| Death Cab for Cutie – Pity and Fear Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Yeah, I hated the abrupt ending at first, too, but it's really perfect for the song. If you think of it as a continuation and a flow between songs, then it's actually the best way to transition between this and The Ice Is Getting Thinner. Ice is almost like a flashback after this song to what happened right before, so an sudden jump really gets that across (not that I think Death Cab is telling a continuing story - that's not really their thing, and while this album is a bit of a departure at times, it doesn't seem to stray into the concept album arena). Just my thoughts. I always tend to see what I want to see in things like this, though. | |
| Owl City – On The Wing Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| This song is so gorgeous. I love the new album. This music is perfect for a good day with someone special. | |
| The Shins – Pam Berry Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| ElvisAteMyDonuts is right about the lyrics except that it's "after all THEIR crap." At least, that's what the liner notes say. | |
| Catch 22 – Wine-Stained Lips Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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My cousin introduced me a Catch 22 a few years ago on a skemo mix and I've loved them ever since. I'm not too picky about the particular lineup or specific style because they've stayed true to what they want to say with their music. This song hits a chord for me on several levels. I've been with girls who were not exactly in it as deeply as I was, and it's not fun. Traveling 200 miles (or 20, or 1543...) to find that she's practically forgotten about you tends to put you in an emo stage for a while. This song really captures that in a way that nothing other than skemo ever could. |
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| Rufus Wainwright – Es Mus Sein Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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For those who may be confused, "Es muss sein" is German. Beethoven used these lyrics as the primary phrase of the last movement of his last quartet. The reason there is an upper-case beta (mu?) in the original instead of the double S (muss) we've all been using in our comments is that Germans use this ? sign in place of the double S. It was incredibly confusing when I first arrived in Germany, but soon became commonplace to the point that seeing a double S was weird to me when I first came back to the US, lol. I read "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" while I was in Prague last year just after Christmas and it took on a whole different level of meaning because I was able to see everything Kundera talked about and how it ended up being resolved after the fall of Communism. It was easy to see how his work could have been written under those circumstances. I agree with rufusworshipper in praising Kundera as well as Wainwright. If I had to guess from the context of this song, I would say that it is indeed inspired by Kundera's famous novel. "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" is also referenced in the Bright Eyes song "Tereza and Tomas" from the album "Letting Off the Happiness." With the "Es muss sein" discussion in "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," Kundera is describing his main character, Tomas, as he returns to Prague after moving to Zurich at Tereza's request to escape the communist oppression. He returns because Tereza returned first out of an inability to live away from her home. The director of the Swiss hospital at which he works while living in Zurich was a friend of Tomas' who called him daily in Prague after the Russian invasion. This is why it is so hard for Tomas to leave Zurich. He doesn't want to insult his friend, who offered him the ability to leave the oppression of the communist regime. However, this friend and employer thinks that Tereza's move is "hysterical and abhorrent," which Tomas cannot handle, for "Tomas refused to allow anyone an opportunity to think ill of her." Ergo, Tomas tells his friend that he is leaving and his friend is offended. Tomas' only response is to shrug and say "Es muss sein. Es muss sein," alluding to the Beethoven song. "The allusion was even more pertinent than he had thought because the Swiss doctor was a great music lover. Smiling sincerely, he asked, in the melody of Beethoven's motif, 'Muss es sein?' "'Ja, es muss sein!' Tomas said again." The entire situation is doubly meaningful for Tomas because Tereza was the one who introduced him to Beethoven and convinced him to buy the record from which he took the line that allowed him to return to her with a clean conscience. Beethoven used "Der schwer gefasste Entschluss," or "the difficult resolution," to introduce this section of his music. According to Kundera, "The German word 'schwer' means both 'difficult' and 'heavy.'" Hence, "the weighy resolution is at one with the voice of Fate ('Es muss sein!');necessity, weight, and value are three concepts inextricably bound: only necessity is heavy and only what is heavy has value." This song deals with this concept of that which must be done both despite and due to the fact that it is difficult. Beethoven, Kundera, and Wainwright have all brilliantly incorporated this into their work in ways that are pertinent to their respective audiences. Rufus never ceases to impress me. |
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| Playing With Matches – Black and White and Red All Over Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| The first line of this song says, "Here's hoping you're gone." It's not in the liner notes, but whenever Derek starts singing it at a concert, everyone knows what's coming and get excited. | |
| Silbermond – Symphonie Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| This song is absolutely gorgeous. I love Stefanie's voice here. I have no idea what it's about since I don't speak German, but I'd love to. Anybody who could post the translation would be my hero. I watched a concert of theirs on TV while I was in Germany last January, and it was awesome. I'd love to see them if they came to America, but that doesn't seem likely. Oh well. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – Riffs and Variations on a Single Note for Jelly Roll, Earl Hines, Louis Armstrong, Baby Dodds, and the King of Swing, to Name a Few Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| It's a tribute to jazz legends. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| I agree with arturus, too, and I think that can help answer squeakyfingers' question. The first person singular is in the verses (sung by Sufjan alone) and the first person plural is in the chorus (sung by a choir). This demonstrates the two personalities present in the song pretty clearly. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders (Part 1: The Great Frontier; Part 2: Come to Me Only with Playthings Now) Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| Hate to drive something into the ground, but before someone mentions that Jesus was a man and this character ("The spirit, the carpenter") clearly refers to a female ("invites us to be with her"), I should mention that the Holy Spirit is commonly considered to be the feminine presence in the trinity. Plus, it could be a semi-progressive statement of the femininity of God, which is actually more and more popular, although the Bible would indicate that neither gender really fully applies. Anyway, we're not here for theological discussion so I'm gonna shut up for now. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders (Part 1: The Great Frontier; Part 2: Come to Me Only with Playthings Now) Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| Oh, and the line "The spirit, the carpenter" could refer to Jesus, who was a carpenter. It's not like that's abnormal for Stevens or anything. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders (Part 1: The Great Frontier; Part 2: Come to Me Only with Playthings Now) Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| Actually, the main riff is (one measure at a time), 6/8, 2/4, 6/8, 3/4, repeat. At the start of the verse, it goes to just 6/8, 2/4, repeat. Then, it returns to the original riff and these two riffs kind of switch off before it goes into 4/4, as has already been stated. I've studied percussion for more than half my life, and rhythms and time signatures are kind of a specialty (read: "obsession") for me. | |
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