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Arcade Fire – Suburban War Lyrics 15 years ago
I bought the album last night on the drive back from Newquay with my friends when we had about a hundred miles to go. This song absolutely floored me. Without doubt, I'd say Arcade Fire are the best band in the world right now and this song sums it up. I can't really add anything in terms of interpretation but I'll always remember the first time I heard this track. Really amazing.

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Blk Jks – Lakeside Lyrics 16 years ago
Best I could come up with

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Sam Roberts – Sundance Lyrics 16 years ago
This just makes me want to watch Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid so much! Very good song, well articulated

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Them Crooked Vultures – Bandoliers Lyrics 16 years ago
This is what I could make out:

Oh it’s too late
I got hit by the closing door
As I watched myself reflect on the wrong side of

My you’ve changed
You turned the corner I’ll never go
I admit I feel a bit deceived
You’re expecting my ????

Bandoliers
To fight me dear
Nobody caused the rift
We’ve just grown apart now

So prepare to take aim
And fire
Prepare to take aim
And fire

If that’s the way it has to be

I’m fooling myself
Fooling myself into believing you
And all these fictionary tales
You’re telling yourself

Selfish, like a child that’s never heard, ‘No’
I watched him everchanging you
Never find us

Bandoliers
To fight you dear
Nobody caused a rift
Can’t become what I’m not

You’ve always had my heart
So if it must be broken

Prepare to take aim
And fire
Prepare to take aim
And fire

Prepare to take aim
And fire
Prepare to take aim
And fire


Fire away if you must
But I only came just to let you know
This is goodbye

Prepare to take aim
And fire

Cos no-one can make me fire
No-one can make me fire

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Editors – No Sound But the Wind Lyrics 16 years ago
I'm so glad you said it was inspired by The Road, as I was looking at the lyrics then I was thinking 'this sounds very Cormac McCarthy'. Definitely prefer these lyrics to the altered version but I prefer the piano arrangement in the newer one.

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Uzi & Ari – Mountain/Molehill Lyrics 16 years ago
I'd never heard of Uzi & Ari until I was searching for Super8 footage on youtube and found a video that had this song playing over it. It worked really well so I found out what it was and now I'm really liking it. I just love the overall sound to it.

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Jeff Buckley – I Know It's Over (The Smiths cover) Lyrics 16 years ago
What is it about Jeff Buckley that made him so amazing at doing covers? Absolutely brilliant take on the song, I really love it. The way he's wailing at the end...

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Mumford & Sons – Little Lion Man Lyrics 16 years ago
I agree with seanpb that you can definitely take the chorus as sarcasm, especially in light of the rest of the song. If it isn't sarcastic then in many ways it's at odds with the tone of the verses. However I do still think you could interpret it in a straightforward way if you wished, as a kind of clarity among the bitterness, using the courage he has left and facing up to the fact that he has been the one at fault.

Anyway, very good song. My friend and I were discussing how there seems to be a lot of what he calls 'twee folk' around (Noah and the Whale) while this is the kind of folk music we actually find interesting and want to hear.

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Nina Simone – Wild Is The Wind Lyrics 17 years ago
I've been a fan of Nina Simone for a while but I've only just heard this song. It's quickly becoming one of my favourites.

As Songmeaningsuser says, it seems fairly self-explanatory. It's about a new, wild, passionate love affair. I just feel like there are darker undertones to it, like if this one goes wrong then it all goes wrong, or maybe the other person isn't quite as committed yet and that's why the speaker encourages them to let go and give them more, to let themselves go with it because in the end the wind is too wild to resist anyway.

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The National – Apartment Story Lyrics 17 years ago
I’ve been having real issues interpreting this song because it’s so easy to do contradictory readings of the thing. This is one version, I might post one of the opposites sometime. This is closer to what I feel about it right now though.


‘Be still for a second while I try and try to pin your flowers on’

The girl is restless while he wants to take the time to do the little things that may or may not matter, the little gestures that can easily slip unnoticed. It shows the difference in their personalities. She can’t stay still while he can take the extra time for something insignificant.

‘Can you carry my drink I have everything else
I can tie my tie all by myself’

He tries to take on too much responsibility, either because he doesn’t trust her to do these things or he thinks he has to.

‘I’m getting tired/tied, I’m forgetting why’

If he’s unsure about getting tied then he has doubts about the relationship and can’t work out what to do. He keeps taking things further and doesn’t know how to get out. If he isn’t sure why he’s getting tired then it’s because he thinks things should be easier with the person you’re with.

‘Oh we’re so disarming darling,’

They had their doubts about the relationship from the start but stuck with it anyway to see what happened. Either that or they just allayed any fears they had and rushed straight in, believing that if it was meant to be then things would work out.

‘everything we did believe
is diving diving diving diving off the balcony’

They had certain ideas about love and relationships and now they’ve moved in together all of those ideals are flying out of the window.

