| Rilo Kiley – Pictures of Success Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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It's about trying to make it in this world, trying to work, pay the bills, fend for yourself, be successful. She's a "modern girl" she has been raised in a culture that told her she can do anything she wants but it's still so overwhelming to think about. I think almost anyone in America can relate. Working for this and that, constatly making to-do lists, thinking of your "next move" in the plan. It's a never ending struggle. Sometimes it just makes you want to crawl into a hole and run away from it all because it seems like no matter what you're always going to be broke, or not at the place you want to be. So why not just stay in bed, make your home all cozy and never leave? Give up your problematic relationship, that Mexico vacation you wanted to take, give up all your dreams of seeing the world and doing all the things you wanted to do, your "bucket list" (like traveling or watching French films). Because the real world is fucking scary, you know? But you can't admit that. Even though we all feel that way sometimes. I love the chorus because it's so true. Won't it be nice in a way when we are old and everything on our to-do list will be done? We'll have completed our education, career, family, saved all the money we're going to save, do all the things we're going to do. And there will be nothing left to worry about. Rilo Kiley is a Los Angeles based band and having grown up in California myself I relate to the last part a lot. If you're a Californian and you travel to other states you'll get people who tell you that California is about to fall apart. An earthquake is coming that will break it into pieces. The immigrants are going to tear down the economy. The societal morals are disningrating to nothing. The fires will burn down Southern California. It's a black hole, basically. It's going to suck itself up into nothing. A disaster waiting to happen. California is also a place where what you are doing, and how successful you are is on everyone's minds. There is a lot of cultural pressure there to be doing *something*. To have a good job, lifestyle, etc. To be as close to perfect is possible. I think she sounds overwhelmed in this song. So California is a black hole? Well okay then, fine. Take me. I'm sick of the hamsterwheel. I want off. I'm ready to go. |
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| Rilo Kiley – Jenny, You're Barely Alive Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Anyone who has ever been extremely depressed/suicidal understands this song. There was a point a few years back I was on the verge of killing myself and I really related to this. The first verse is just all those little things we take for granted, but when they're gone the nostalgia kills you. The second verse is about realizing you've spent your entire life just trying to feel better, alive, NORMAL. When, really, what's the point? The third verse is about leaving it all, running away or killing yourself. The fourth verse is about how when you're depressed even something as miraculous as the ocean means nothing. Numbness. Who cares? You know that you're not feeling any of it. Everything lost meaning. Depression gives you tunnel vision. You can't remember a time you didn't feel like this. Everything up until then, even the happy times, seem bad. You don't feel like you're living, just surviving and you've always been that way. Even your friends can see that in you. Sometimes people who are depressed or anxious grind their teeth at night, causing cavities and bone loss. I had this problem and I had to be prescribed a retainer to prevent me from damaging my teeth anymore. If you grinding problem is bad enough, they can do jaw surgery and place braces on the roof of your mouth to stop you. I'm positive that is what she's referring to. It's expensive and painful to fix this problem and it's worse knowing you're causing it yourself from being so unhappy. It feels like insult to injury. |
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| Rilo Kiley – My Slumbering Heart Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I think this song is about getting older and feeling your biological clock ticking. Dreaming about having children, adventures and growing old with the person you were with after they're gone. Knowing that relationship has ended means being further away from your dreams of having a family then you were. Almost grieving for the life together you will never have anymore. "tracing the lines in my face for something that is more beautiful than is there" is a reference to the wrinkles on her face representing her age and growing older and searching for more meaning in her life then she has. "I've barely been gone" refers to the fact they've barely been broken up and she is already dreaming about them being back together. "In my dreams I see you asleep on a twin bed The covers pulled up over your head Am I asleep or awake? ... And it just feels good when you're waking up And it just feels good when you're next to me And it just feels good when you're coming home And it just feels good when you're waking up My slumbering heart" Again, dreaming about them being back together, waking up in the same bed. Just a bit ago that was her reality (so there is that early morning confusion over what is real and what isn't) And her desires for this comfort might not make sense except for the fact that it makes her feel good. (The captain part is a reference to the band Captain and Teneille). The last verse (of the actual song not the weird Alaska vignette) is sort of ironic. You never want your ex to know you are sad without them, or feel like a failure, or feel like you are missing out on the life you truely want (marriage and children and familiar comforts). You want them to think that think you are successful, you don't need them. In fact, you've barely even been gone ;) |
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| Fiona Apple – Paper Bag Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| Oh one more thing, sorry. "Hunger hurts but starving works when it costs too much to love" (that's important.) It comes down to after all the pain that it's better to just feel lonely (starve for love) or stifle the emotional hunger by just not getting involved anymore then getting involved in a situation like that because it's costing her too much mentally, physically, and emotionally to love someone who won't return the love. :( | |
| Fiona Apple – Paper Bag Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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This is my favorite song in the entir universe, and I'm sure I have listened to it and analyzed it more then any human being alive. Paper Bag is the unrequited love theme song. It's about obsessing over a person you think is out of your league and going crazy over it. 1st verse: This is about endless daydreaming over a person you think you're in love with. It makes her happy to imagine this "perfect" person, even thogh realistically she knows it proaly won't happen (I was having a sweet fix of a daydream of a boy whose reality I knew was a hopeless to be had). As the relationship progresses-or digresses- there is a moment when she thinks she has a chance, only to be snapped to reality that her dove was trash (paper bag). Chorus: There are many metaphors overlapping expressing how she feels. I read a Fiona interview when the C.D. came out about the "hunger hurts" part and it is an anorexia comparison, but NOT about anorexia. She's hungering emotionally for this guy. But it's emotionally killing her turning her into a wreck because she knows that the guy doesn't feel the same and shouldn't have to and probaly doesn't want to deal with her acting crazy. There is the whole playing card reference (maybe like playing the dating game and she has to fold?) 2nd verse: She's still obsessing, looking for the tiniest clue that he's into her to keep her going, but at the end of the day he still is not. The "fail to kiss is a fail to cope" thing is almost like her then putting blame on him, like he can't even deal with her feelings. "honey, I don't feel so good, don't feel justified, c'mon put a little love here in my void" It's all still metaphorical, but she's basically saying that she's putting in all this energy, and not getting anywhere with him, and pleading to make her feel better (get her out of her misery in wanting him so much) by returning her love, filling her "void". He responds by telling her it's all in her head, which everyone knows is how you brush off someone you don't take seriously. He's also not reciprocating and taking the metaphor litterally by telling her her pain is in her head. Basically he "didn't get it"; understand her. "I thought he was a man but he was just a little boy" that's like the "paper bag" part of him just not living up to this ideal she held him in her head. It's really all quite cleaver song writing skills. Fiona Apple is amazing. I don't know if I explained that well at all, but I get it. |
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