| Frank Turner – Worse Things Happen At Sea Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| He's said that this girl slept with his best friend, so I think the "at least you never try to fuck my friends" bit is either ironic or rejecting the guy she slept with. | |
| Frank Turner – Long Live The Queen Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Great song, and a really good message. Last time in Norwich he said that this friend dying was a tragedy and a huge loss and all that but the important thing was that "she took her life and really lived the shit out of it" and that's what everyone should do. Yes it's sad but you've gotta dance through it cos you've got the chance to. | |
| Bloc Party – The Once and Future King Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
The Once And Future King is a referance to King Arthur who's meant to be ready to come back and save England in it's darkest hour, a few books on the legends have been written called that. It sounds quite bitter and in a way scared, feeling threatened by other bands. I dunno if it's about Billie Joe though, just any artist who's big and "passive yet aggressive" - mouthing off in songs but not really meaning it? |
|
| Bloc Party – England Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
In an Observer interview, Kele said he was sick of violence, particuarly racially and homophobically motivated and fears something's going to happen to him - he said he used to get abuse when he hung out with his white female housemate because they were presumed to be a mixed race couple. He's highlighting that this element is still present in England. The waiting for something cruel to happen is him thinking it's going to happen to him, it's just a matter of time. It wasn't actually his cousin who was killed - it was the son of his mother's best friend who he referred to as being like a cousin, I think anyway. |
|
| Frank Turner – Once We Were Anarchists Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I dunno if that's quite what he means by this - he's saying he still feels the anger and has the same beliefs but that the older he gets the more jaded he gets and the less will to fight he has. He wants to fight but how much he rallied against the system without anything happening has made him lose the will to do it anymore, or at least in the same way. | |
| Frank Turner – The Ballad Of Me And My Friends Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| It's kind of pointless looking at these songs too deeply sometimes cos he's so direct but it really makes it work cos you just get the picture straight away. This song's just a put up or shut up to everyone who's ever just sat around doing nothing to make the plans they've always said they'll achieve. | |
| Frank Turner – A Decent Cup Of Tea Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
Amazing song - I guess most guys have had this, just some girl who doesn't seem to consider what she wants could be right in front of her while it makes us torture ourselves. But cos he cares he stays and listens. Also, I always think "I never ever dare to tell her what I think" sounds angry at the lifestyle as well as not having the confidence to say it. |
|
| Bloc Party – SRXT Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Another thought - the place on the album makes it kind of significant in another way. If the record's about modern urban life, then this being at the end ties up the record by giving him a sollution, if he dies he's at least not lost anymore. All this hope builds with Sunday and I Still Remember then gets dashed by the dispair here. Going to the countryside to find his peace shows how he's turned his back on the city for this peace, and while what he's said about it makes it sound like suicide you could see how to interprete it as about leaving the city for peace and solitude, whether living or dead. | |
| Bloc Party – Hunting for Witches Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| It does seem to be based on the aftermath of the bombings, and the culture of fear/Islamaphobia that's followed it. Old predudices are brought up (the enemy "taking our women and taking our jobs", stereotypes about immigration), because there's now an excuse for it. The "baying for blood" and the fact that "heads are going to roll" seems to be not so much a comment on the trail of those involved but the attacks on Aufganistan and Iraq - "misinformed" populations following governments desperatly wanting to be seen to do something about this. | |
| Bloc Party – SRXT Lyrics | 19 years ago |
|
Absolutly amazing song. That Guardian interview really says a lot about all of these really - Moushi seems to have got it just right, but it's a bit more personal that that since he also said two of his friends from university felt like this and tried to kill themselves, so it's not strictly speaking his point of view in a way. Also, he mentioned how his mother's Christianity and faith that all was in God's hands rather than acting for herself was hugely depressing to him, hence what makes him sad is hope, the endurance of faith - though it can also be dispair at how we're encoraged to dream of being sucessful and reach for that and not being able to get there. |
|
| (+44) – No It Isn't Lyrics | 19 years ago |
|