‘Tired and wired we ruin too easy’

As someone said in a previous comment, maybe ‘we ruin to easy’ means that they’re letting things affect them that would never have made a difference before. They aren’t resilient enough as a couple.

‘sleep in our clothes and wait for winter to leave’

I get an image of two people laying back to back in bed, touching but only barely. There’s a coldness between them that was never there before. They’re waiting for the bad times to pass so that they can be how they were before. But they aren’t doing anything about it, they’re just ‘waiting’ and hoping.

‘Hold ourselves together with our arms around the stereo for hours
While it sings to itself or whatever it does
when it sings to itself of its long lost loves’

They rely on modern technology to keep together. They can just sit and listen to the stereo and not have to communicate – the stereo does it for them.

‘but I’ll be with you behind the couch when they come
on a different day just like this one’

On another day, in better times, they’d be fine. They’d be huddled up close together. They’d get over the trivial problems but right now they’re struggling.

‘We’ll stay inside til somebody finds us
do whatever the TV tells us
stay inside our rosy-minded fuzz for days’

Again, relying on anything that prevents them from having to communicate. In the beginning of the song they were going out and having fun. Now they can’t even be bothered to do that. They’d rather watch TV and construct a ‘rosy-minded fuzz’. Perhaps optimistic that TV can help when in a rut?

‘so worry not
all things are well
we’ll be alright
we have our looks and perfume’

Sounds very sarcastic to me, as if they have everything they need in their ‘rosy-minded fuzz’.
Could be the break-up – ‘it’s okay, we’re young and good-looking, we’ll find other people’

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The National – Cardinal Song Lyrics 17 years ago
I agree with the reading of this as a song that criticizes the way that (paradoxically) running away from someone, pretending that you aren't interested in them tends to keep them running after you.

The voice in the song did the opposite; he told the girl how he felt and he has become bitter as he thinks about how he just did what felt right and it didn't work while the people who play the games get the girl. He knows that he could have pretended not to care and probably kept the girl but questions whether it's worth it to have that kind of relationship.

It is laden with sarcasm, particularly when he says:

"good for you, you've just become
just another one of them"

I also agree with reading 'cardinal eyes' as red eyes. Never let her show you care (that you've been crying) because that will drive her away. He's still being bitter and cynical.

The final repeated verses are when the speaker's bitterness softens and he realises what he's actually been saying. It's this part that makes the previous comment about this being sexist totally redundant - the rest is all said while he's angry and emotional and this is how he really feels. The music changes as he reflects and thinks about what he's actually been saying and what he genuinely feels.

"forgive me girls i am confused
stiff and pissed and lost and loose"

is the confession that he doesn't really know what he's saying and realises that he's been unfairly generalising and stereotyping.

Great song =)

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The Last Shadow Puppets – My Mistakes Were Made for You Lyrics 17 years ago
Yeah this may be my favourite song of theirs
along with their Bowie cover which is fecking awesome

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Frank Turner – I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous Lyrics 17 years ago
I've not really got into Frank Turner yet but someone mentioned to me the line
'We planned the revolution from a cheap Southampton bistro'
and I had to check the song out

I've only heard this once but I loved it
The whole sound of it feels kind of resigned and nostalgic with the optimism coming out through the lyrics

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The Last Shadow Puppets – The Age of The Understatement Lyrics 18 years ago
To be honest it really isn't as much about the lyrics as the sound of the words with the strings and the choral type parts.

I think the kind of chorus part could be about the way, in our current society, it's all about the sex and not really feeling. There's this trend of not really feeling intensely, it's all about the understatement.

This girl is a bit of a maneater but she does not really care about any of them, while the guy tries to genuinely attract her by being apathetic, 'stepping away from the parade' when really all this guy wants is for her to 'kiss [him] properly' so that he can fall apart. He’s itching to show how he’s attracted to her but knows that if he did he’d lose her like all the others.

Or at least those are my initial thoughts. I’ll probably change my mind by tomorrow =)

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Arctic Monkeys – 505 Lyrics 18 years ago
I agree with scummyman, probably the best on the new album. Definitely my fave atm anyways along with Do Me A Favour. I think it's pretty self-explanatory really.

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The Rifles – Local Boy Lyrics 18 years ago
I can see where Poli and Pompey are coming from on this one but I think there's more to it.

Either the guy has gone off to join the army (the ribbons on his uniform) or hes gone and fought his own "war" with life, been places and seen things because he looked around and saw he was in a dead end town and wanted to get out.

He sees all these things and concludes that the rest of the world isn't some great place where the grass is greener. He still loves his old town and regrets leaving his sweetheart behind who is now gone. He hates himself, for thinking the rest of the world was better, for leaving something so good behind and for loving this dead-end place.

The town doesn't appreciate that he had greater aspirations. It treats him just the same as anyone else, perhaps he has a higher opinion of himself than could be justified.

Anyways thats what I think.

