| Sufjan Stevens – John Wayne Gacy, Jr. Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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Two things that I've been puzzling after having this song shuffle up on me today... First of all... what does the line "Are you one of them?" mean Second... I really like the breathes he takes at the end of the song. Adds that little bit more to the song. |
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| Guster – One Man Wrecking Machine Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I think this song relates more to someone looking at their life in the promise and their unfulfilled promise and confusion wanting to go back to a time when things were simpler and the world was wide open to them. I think we all wish we knew at 16 what we know now at 30. But does anyone miss when Guster was hand percussion only too? |
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| Sufjan Stevens – John Wayne Gacy, Jr. Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I think what chills me most about this song is more that Sufjan uses John Wayne Gacy as an allusion to the dark secrets that lie within all of us. What goes unsaid in the song is that Gacy was a respected member of society, at least until they found all of those dead bodies under his house. The repulsive thing about him, and Sufjan alludes to it, is that he seems so normal at first glance. He really was for the most part just like anyone else, but to everyone's shock, he had a secret. It's more an attempt to make all of us more like monsters, or make JWG less of a monster by showing our similarities. Depends on your view of humanity I guess. |
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| The Tragically Hip – Nautical Disaster Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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The protagonist in this song is using a metaphor to a harrowing shipwreck to reflect that the other problems in his life are much more significant than the conversation between him and Susan. I tend to think that he feels that he's being pulled away from something important by her interruption. |
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| A-Ha – The Sun Always Shines on TV Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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A very good, and sadly overlooked song from the 80s. I think this song is more of a breakup song or dealing with someone's disillusion after a breakup of a relationship. "The sun always shines on TV" is more a reference to how this is not a perfect world and life doesn't turn out how you always want it, leading to feelings of emptiness and disappointment. There is definitely a wish for escapism and that something is missing from life. Much like the rest of the Hunting High and Low album, there is a somber mood in spite of the synth-pop sound. And as an aside, I should have kept my promise to myself to marry the first woman I found who knew this was the follow-up single to Take on Me. But that's not really here nor there or really has anything to do with song. |
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| Death Cab for Cutie – Styrofoam Plates Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| This song is a commentary about how death tends to gloss over the negative details of a person and how the protagonist in the story doesn't want a part of that. | |
| Ben Folds – Landed Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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This just feels like where I'm calling from right now... On the verge of ending a relationship that isn't right for me and probably going to just leave everything I know at the present. I just wish I knew who I was calling. |
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| XTC – The Mayor Of Simpleton Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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This comes across as a reply to the question "Don't you know she's too good for you?" It's really an interesting take on a love song, since he's pretty much saying in a very roundabout way that he doesn't need to know much else besides his love for her. The fact that Partridge does this with a sarcastic and witty way I believe is his way of saying that even if he's just a ditchdigger, that doesn't mean that he can't love. |
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| Sufjan Stevens – Chicago Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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I get that same regret vibe that you're picking up on sabertooth. I actually sense that he's picked up and moved on again in the attempt to recreate himself in a new place. He wants to think that he's learned from his failures in New York, but I think he senses that he's going to end up doomed to repeat them. |
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| Our Lady Peace – Somewhere Out There Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| For some reason I found myself listening to song again, but in listening to it I didn't find it as a lost ex-girlfriend song in the sense that seems prevalent in a lot of other thoughts. I pick up a real drug angle in the lyrics (in space... strung out... burn out), and I suspect that it's a love song to someone lost (or being lost) to drugs (falling out of reach). Maybe she's ran off away from reality/friends/family and he doesn't know where she is, so he waits, in pain for her to hopefully have a moment of clarity and come back. | |
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