| Brand New – Guernica Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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When I first heard this song, I connected it--especially the line "nobody plans to be half a world away at times like these"--to the feeling I had as a teenager when I found out that an older girl I had looked up to when I'd lived abroad had killed herself. Later, when I was in college, a close friend was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and had to pull out of school just before our senior year. I spent a lot of time that year as she was in and out of the hospital, back and forth between treatments, etc. listening to this song and resonating with the desire to offer my own body as if my health could somehow miraculously heal her. Since then, I've found that I always end up listening to this song when a friend gets diagnosed with a major illness. No song speaks to all the feelings those situations stir up in me like this one. |
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| Tori Amos – Promise Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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This is one of my favorite songs on Tori's most recent album, because it shows both sides of the mother-daughter relationship. I love the underlying statements in the song that both of them are afraid that they will be judged too harshly and abandoned by the other and that both of them offer something salvific or restorative for the other. It's a nice reminder to be more gracious in the way we look at each other whether we're mothers or daughters or both. The second verse especially speaks to me and my experience of coming out to my mom within the past year. |
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| Panic! at the Disco – Girls/Girls/Boys Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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This is a stretch, but after listening to the song a couple of times, this is what I decided: The narrator Brendon's singing for is a lesbian and the love interest is a semi-closeted polyamorous bisexual girl. The narrator has decided that she won't date bisexuals, mostly because she believes you can only be monosexual. So she's met this girl that she's really into but she learns that this girl has a boyfriend. She's upset, but she can't let go of her attraction so she keeps trying to get close to the girl ("But if you change your mind, you know where I am"). Her decision to keep pursuing this isn’t what she usually does with bisexual girls thus: "And never did I think that I/Would be caught in the way you caught me. “ The "push another girl aside..." line here I think serves to prep us for the next stanza by being to both the narrator and the love interest. The narrator will learn the love interest is polyamorous and has a girlfriend in the next stanza. This, too, is outside of her dating comfort zone, but she’s willing to be in this kind of relationship if the love interest will give up other girls. On the other hand, the narrator is also trying to talk herself into being completely okay dating this girl even if she's bisexual rather than another lesbian so she’s telling herself to push other girls aside as well. With that in mind, I feel like the chorus is the narrator trying to come to terms with her feelings and with bisexuality (and to a lesser extent polyamory) as a valid option. In the second verse, I think the narrator learns not only does the love interest have two partners, but she’s also keeping her girlfriend a secret from most people probably to not be viewed as “the slutty bi girl” ("Pose, you've gotta save your reputation/They're close to finding out about your girlfriend"). It also might be that it’s at the request of the girlfriend who’s not fully out which makes the narrator’s line: "I don't wanna save your reputation" a declaration of one reason she would be a better girlfriend than the love interest’s current one. The two lines before the chorus basically solidify my interpretation. The narrator feels like a villain for "betraying" her fellow lesbians and wanting a bisexual girl (AKA "a girl who can't decide"). I think the not being able to decide also applies to the idea of polyamory and not choosing one partner over the other. I know it's probably not what the band intended, but I think it's an interesting alternative perspective to consider. |
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| Dido – Thank You Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| I've always loved this song and thought of it in terms of a romantic relationship. But listening to it for the first time since graduating from college, it's taken on this new personal meaning. There were so many times, especially in the last year of school, when I got through hard days by knowing that at the end I would be able to go back to my dorm with my roommate and my friends. There were so many times when my friends showed up unexpectedly and completely turned around my day. Even when everything felt like it was crashing around me, having them by my side through it all made it seem bearable. That's what this song now calls to mind for me. | |
| Matchbox Twenty – Unwell Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| This used to be one of those songs that I only thought about every blue moon. Then, two years ago, one of my professors passed away at the end of a school break and I spent at least half of the first day of classes after his death listening to this song on repeat. I could never put into words why I suddenly craved it or why I couldn't stop listening to it but something about this song me kept me going for those first several horrible hours of coming to terms with his death. For that, I will always be grateful. | |
| The Goo Goo Dolls – Slide Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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For me the most important message of this song is the feeling of comfort. The narrator spends the whole song trying to comfort May and get her to internalize the idea that no matter what situations they've been in before or will be in from that point on, it won't change how much he cares for her and it won't change how beautiful she is as a person. Whether you've had an abortion or are thinking about an abortion or have been in some other situation that made you doubt yourself and your decisions, I feel like most people can identify with the struggle to forgive yourself or to see yourself in a positive light after certain situations that May is obviously going through. Which is why for me, the older I've gotten, the more I've taken some of the lyrics as a personal message of comfort for my situations. Because, sometimes, you just gotta let it slide. |
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| The Civil Wars – Falling Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| As someone who has a history of holding onto relationships too long, I really appreciate how this song deals with that tense place of knowing that a relationship should end but feeling guilty about it. | |
| My Chemical Romance – Mama Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| I first heard this song when I was in the middle of an addiction to Heroes and so I've always connected this song to the relationship between Sylar and his mom. | |
| Tori Amos – Never Seen Blue Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I read on hereinmyhead that Tori once admitted that this song is about her husband. With that in mind (plus some of the previous comments), when I listen to this I think she's talking about falling in love with this man who is different from any other man she's been with. He's bold enough to "take [her] by the hand through an elevator" and also to challenge her self-destructive tendencies (ex. "where the razor's been"--which I think is about self-harm like others have said and "you said, girl, if you think you can turn that violator"--which I think goes back to something Tori said in an interview once about having all these bad romances with "bad boys" because she was trying to vicariously experience their shadow lives instead of delving into her own. It's like he's warning her that these bad relationships are violating her and she needs to stop trying to turn theses guys into better boyfriends or lovers.) This guy is also more connected to his feminine side. For Tori, I feel like red is associated with this feminine fire and passion especially considering this was written during the Pele era. So this color combined with the fact that he can "wear it like a lady" suggests to me that he's proud to tap into this femininity or anima, which is another thing she's not really seen in a guy before. Lastly, this guy sees her in a way that no other guy has seen before which is what I think the chorus is about. That's where I think the "in and around and through me again" line comes from. He sees past her masks and her scars into who she is at the core and it's really surprising yet lovely for her. I just really found this song this past week when Tori sang it at the concert I went to and now I absolutely love it. It's such an adorable tribute to a relationship without being extremely sentimental or cliche. |
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| Utada Hikaru – Blow My Whistle Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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While, yeah, the song is referencing oral sex, there's totally more to it in my opinion. It seems to be about a woman in an open relationship who's unsure if she really likes this openness or if she wouldn't prefer a more exclusive relationship. From the verses it seems like her guy struggles with showing his feelings for her in ways other than jealousy, stupid games(probably involving other girls), and sex. And even though she likes the sex, the jealousy and games are really getting to her. Which leads to the chorus. I feel like she's saying he's forced her into this position in which she's the girl that's supposed to keep him in check, and she's tired of it, but she wants that sex so much that she can't help but wait on him to come give it to her even though she knows that inevitably means he'll make her his "referee" again. |
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| Linkin Park – What I've Done Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| To me this song represents my coming to terms with who I use to be and who I now am. Learning how not to focus on the mistakes I made and how to accept the fact that I'm not that person anymore. | |
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