| The Twilight Sad – I Am Taking The Train Home Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Oversimplified, but it's about cheating. The narrator's involved with 2 different girls, one has green eyes and the other blue. He sort of acknowledges his reckless behaviour in the lines: "But their legs are open, and I'm blind." By turning a blind eye to what he's doing, it rationalizes the behaviour and allows him to keep going with it. Every time he cheats on the first girl, he's remarking "your green eyes turn to blue" because he should be with the other girl instead. The repetition of the line almost dehumanizes the act... it sounds mechanical and detached... stated more as a matter of fact than anything else. The music sounds like it could fall apart at any moment, frantic like a train twisting from its tracks. It symbolizes the internal struggle of what he's doing perfectly. | |
| The Cure – Where the Birds Always Sing Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Pretty sure that Robert was reading David Hume when he wrote this. Hume was an 18th century philosopher who wrote that the laws of nature were neither reasonable nor unreasonable, they simply were. We're born with no innate knowledge of things, so our ideas and expectations can only be gathered from what we experience to a degree. From this there's no way to draw any reasonable conclusions that God does or doesn't exist, but of course the human condition dictates that people will always want something more or use that to explain things. | |
| Nevermore – Ambivalent Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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The lyrics reflect a separation between a who a person pretends to be and who they actually are. Referring to life as a game, Warrel is playing blind, dumb, feigning uncertainty in how he acts around people, meanwhile the framework within shows someone disillusioned with the state of humanity and supposedly elevated beyond the bleeding hearts and soiled minds around him--people living without any actual consciousness. That reflecting the state of our being, our priorities are all wrong. It's really consistent with some of the other things he's tried to say all over Nevermore's catalog and his obvious Timothy Leary influences. The problem with these lyrics though, is that a huge aspect of enlightenment is being able to let go of anger and hatred, however Dane has constructed a cage of it that he's trapped himself in. He hits a roadblock. His curse is that while he feigns ambivalence, actual enlightenment also evades him. He is unable to find solace in even the most poignant moments: “The sun in my hand becomes my despair/For I still want the truth.” |
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| Opeth – A Fair Judgement Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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Metal dudes are funny, dissecting ESL songs like they're Catcher In The Rye or some shit. If you read Mikael's diary for the Deliverance sessions on Opeth's site, it's pretty plain to see that the lyrics come from the the pressure on him to pull off the double record idea, and he felt he made a big mistake somewhere in the process... the pressure's mounting, he's in over his head, and any negative judgement on the outcome is well deserved. The first comment was the best. Write about what you know, people always say.. |
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| The Cure – Homesick Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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"Pretty self explanatory as well. That's sort of about being away doing things you don't really want to do, becoming obsessed with being fixated which is what we tend to be more and more with the time I think." (Music Box TV -1989) "About the attraction of forbidden fruits." (Oor Magazine -1989) With the perspective Robert shed on the track, thematically I think it really syncs up with Disintegration and same Deep Water before it. All 3 songs express this fear of commitment as the central idea, with Disintegration and Homesick watching everything slip away (or throwing it away because of that fear in the case of the track 'Disintegration') because self-control is so secondary to desire. He's says he's homesick, but continues to give in to all these fleeting, impermanent things. Confronted by the idea of 'home' (which could even be a metaphor for commitment), somewhere stable, a place to plant your roots, he stays away. Lyrically he says he'll walk away from it all, but romanticizes the situation itself (bursting hearts... sweet, wild... trembled... stuck in honey, cling to me...) to the point where obviously he's not ready or wanting to. Like any addict, alcohol, serial cheater, whatever... you always give yourself that one out before you confront the issue, so you actually never have to. Like, I'll stop after this or, I'll walk away after this. Every time. Notice how he repeats "Just one more and I'll walk away" again at the end of the song. He's using the same excuse, repeating the same patterns and keeping himself in this longing kind of self-bondage. You can really get down to some Freudian psycho-analyzing bullshit if you keep going from here, about how he was so young when the band broke... and now he's turning 30 and being confronted by the idea of age.. he's at this huge impasse and is unable to make the transition to the person he feels he should be at that age with responsibility and whatever. Hell, it's probably even why he looks so goddamn awful these days at 50, refusing to let go of his youth. Anyway, that's my interpretation! |
