submissions
| Conor Oberst – Common Knowledge Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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I think think "when he comes too sure, he'll apologize" is "when he comes to, sure he'll apologize" -- seems to refer someone problematically drunk and damaging |
submissions
| The Antlers – Palace Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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It's funny I hear done line differently ("beautifully oblivious before you were hiS") and it changed my idea of what the song was about. It definitely sounds like "hid," though, and that makes it more about people who change instead of classic envious outsider white knight love song.
Still think it's "if we can go into a home in our heart right now" though |
submissions
| Speedy Ortiz – No Below Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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I thought this was a dark, depressing song until I read the lyrics here. There's so much hopefulness and gratefulness that gets lost if you only pay attention to the chorus. |
submissions
| The National – Heavenfaced Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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There's a lot of fear/hope about death & dying here, but I can't quite figure out the central line: "Can’t face heaven all heavenfaced." What does it mean to be "heavenfaced"? |
submissions
| Local Natives – Three Months Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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A song about death & mourning.
The title "Three Months" refers to a short amount of time in this context, like "Three Months Left To Live." The line about "having thought this wasn't your last year" is the indicator. Calling an answering machine just to hear the prerecorded voice ... "Letting you know I am ready to feel you" sounds like the speaker is ready to feel the loss and deal with the absence. It can be a big decision to let the waves of mourning hit you fully, without distraction or dulling. |
submissions
| Damien Jurado – Working Titles Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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Beautiful, amazing love song. It's from the point of view of a bitter, probably jilted ex-lover of a travelling musician -- whether that's Jurado himself isn't that important. But I love the turn. It gets increasingly more bitter ("You're no him, but he's you only better") until a sudden lull and a curious change of heart ("...What's it like, for you, in Washington?")
The subject isn't really over everthing ... he/she can still be pulled in by the romanticizing of the life, of the travel, the big wide world outside of Manhattan... |
submissions
| Los Campesinos! – Songs About Your Girlfriend Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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I love the attitude in this song. On one hand he's breaking up a relationship, being the other guy, but on the other hand he's heart broken & bitter because it's over and they never connected beyond physically. He's apologizing to the guy while rubbing it in. It's consoling ("I never made her smile like that") and then twisting the knife right after ("I always made her purr like a cat")
How often do you get songs with such awesome arrogant/bitter/evil/sympathetic attitude? So far beyond "I love her" or "I miss her" |
submissions
| Youth Lagoon – July Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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So glad to have lyrics for this. What little I could make out, I really enjoyed. I hope this guy blows up. |
submissions
| Bright Eyes – Coyote Song Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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"Loving you is easy, I can do it in my sleep."
I wish I had come up with that, so that I could use it and not feel like a cheap, personality-less rip off. |
submissions
| Sufjan Stevens – Impossible Soul Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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Also the woman sounds like Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond, but I am just judging this by the way she sings the word "afraid." That part sounds distinctly like her voice. |
submissions
| Sufjan Stevens – Impossible Soul Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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Man, it's so hard to do anything while this song is playing. I can't imagine it just being "background music" or "driving music" because it just takes all your attention.
I think it's unfair how people have a knee-jerk reaction to auto-tune because of its prominence in recent pop music. It's a sound, just like any other effect, from Elliott Smith's multi-tracking or distortion on guitar. It's like any other instrument.
It's not like he's using auto-tune to cover up his lack of vocal talents - he's made a dozen albums without it, so using it for a few verses shouldn't matter. It's not like he uses it on every song like T-Pain. It's specific sonic choice, like the decision to use a trumpet, or a synth, or a choir. |
submissions
| The National – You Were a Kindness Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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There are just so many great lines in here.
"You made a slow disaster out of me" ... "I was careful but nothing is harmless" ... "You were a kindness when I was a stranger"
It's got that poetic simplicity to it |
submissions
| Sufjan Stevens – Arnika Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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I love how much he's experimenting with his sound; you can hear it most in the way he sings. His melodies are weirder, harder, and with different inflections. It's not strictly breathy and soft anymore. |
submissions
| Hot Chip – Alley Cats Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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Hot Chip always makes bizarre and seemingly nonsensical lyrics (and likely nonsensical)
but damn do they back it up with beautiful sounds |
submissions
| The Rural Alberta Advantage – Sleep All Day Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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It's about a relationship heading, inevitably, to its doom. They're taking a break, they've been having conflicts, and it just feels like the end is looming. It leaves the speaker lethargic, lying there, purposeless ... so he offers a few words if his partner meets him halfway: "If you try to hold on, then I'll try to hold on to you." |
submissions
| Conor Oberst – Ten Women Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Before he played this, he said, "This song is about having a wandering eye ... and a wandering heart." |
submissions
| Conor Oberst – White Shoes Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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He had a great set-up for this song in concert...
