| Fall Out Boy – Bang the Doldrums Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
Bang the Doldrums is one of my fave's on IoH, and I didn't seem to find it as cryptic as most other people. But anyway, here's what I think: "I wrote a goodbye note in lipstick on your arm when you passed out, I couldn’t bring myself to call, except to call it quits," This is pretty straightforward. I think they (the couple, I mean - probably Pete and Jenae) get drunk and sleep together and he wants her way more than she does him. He has a thing with commitment and intimacy, I mean, even the way he broke up with her is temporary. It can't be saved like a letter or text could. He couldn't bring himself to call her, so he never did. 'Calling it quits' doesn't necessarily mean he called her, the lipstick note could qualify as such. "Best friends, ex-friends to the end, Better off as lovers and not the other way around," There's a serious play on words here, definately added to confuse. Here's my interpretation: they were best friends, now 'ex-friends to the end'. By 'better off as lovers, not the other way around' I think he means they're not 'lovers better off'. "Racing through the city, windows down, In the back of yellow-checkered cars." I think this simply implies a sense of urgency and desire - racing through the city (Chicago, perhaps?) together, infatuated. "You're all wrong, Are we all wrong? You're all wrong, Are we all wrong?" Here I think he's simply questioning the situation. The relationship is so messed up - is it worth it? "This city says; Come Hell or high water, when I’m feeling hot and wet, I can’t commit to a thing, be it heart or hospital," The City. Again, this could be L.A., Chicago, or New York (all of which Pete Wentz, the main lyricist, spends a lot of time). Come hell or high water is usually used to imply loyalty or staying power. Perhaps she promised to be there hell or high water, and now that both are there, what is she gonna do? The next line is simple: he can't commit to a relationship - he just uses the hospital metaphor to emphasis how large his phobia is. "The tombstones are waiting, They were half engraved, They knew it was over, Just didn’t know the date." This is probably one of the most straight-forward FOB lyrics ever. The relationship was doomed from the beginning - it was a matter of when, not if. "And I cast a spell over the West to make you think of me, The same way I think of you," Maybe he's talking about Hollywood, maybe he's talking about the chick - who knows? He just wants to be accepted and thought of and loved. "This is a love song in my own way, Happily ever after, below the waist." Possibly one of my favorite lines on the album. This is a love song is his own way, as close as he can come to love - obsession, infatuation, and lust. Happily ever after below the waist just serves the drive the point home. Sexual satisfaction is as close to happily ever after as they'll ever come. Amazing song - great lyrics, but all FOB songs are mindblowing. I think I've got it down pat - who knows? Everbody reads them and thinks something different. |
|
| Anna Nalick – Citadel Lyrics | 19 years ago |
|
"I'm sitting on a citadel contemplating life making a point to waste my time I'm walking on clouds of white" She's basically sort of looking up over her life, "making a point to waste her time" while she tries to make a decision that will help her move forward. "What if I fall? What if I don't?" The best lines in the song. She's asking 'what if I fall', and then she asks 'what if I don't'. What if nothing happens, what if I never make it high enough to fall? "What if I never make it home? What if I bleed? What if I break, and I find that I can't take the city below the citadel, holding my own hand?" She's worried that she can't amount to the society she's watched from afar. She doesn't think she can do it alond, hence the verse, 'holding my own hand'. "And I'm breaking on the balcony Breaking window panes Killing the pain of broken hearts" Really, I don't think this verse is meant to really express anything, but more of bring across an emotion of being lost and feeling confused and helpless. "I'm walking on clouds Walking on stars" She's sort of floating above everything, trying to delay having to deal with it. "I'm holding on to something It's keeping me from jumping I'm so afraid to go it alone" She wants to jump down from the citadel into the city below, to become apart of it, but she's 'so afraid to go it alone'. "And holding up this fortress with imaginary forces longing for a life down below" Longing for the life of the city below the citadel, she's keeping herself (or the walls she's built around her) together with imaginary forces, meaning she's not really holding it together very well at all. This really is a great song. All of her work is, not just another 'he left me, I'll cut my wrists' song you get from most mainstream people. |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.