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| Pulp – My Legendary Girlfriend Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| "My Legendary Girlfriend" was the first single from the album. That was about my girlfriend that I'd had in Sheffield. See, I never liked to mix business with pleasure. I've always kept my private life separate from music. So I've always gone out with girls who aren't interested in music, and so people always asked me about my legendary girlfriend, because they'd never seen me with her. We were waiting for it to be issued, and Fire said "in a bit, in a bit". It eventually came out in September 1990, ten months after we'd finished the album, which was bad enough. And then, lo and behold, that got a reaction - 'single-of-the-week' in the 'NME' - and heralded a new era in which Pulp started getting more popular rather than less. We just built it from there. The first concert we did then was supporting World Of Twist at the Leadmill in Christmas 1990, which is ironic - they nicked loads of our ideas, like tin foil on the stage." | |
| Suicide Silence – Smoke Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Burn it down and set yourself free... free from what? Only fucking idiot potheads would find any value in this intellectual burnout shit. |
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| Muse – Uprising Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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If the lyrics are so straightforward, can anyone tell me what "The truth" is? Matt Bellamy talks about truth, but if he knew then maybe he'd be able to elaborate in ANY kind of way as to what's being kept from the people by the 'fat cats'. It's not his job to make it cut and dry obvious, but he could at least try to allude to something deeper within that vague Orwellian 'truth'. Laziness. This is just empty 'revolution' manifesto bullshit. Songs like this are what keep people down from truth, goodness, beauty and realization because the song serves as a placebo while people sit back at a computer or concert and go "Yeah!" and leave it at that. Fist pumping mindlessness. He's just as guilty as any faction preaching from the podium. And the lyrics fucking suck, oi. |
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| The Birthday Massacre – Violet Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Forest for the trees. This shit is painful. | |
| Iggy Pop – China Girl Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Heroin. The song is stupid and beautiful and desperately romantic. | |
| Leonard Cohen – Avalanche Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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There are religious connotations to this song, but a large percentage of his songs do have that quality. This is not primarily a religious song. It is found on the album "Songs Of Love And Hate" and opens up the album, on the Hate side of the LP. Throughout the track Cohen is self-deprecating, indicating through physical metaphors that he is deformed (i.e. the hump or hunch), and has been so by the person that this track is in reference to. He's shit. He's dirt. He's the pedestal upon which she (assumptively 'she' that is) stands. However she's only been able to raise herself by Cohen's position in the song, whether physically through metaphor, or whether morally; i.e. to conquer, or the crumbs he's left behind. By the time he gets to the last verse, Cohen's voice is filled with disgust and hatred. Her modesty is false, as he indicates that the person this track is addressed to is the hideous one, and that he has simply been covered up by her, i.e., she casts judgment but it is her flesh that he wears. |
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| Pig Destroyer – Mapplethorpe Grey Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Additionally of note: Robert Mapplethorpe was a famous b&w photographer, known largely for his images of flowers and naked men. |
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| Iced Earth – When the Eagle Cries Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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The gross self-importance and absorption Jon displays in this song are ridiculous. It should answer any questions he has about why Iced Earth have polarized their fans, as America has done to the rest of the world with its own equal displays of well, bullshit. The lyrics have nothing to do with justice, redemption or freedom, because nothing Jon has done has actually indicated that anywhere in what he's written. Freedom is just another word for having nothing left to lose. He has everything. It's a bondage he's unwilling to give up, because sometimes it's safer to be in those chains. He's secure as he is secured, and that was nearly threatened when he almost did lose something by the attacks, however indirectly it threatened his life or SENSE of security. He's passionate about vengeance, but passion without focus is just greed. He does nothing to indicate how "they will pay" or even attempt to root out an answer. It's blind retribution. Jon Schaffer is not a typical American, he is a typical outdated American value. Anything so outdated isn't very valuable though. He's a total knob, too, but of course anyone who can see his self-righteousness already knows that. The lyrics to this song read like something Jack Black would write when he's trying to be funny. Except who the fuck ever laughs at Jack Black? |
