Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
An all night restaurant, North Kildonan
Luke warm coffee tastes like soap
I trace your outline in spilled sugar
Killing time and killing hope
As brand new strip mall chews on farmland
As we fish for someone to blame
But we communicate in questions
And all our answers sound the same
Under sputtering fluorescents
After re-fills are re-filled
Negotiations at a stand-still
Spoon and rolling saucer stilled
If you ask how I got so bitter
I'll ask how you got so vain
And all our questions blur together
The answers always sound the same
We can't look at one another
I'll say something thoughtful soon
But I can't listen to the quiet
So I hum this mindless tune
I stole from some dumb country rock star
And I don't even know his name
It's like my stupid little questions
The answers always sound the same
Tell me why I have to miss you so
Tell me why we sound so lame
Why we communicate in questions
And all our answers sound the same
Luke warm coffee tastes like soap
I trace your outline in spilled sugar
Killing time and killing hope
As brand new strip mall chews on farmland
As we fish for someone to blame
But we communicate in questions
And all our answers sound the same
Under sputtering fluorescents
After re-fills are re-filled
Negotiations at a stand-still
Spoon and rolling saucer stilled
If you ask how I got so bitter
I'll ask how you got so vain
And all our questions blur together
The answers always sound the same
We can't look at one another
I'll say something thoughtful soon
But I can't listen to the quiet
So I hum this mindless tune
I stole from some dumb country rock star
And I don't even know his name
It's like my stupid little questions
The answers always sound the same
Tell me why I have to miss you so
Tell me why we sound so lame
Why we communicate in questions
And all our answers sound the same
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Although the imagery is great in this song, I didn't really get what this song is about until i saw "catherineks" and "CoryGreenwells" comments. This song is great!
this is my favorite song by them, if not my top song of all. every time i here it i see images, but theyre different although almost the same.
Very good song. I love the imagery this band uses.
this is the quintessential awkward stage that occurs before or after (usually after) a romantic relationship. they can't get comfortable with one another, and just speak in circles, asking the same questions over and over again. i cannot stop listening to this song.
i agree with catherineks for the most part... the mood of this song is just so amazing... "But we communicate in questions, and all our answers sound the same. Under sputtering flourescents, after re-fills are re-filled. Negotiations at a stand-still, spoon and rolling saucer stilled. If you ask how I got so bitter, I'll ask how you got so vain" really reminds me of when me and my girlfriend fight... just sitting there, neither of us saying anything... and then the "i'll say something thoughtful soon" of trying to figure out what to say... and instead starting to hum some random song... "tell me why we sound so lame" because the fights are almost always about something stupid that we just end up blowing out of proportion... i dont know how these guys do it.
i think you forgot one little part, which to me is the most powerful part.
"tell me why i have to miss you" just before "tell me why we sound so lame"
i really dig weakerthans...i discovered them by seeing "anchorless" being a song of theirs & i wondered if it were a cover of the propagandhi song...later to discover the guy who sang "gifts" and "anchorless" and a fwe others was the singer of this band.
i love propagandhi too...i wish weakerthans would do "gifts"
This song will always remind me of when my boyfriend and I were trying to repair our broken friendship after he betrayed my trust and I stopped talking to him for a few months.
This song will forever remind me of sitting in his car at 12 AM in a Toys R Us parking lot, being right there with him but still so lonely and without a place for the discussion to go.
hey guys.. .first of all, i think the weakerthans are just brilliant!! every time i read their songs, i'm just overwhelmed!! I am from switzerland and I saw the weakerthans 5 times until now and they are just something of the best (maybe even THE BEST) band i've ever seen live!!
now my question: can anybody explain me what this sentence means: negotiations at a stand-still, spoon and rolling saucer stilled.
thanks for answering me! bye
These are just my views, and i may well be wrong:<br /> <br /> "negotiations at a stand-still" - I think it is a metahphor for their relationship being stagnant and that nothing is happening in their relationship.<br /> <br /> <br /> "spoon and rolling saucer stilled" - The imagey in the song is about the two people arranged to meet at a diner or something, and basically, the spoon and rolling saucer represents their relationship, and when they he/she is stirring the coffee or whatever the relationship is progressing, and when the stirring is still, it means that the relationship has the died out.
"If you ask how I got so bitter, I'll ask how you got so vain."
YES!!!!!!
It's so funny how much I relate to this song. Near the beginning with the line "This brand new strip mall chews on farmland as we fish for someone to blame". This line just resonates with me as I watch the farming community I grew up in turn into sub-urbs. I am also experiencing the end of a relationship. I constantly ask her why this, why that, why I am not good enough anymore? Why are we better off parting ways? We are holding each other back, she says. The answers always sound the same.