I wouldn't say it's exactly chock full of metaphore, it's generally pretty direct, but that meaning's spot on. Just some extra detail really cos there's not much to add: Mark felt his hands were tied because Tom took the situation out of his control and had the manager on his side, and pushed into the deep end is feeling like the band's drowning, but cos he's tied and can't swim he can't fight it. The "Search for an excuse and someone to believe you" is about him just having people around him now who agree with him and believe his bullshit about making "the best album of all time" and "music to save people's lives" or whatever. The biggest part is definatly "this desperation is leaving me overjoyed" - like you said, it's saying that +44's come out of it, and because of how he feels Tom screwed the fans over he wants to make something better than anything Blink or AvA could have done, which he definatly has. |
|
| Ghinzu – High Voltage Queen (the reign of) Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| This song IS sex. It's about just wanting someone so much, and I think the "try me and die" is reffering to the 'little death' cos it just works so well. It's also about idolizing someone, she doesn't give a fuck of your smart silicone - she's the easy going, rebelious type - and the model is real - the image of perfect woman he's held all his life is finally there. | |
| Reuben – Best Enemies Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| Pretty obvious one - he's caught his girlfriend with someone else and has had to deal with having to break up with someone he loves and has been putting it off, even after she promises to change. He's also had the post-break up insecurities of not knowing how to find someone new. Chairman Mao was the leader of China's "Cultural Revolution" and was genuinely popular up to his death. Think that about covers it. | |
| The Kooks – Matchbox Lyrics | 20 years ago |
|
My favorite song on the album. While a lot of it's ambiguous and a little conflicting to me, I'd say the chorus is about going out with your mates drinking - probably because your heart's bleeding - stealing signs, doing stupid things and having fun to get over things. "Don't come too close, you don't wanna see my ghost" - seeing how he really is now instead of how he's trying to be in this new relationship? An amazing line anyway! |
|
| The Kooks – Eddie's Gun Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| It is, pretty simple. Their singer used to go out with Katie Melua (well in) and this song is about being unable to perform for her. I met him supporting The Subways at Cambridge cos he came into the crowd to watch them, and I spent ages wondering if I should ask him about her, wussed out in the end. Top bloke though. | |
| Bloc Party – Tulips Lyrics | 20 years ago |
|
I agree, it's just about relationships and the little things you do, little fragments of really specific things you remember so clearly just cos it meant a lot to you - I'm sure most can remember a glimpse of someone they were with ("when I saw you there ... I knew that I'd found you") which made them rrealise how much that person meant to them. The first verse at least is definatly for the little things like that. Was wondering if tulips specifically had a meaning and found this on Wiki: "Tulips cannot be grown in the open in tropical climates, as they require a cold winter season to grow successfully. Manipulation of the tulip's growing temperature can, however, allow growers to "force" tulips to flower earlier than they normally would." there's bound to be something in there but I can't drag anything out right now. |
|
| Bloc Party – Plans Lyrics | 20 years ago |
|
The narrator's telling someone else to get off their arse, basically. The music and his vocals make it sound like the voice is kinda drifting through a haze of laziness to get to him. "Cut your hair and shave your beard, you squandered your chances" make them sound like a layabout, or a young man who's just not got a job or something. "Stop being so laissez-faire" is a referance to the policy of the Italian liberal government 1874-1922 (woo, a use for History AS level!) which means basically non intervention, or doing nothing, which was disasterous for them. "The ravens are leaving the tower" obviously the myth that if the Tower of London has no ravens left in it, England will lose all power, just says disaster is imminent. Then there's the lines with the narrator's intentions, sounding ruthless - "I've got a taste for blood, leave the weak" and ready to do anything to achieve their ends. But when they say "Kiss me before it all gets complicated" it's just acting without thinking about the situation much - like meeting someone and getting with them straight away without complicating things by leaving it going, though again that can be just as disasterous as laissez faire. But he feels "bogged down" by making the plans, he wants actioin, not the "all surface" plans he makes with the person he's talking to. |
|
| Manic Street Preachers – Kevin Carter Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| So surely this is mirrored in Richie's feelings before he disappeared that the press were feeding off his misery and furthering their careers with it? The irony being that he (may have, here's not the place for the theories) killed himself because other people were doing this. | |