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| The Smiths – Meat Is Murder Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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littletrick: "an article was recently put out on yahoo news about how vegetarians tend to be more intelligent. not because not eating meat makes you smart, but because smart people know they shouldnt eat meat. just some food for thought." Do smart people also base their entire foundation of knowledge from news reports on Yahoo, the fucking regurgitated Big Mac of the Associated Press? All this point indicates is that you're a pretentious, self-righteous wanker with an inflated sense of your own ill-backed intelligence and 'moral' value. You're hardly in any position to patronize anyone or anything at this point. And eating meat is considered murder, but replace "festively slice" with "fashionably slice" for a pair of leather shoes and suddenly it's justifiable if you're Morrissey, because there's simply "no sensible alternative" to leather in his words. The entire rhetoric from both sides about this song is fucking stupid, because it was written directly in the face of his own hypocrisy. Therefore it just goes in circles for miles after it ever ran out of gas. Really, the only thing to analyze about this song is that Morrissey is the poet laureate of whiny, crybaby rock and that he had to hilariously cut samples of farm animals into this track under its plodding, morose and heavy handed tone. That alone makes this a standout track that could pass for being an A-side on a Sharon, Lois and Bram record. |
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| The Cure – M Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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"Did you write the following with anyone inparticular in mind?" "Mary" (Cure News 3 - September 1987) |
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| The Cure – To Wish Impossible Things Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Robert on 'To Wish Impossible Things'... "To Wish Impossible Things Is specifically about relationships. The notion of Three Wishes, all though history, has this aspect where if you wish for selfish things, it backfires on the third wish. But wishes never seem to take in the notion of wishing for other people, general wishes, or wishes about interacting with other people. In all relationships, there's always aching holes, and that's where the impossible wishes come into it." |
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| The Cure – The Big Hand Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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The big hand is about drugs. I think Robert's exact words were... "And drugs again!" There you go. Drugs. Again. |
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| Zao – American Sheets On The Deathbed Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Definitely a commie. Perhaps a commie nazi, I imagine. |
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| Deadboy and the Elephantmen – What the Stars Have Eaten Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| There are multiple lyrical allusions in this song to Stardust by Neil Gaiman. The key one is the title. | |
| The Birthday Massacre – Movie Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I liked Plainsong more when The Cure did it. | |
| Deadboy and the Elephantmen – Like the Dead Would Laugh Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| a play off of the cliche: "I just about died laughing" as a kiss off, a triumph. | |
| Cradle of Filth – Tearing The Veil From Grace Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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It's more than detailing Lucifer's fall from grace, and his battle to take back the throne. Midian is a concept album about a semi-mythical underworld that offers sanctuary to monsters. The album is interwoven with classic fictitious creatures such as Lovecraft's Cthulhu. This is Midian's rise. With that concept in mind, Tauramehtar hit the nail on the head. |
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| Cradle of Filth – Cruelty Brought Thee Orchids Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Orchids are a common symbol for beauty and perfection. The title alludes to the countess' abuse and vicious murders of her slaves/servants to give her perfect, youthful vibrance on an otherwise saggy, withering hag. | |
| Cradle of Filth – Venus In Fear Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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The title is a play on the classic Sacher-Masoch novella Venus In Furs. The Velvet Underground song was a direct tribute to the novella itself, which carries heavy themes of S&M. The title is a cruel double pun referencing that and Venus' historical connotation with goddesses of femininity and love. Fitting for the album that it's on. And Dani has a much more involved interest in overtly sexual, classical literature than anything to do with Lou Reed, just going by his track record. The song itself is okay. Their instrumentals can border on filler for me. |
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| Placebo – Drink You Pretty Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Drink you pretty means drinking alcohol and getting drunk to make things look better, pampimpom. For example, when you're wasted, really wasted, Joan Rivers might look half fuckable, because you drank enough to blur the senses, so you can't see how much of a monster she is. I think that's being a bit melodramatic though. She really is a monster. No hope. |
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| Placebo – Centerfolds Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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This song is about people who are so obsessed with celebrity and becoming celebrities that it makes them sick. Celebrity worship becomes this crippling, diagnosable mental illness where it's the only way for people to feel like their lives are worth anything. "It's wrong I've been waiting far too long For you to be me be mine" Here is the perfect example, where the individual feels wronged that they haven't achieved that level of conceived 'importance' or fame... instead, they admire the red carpet, wish their spot could be on there, wish that celebrity status could be theirs, and that celebrities could be theirs. |
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| The Birthday Massacre – Weekend Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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The verses in this song completely rip off Sailor by IAMX. Then you hear the chorus... and you think... motherfucker, that's Sunday Bloody Sunday by u2! |