"I need a favor from the lighting person. I want you to make it real dark ... and I'll return the favor."
And then the lights go red, he plays the intro, and everyone gets chills. |
submissions
| Cursive – I Couldn't Love You Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Something interesting I just realized: This could be, "I couldn't love you anymore" or, "I couldn't love you any more." Opposite meanings. Maybe intentional, maybe I'm reading too much into it. But it seems like a conflicted song, and they made sure to leave that word off the title. |
submissions
| Cursive – I Couldn't Love You Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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An amazing song, probably better than anything off of Happy Hollow, up there with the best of Ugly Organ & Domestica. It's so good to hear that Cursive still got it and then some. |
submissions
| Andrew Bird – Effigy Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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"Hold on just a second
Don't tell me this one you know
I know this one I know this song
I know this one I love this song"
I love the way he sings this line. He uses the natural melody in the way someone would actually say this line. When a friend recalls a song this way, it has this natural music in the highs and lows and emphasis and Andrew Bird amplifies and uses it.
Am I making any sense? It's hard to convey. But it's beautiful and interesting. |
submissions
| Conor Oberst – Eagle on a Pole Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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"El cielo es azul just don't go telling anyone" seems like a beautiful sentiment, like trying to hide the obvious or the concrete truth.
But part of me feels like it's just one of the phrases Conor learned in his "How To Speak Spanish Volume 1" cassette. |
submissions
| Okkervil River – Pop Lie Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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We listen to songs that touch us deeply, and we build this image of the singer in our head, assuming that something so emotional must be a reflection of his or her life, right? Sometimes that's the case, but other times it's just fiction, written because it's a good emotional hook.
I don't know if Will Sheff is singing about himself, but it definitely applies to anyone who loves a band. It seems to be about separating the art from the artist. All these things that we want our favorite singers and songwriters to be and feel - it might be a lie. We can fall in love with the music, but we can't fall in love with the people. |
submissions
| Okkervil River – Singer Songwriter Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Seems to be about elitism and/or pretentiousness ... and how all the hip stuff you like/do will not amount to anything meaningful if you don't have anything else in your life. |
submissions
| Okkervil River – Blue Tulip Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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It seems kind of like "On Tour With Zykos" - a relationship, or at least a yearning for one, separated by one's rise to fame. |
submissions
| Hot Chip – One Pure Thought Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Also, some lyrics that I hear. I don't know if they're right, but it's what I'm picking up:
So far, as you've seen
>>We've been the mightiest team>To bear arms since Nile Rodgers was denied entry |
submissions
| Hot Chip – Wrestlers Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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This song made me laugh. The words + the musical style makes it sound like some great love making song, but it could just as easily be about Pro Wrestling.
If anyone wants to know what the reversed vocals are, it's the same thing, starting from "suplex / Headlock, somer-slam ... " |
submissions
| Okkervil River – The President's Dead Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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This song is amazingly written.
It's meaning is self explanatory, about how when a President dies (any president - not necessarily the current one) everyone is greatly impacted. Everyone remembers what they're doing, everyone looks back on their own mortality, everyone puts the victim on a pedastel and makes them seem like they were better than they might have actually been.
Very non political |
submissions
| Cursive – At Conception Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Yeah, I think 989898 has got it. An anti-abortion priest, changes his mind and says abortion is okay in cases of rape, in order to cover his ass when a girl he had sex with (in a confessional?) ends up pregnant. And it's not her boyfriend's, because he's been shipped away. |
submissions
| Cursive – No News Is Bad News Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Does he have any personal songs left in him? This song makes it seem like he's exhausted every aspect of whatever it is he's been writing about since Blinding Stars for Starving Eyes.
Again, it's not bad. Just different. |
submissions
| Cursive – No News Is Bad News Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Yeah, I think everyone here is on the right track. It actually kind of concerns me a little bit, since it is true that a lot of his new music is a lot less...introspective. It's a lot less personal. While it can still sound great, I'm finding that it's not nearly as emotionally charged as the last few albums, which is what I loved the band for. |
submissions
| Okkervil River – Okkervil River Song Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I like how the river is described as dirty and polluted with litter everywhere. When singing about a river, it must be tempting to go with the stereotypical flowing, natural, pure blue river full of salmon. |
submissions
| Cursive – Bad Sects Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I agree it's about a religious person and the gay relationship he finds himself in, and the crisis he finds himself in dealing with those feelings. I'm not totally convinced it's a priest, though. It's very possible, but it just doesn't seem obvious. |
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