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Madness – Lovestruck Lyrics 19 years ago
I love the line "mumbling on into a crystal glass that echoes a song"

Makes me think everyone else has left, and you're just there talking to your pint, but in your inebriated state everything you say is gold and each philosophy above anything else you could say while sober.

One of my fave Madness songs

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The Hours – Ali In The Jungle Lyrics 19 years ago
I heard this song on Jools Holland on Friday and absolutely loved it.

I think it's quite obviously about all the different ways we get knocked down in life, whether it's being taken down by certain specific events or being disadvantaged in some way by things in our lives outside our own control.

We're all like Ali, like the boxer. We fight to get back up as quickly as possible, before we get counted out - before the bell rings.

No matter how hard things seem, no matter how long the odds, we can always overcome things. Even when we're told it's impossible we can do it. Us humans might have sensitive skin but we're hard - if wounded - at the core.

Anything is possible.

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Damien Rice – Baby Sister Lyrics 19 years ago
I think (if you wanna' dig pretty deep) that the repetition of the music is perfect. It is just the right portrayal of how she is stuck in this place and can't escape, can't change.

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Damien Rice – Me, My Yoke and I Lyrics 19 years ago
In one live performance he introduces this song by saying:
"There's this guy I knew who, when he was young, discovered this thing hanging out of his body. And one day he actually found out what to do with it. He used to feel so guilty about talking to this new friend of his that he used to donate money to charity. Until he got to the point where he didn't have any money to donate anymore"

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Damien Rice – 9 Crimes Lyrics 19 years ago
I read through the comments so far and just took some of the lines and said what I think they could mean (or at least what came to my mind)

Leave me out with the waste – wanting the other person to end things so that they don’t have to?

This is not what i do – they’re not the type of person to jump ship just because it’s sinking/there might be something else out there – would like to fix things

It's the wrong kind of place – place as in time – time of life? Something happened to make the circumstances wrong

It's the wrong time
For somebody new – too much invested in current relationship to throw it away; wants there to be something there

It's a small crime
And I've got no excuse – don’t need an excuse for your emotions? Or just can’t find one, however hard they try, coz they don’t want to lie to this other person? Trying to minimise the guilt?

Is that alright? – with the other person? In their own minds?

Give my gun away when it's loaded – break these ties at the wrong time

If you dont shoot it how am i supposed to hold it – takes the two of them to keep things working and together, if they don’t work together anymore then what’s the point? Can't carry on trying alone?

I like the idea that the "Is that alright"s are sarcastic, said with a twinge of hoping for a real answer to finish things, one way or the other.

I'd also like to think that (with Damien and Lisa both singing roughly the same lines) both people in the relationship feel the same way and that if they just told each other how they felt they could sort it out so much more easily. As it is they're too scared of hurting each other and it's killing them both.

Anyways I've rambled. That's what I think.

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Bill Bailey – Midnight in Parliament Square Lyrics 19 years ago
Bill starts this off by saying it is "inspired by the work of Phil Collins, that nasty, whining little git".

So funny. My favourite comedian.

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Bill Bailey – Hats Off to the Zebras Lyrics 19 years ago
Maybe my favourite Bill Bailey song. The comedy store version was just awesome :)

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Colin Hay – Maggie Lyrics 19 years ago
Yeah the way I always see it is that Maggie is his first (major) love. He thinks they'll be together forever but she's more mature and realistic. She knows it won't last and she leaves him.

The years pass and he thinks of her often while living his own life. It seems that her husband is abusive and she is unhappy but she is helpless. As it turns out maybe he was the realistic one - she realises she has made the wrong decision and kills herself, leaving him a note so that he knows he was as important to her as she was to him. She never forgot all those simpler times just throwing stones into the sea.

Now that she "is free" he imagines that she visits him while he sleeps. They can finally be together.

One of my favourites, along with "Waiting For My Real Life To Begin"

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In Flames – Scream Lyrics 20 years ago
Wow no comments yet. One of the best tracks from the new album imo.

I think it's just about how we're all people, just like the next person along. As it says "we are pretty much the same, We're just living in different lives".

However much we all scream, we're still just the same. There's always someone else screaming.

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Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here Lyrics 20 years ago
I'm pretty sure the main meaning of this song is Syd Barrett and I definitely think that "Wish You Were Here" is meant in a totally mental way and isn't much in a physical sense.

When you think about the situation with Syd he was just in a totally other place to the other guys due to the excessive drug use. If he had been "there" on the same level as them he could have remained a part of the band. Tragically he wasn't all there, however hard they wished.

Looking at the lyrics more specifically the comparisons are obviously to demonstrate how far away from them Syd really was - that he might not be able to tell the difference between these seemingly unrelated objects.
The "did they get you to change" I think refers to the drugs themselves and paints a haunting picture of a man whose heroes have turned to ghosts. Basically his live has turned upside down.

I truly love this song.

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