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| Acid Bath – The Bones Of Baby Dolls Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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The Kite String Pops, also the title of the album, is a reference to being at that moment where you're so fucked up that you just float away. Almost dissassociative. You're not quite on the ground, not quite up in the sky, but that all too real moment where you're in between the two, outside looking in. That's important in relation to the rest of the song, which seems to be a rejection of the modern world. It's natural abandon, and therefore, freedom. In smoking the bones of baby dolls, they use a very symbolic innocence as a drug to escape the consumerist material world into something pure. |
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| Scarling – Baby Dracula Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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This song could be interpreted about all the conformist little gothlings running about. Their personalities are just as translucently pale as their skin tone, and they're so oblivious to it all. Oh, irony. I actually think it's about someone in particular, who's so crushed by the weight of his goth-ness that he's become another self-parodying popculture boogeyman like Dracula. Even in his late 30's he's still in his infancy though, and he'll never be The Man, like Dracula was. Just a cheap representation thereof to his minions. |
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| The Birthday Massacre – The Dream Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Chibi wrote most of the lyrics to this, it's about one of her favorite books, but I don't remember what it's called. It's not nearly as fucked up as some of the posts on this page seem to suggest. |
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| Gang of Four – Anthrax Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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The song is basically confronting the idea that romantic love (at least, according to Hollywood's standards of it) has replaced religion as the opiate of the masses in the 20th century. They don't think that there's anything wrong with love, but that it shouldn't be so shrouded in mystery/myth... because that's all Hollywood's premonitions of romantic love have ever been, myth. You ruined it for us all, Weinberg! |
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| 30 Seconds to Mars – Was It a Dream? Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| This song cops Prayers For Rain by The Cure pretty badly. At least Jared doesn't deny it. | |
| Nine Inch Nails – Wish Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I don't see one thing hinting at drugs within this song, or have ever read one reference to them. It's about Steve Gottlieb, the asshole that nearly ruined his career. There's a lot of venomous sarcasm in the lyrics, like: i'm the one without a soul i'm the one with this big fucking hole |
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| Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Cold Light Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I tried telling my last girlfriend that we were like a sister and a brother and she dumped me for some beefcake named Linda. WHERE DID I GO WRONG?!?! |
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| The Birthday Massacre – Walking With Strangers Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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The reason why there are multiple perspectives with the lyrics are because Rainbow writes them. This song is about him looking at Chibi on tour. Her world is falling apart in front of the spotlight of random places, crowds, fans, photos... and he's trying to step back and stay removed from that as a person. It's survival. Notice the parallel in lyrics between this song and Kill The Lights, which deal with exact same concept. "This story's missing a wishing well No mirror to show and tell No kiss that can break the spell I'm falling asleep" In contrast to: And she's falling asleep, As she's walking with strangers. Talking cheap as the flies on the wall Entertain her. The fantasy isn't turning out to be what they expected. They grow tired of it, but it doesn't matter. They have to keep going out there every night, even if "It's all a lie" Every night they walk with strangers; they appreciate you, but they don't know you; you, who somehow knows the details of their pets and their jobs and girlfriends, but they can't even put a name to your face. You're simply Person X... Just remember: No matter how nice they are, no matter how much you enjoy their company, no matter how much of a bond you think you have with this traveling circus, you're still a stranger. That's not a bad thing, though. |
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| Pig Destroyer – Mapplethorpe Grey Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Humanity has no identity. We've become numb, vague crumbling ruins of people and of a society, but one could argue it's always really been that way. The last bit of individualism we have is sedated. We are left blind by our vacuous depravity to our surroundings. |
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| Pig Destroyer – Downpour Girl Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| OH SHIT, she's a spy in the house of love! Damn commie nazi's! | |
| Pig Destroyer – Evacuating Heaven Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| The most fulfilling, joyous things we experience in life are forbidden under God the Creator, and labeled as sinful or carnal acts. More and more people are indulging now, leaving heaven to collapse underneath its own string of vacant false promises and "Virtue." | |
