being about the two better known and loved sci-fi franchises, but if we search for a deeper meaning we can see the conflict in the song and video as a political allegory: we are forced to choose (quietly, because a vote is not really a full fledged opinion, just a choice between well established and hardly changing options) between a couple alternatives (political parties) that are not so different ("a fiction versus fantasy") but keep an artificial conflict in order to catch the majority of voters, a mainly sterile fight made evident in the political campaigns ("Affluence permitting a mutual annihilation") that results in the "never wrong" majority of people assuming free democracy is the choice between that two or three alternatives ("How you protect both franchises, that's all that anyone cares") The chanting "We are your beginning and we will be your end" summons a fantasy of popular insurrection against established political order, but ends up being drowned by the final line, an utterance of triumph by the capitalist democracy. Anyway, the song seems to invoke critical thinking as a tool against the dumbing down of established franchises and their increasing distance and misguiding of the people they were designed to please (fans or voters)
It's funny, because reading the lyrics, and considering they are from Ontario, Canada (which is right next to Quebec) I have a feeling this song might indirectly talk about the separatist movement present in Quebec. <br /> <br /> The title being Clarity, and the Clarity Act being passed as a response to the 1995 Quebec referendum (which went close to separating itself from Canada with 50.6% against 49.4%). Very interesting references, like "Let's separate and shuffle off this conflict". <br /> <br /> And by the infos I've got on the 1995 referendum, the vote was pretty much rigged with all the illegal voters and illegal financing. Without all that Quebec would've been a country right now.
I reckon this is about the Star Wars vs Star Trek franchise battle and how both are being dumbed down by hollywood/disney.
The Star Trek vs. Star Wars is simply a metaphor used excellently might I add by this band. Though they leave all songs open for multiple interpretations I think this one has more to do with government vs. religion. Btw some of these lyrics are off. "Fiction vs. Fantasy one fact remains unclear That You pretend both franchises stand solely on one tier" saying either way you look at it one side is fiction, meaning a made up story. Versus fantasy, they are 2 sides of the same coin, one government and the other religion. which leads us to the meaning of the song "affluence permitting a mutual annihilation" meaning money being Endless in both parties will lead them to mutual annihilation. Absolutely genius my favorite band of this genre. So many lyrics make it obvious this is deeper then Star Wars vs start trek just got to dig a lil bit, it's a great metaphor and shows our boys are sitting back trolololololing. Definitely my favorite album from them.
If ever there was a question about if Clarity is about Star Trek vs Star Wars, I redirect you to the music video Protest put out for this song.
youtu.be/a7pvvAuj7jw
Enjoy yourself.