| Bloc Party – Staying Fat Lyrics | 20 years ago |
|
Obviously modernization, industry and so on. I think the arctic snow is about how before how having a freezer was done by extremely rich people keeping a box full of ice brought back from a strange land a few centuries ago, but is now commonplace. "The sound keeps you hemmed to the past The walls are coming in again The streets grid alone from the door You gotta spin the fucking treadle..." That verse reminds me a bit of TS Eliot's bleak views on the industrial revolution, especially the lines about the streets. A treadle was something in a mill at that time, so he's saying industry's gotta keep going. All about progress being made - synthetic overtaking natural, in the same way the early 20th Centry modernist poets said it. |
|
| Bloc Party – Helicopter Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| It's a good idea, but I remember Kele saying it's called that purely because he likes the word. Perhaps that's a reflection on how Bush was given a lot of freedom to do whatever he wanted after September 11th? | |
| Reuben – Freddy Kreuger Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| It's being tired of everything - stuck in the same band, same relationship, same piss poor horror film, same routine. But still sticking to it. I think it's kind of saying that anything gets boring and has a downside, however much people want to be rockstars, in a relationship, an evil supervillain. | |
| Bloc Party – Helicopter Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| "He doesn't like chocolate" who doesn't like chocolate? Everyone does! I always think that line shows that Bush (if we say the song's about him) doesn't have most people's interests at heart. | |
| Bloc Party – Positive Tension Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| Yeah, it seems to be all about talent contests. I read something interesting about it (well, interesting in contrast to what the NME usually says) and it was commenting on how it seems each instrument is being played as if it were the lead here. Like each band member's competing, ties in with the theme of the lyrics. | |
| Bloc Party – This Modern Love Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| I think the "you brought me a book" has to be looked at with "trying to reach me" - that's how they communicate: through other people's words, phrases from books or films. Either because they can't think of anything real to say to each other, or because they want to capture romance as it's portrayed in media. | |
| Bloc Party – Blue Light Lyrics | 20 years ago |
|
I could well be totally wrong here, but I think it's a referance to blueshift, as Bloc Party are a pretty intelligent band. Blue has the longest (it could also be shortest though) wavelength in a beam of light, and when galaxies are moving away from us they seem red because of how fast they're moving. However, when they're coming towards us they look blue, because the light refacts that way (I can't remember why, and GCSE physics was only last year...). So it could be saying that this person's coming back to them. While I'm at it - you and the taste of cigerettes, miss either really badly when they're gone. |
|
| Bloc Party – Like Eating Glass Lyrics | 20 years ago |
|
I love the communion idea - that's really good. "y'all are reading into this too much. crosses on your eyes just means you're dizzy or knocked out cold like the cartoons" That's what we call a double meaning. Your dazed by the religion, it blinds you so you walk into everything. "You got your eyes everywhere" is omnipitance, which agrees with it being religious. That verse is all about being ignored by God, and not returning my calls compares it to being ignored by friends. An aversion to light/fear of the ocean could be being scared of the creation - or to The Light people say when you die. But to be honest, that verse seems to be unsettled with more everyday things, and the song seems to be about both. "For richer for poorer for better for worse" is obviously wedding vows, but - if you're talking about religion - shows that however disatisfied with it people get, they stick to it cos they've sworn to it, and they go through the routine. |
|
| Bloc Party – This Modern Love Lyrics | 20 years ago |
|
I think it's just about modern relationships in general, rather than one in particular - complaining about the state of modern love. "Do you wanna come over and kill some time?" sums it up - you can't seem too keen, you don't get too involved. And it's not anything special - killing time rather than enjoying it. "Don't get offended If I seem absent minded Just keep telling me facts And keep making me smile" Seems to suggest relationships aren't being focussed on, but people do want it to cheer them up, just a comfort. Telling them to gorge on your sadness is kinda the same. You can trace it through the rest of the lyrics, but the best one I think is "What are you holding out for?" - not getting involved becuase they're waiting for something better, but is that ever going to come if they always act like this? If all relationships are like that, there'll be no Mr/s right, only Mr/s right now. |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.