| Pig Destroyer – Junkyard God Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Basically sums of the theme of this entire record. The main character has become the Prowler in The Yard, tearing out his knuckles because so many boundaries have already been crossed as far as what's been torn out of him emotionally... there's nowhere left to go. He's reached the peak of new romanticism as nihilism. Basically, hate. |
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| Enslaved – Havenless Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Fucking vikings... | |
| The Birthday Massacre – Nighttime Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| This band has come so far from this song to 2007, but they're now missing the childlike imagination and innocence they had around the time of songs like Nighttime. It's a blessing and a curse. | |
| The Birthday Massacre – Queen of Hearts Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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This song parallels the Queen Of Hearts in Alice In Wonderland whose favorite personal motto seemed to be "Never Say No To Me." Anyone who denies the Queen is quick to receive a death sentence, i.e. a gun to the head. Also interesting is Under The Stairs, reference to a basement. Since the guitarist writes all of the lyrics, I'm sure there are some personal connections going on that cross-reference themselves through the songs. Also notice in the song Happy Birthday, the first line of the song: Stick it in the back of her head; another line with connotation to a gun. Back in 2002, TBM had a photoshoot where Chibi actually mirrored the Queen's favorite line of "Off with their heads" by decapitating herself when the band was surrounded by all of this Alice imagery. A bloody Alice actually used to be their logo after they changed their name to The Birthday Massacre from Imagica. I could go on and on and on.... |
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| The Birthday Massacre – Kill The Lights Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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The "stage" is just a stage. Really. Kill The Lights is a logical progression from Violet, where the band finds themselves grappling with insincerity and internal struggles, whereas those struggles have now become their career and not just interpersonal relationships with each other. In the end, after the show is over, they're still falling apart, but they keep moving from city to city, acting and posing their way through a beautiful, delusional career. This theme is explored through different perspectives on the new album in different songs. |
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| Kid Rock – American Badass Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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You can roll with Rock or you can RADIO EDIT! Its jus so IN YO FACE SLAMMMMMMM all 'fuck you 2000!' an shit hardcorrrrrreeee!!!! |
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| Queens of the Stone Age – Turnin' On The Screw Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Turning on the Screw is an action which makes a bad situation worse, especially in order to force someone to do something. This is a great opener on Era Vulgaris. |
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| Queens of the Stone Age – God Is In The Radio Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Songs For The Deaf is largely inspired by when Josh would drive out to the desert to play music. The only reception he would be able to get for hours would be mostly Spanish AM Radio. I think that's crossed over into the theme of the song as I'm sure religious panels would also find their way into radio stations at the time, since it seems to tie into the album itself. | |
| Queens of the Stone Age – Era Vulgaris Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Anyone who's read anything about this album or song should know that Era Vulgaris actually means The Common Erain Latin; but just because it's the common era doesn't mean that it's any less vulgar, or that we're any less a part or even the cause of it. | |
| KoЯn – Evolution Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| deywas, their sudden environmental only came after the fact that they had to put their money where their mouth was. The fact that they still run on a fucking convoy of 16 tour buses (16!!!) just shows that the petrol is more diversionary than it is productive. Nobody needs that many tour buses running through the country; especially when each band member demands their own private bus and has been doing so since the turn of the century. That's fucking absurd. | |
| KoЯn – Evolution Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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On Evolution Davis tackles Global Warming ‘It’s not like political Al Gore kind of bullshit’ Davis says, ‘It’s just me wondering, are my kids going to have a place to live’? He goes on to say ‘Evolution is about the human race. We have not evolved since monkeys. Animals and humans are pretty much the same. Look at this war we’re fighting; we’re the bullies, same shit in the monkey world’. - from Yahoo. Just because you say he makes good music doesn't make him any less accountable for being a hypocrite or an asshole, while his whole absurdly large tour convoy ensures that his kids won't have anywhere to live in 60 years. People have to look to themselves for the answers, and not blame the world's misfortunes on external sources that they really have a hand in. Korn moreso than any other modern rock band. I call bullshit. |
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| Genesis – In Too Deep Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| In Too Deep is the most moving pop song of the 1980s, about monogamy and commitment. The song is extremely uplifting. Their lyrics are as positive and affirmative as anything I've heard in rock. | |
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