| A Silver Mt. Zion – 1,000,000 Died to Make This Sound Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I really don't think this song is intended to be political at all. Rather, it's an indictment of the poor state of modern music. The whole thing is related to some ideas Efrim wrote about in an essay a few years back, which I'd strongly recommend reading: http://www.fishpiss.com/archives/195 In this song, "they" are not big business or capitalists or anything related to that, but present-day Pitchfork-reading hipsters and the (mostly) paint-by-numbers indie bands they worship. |
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| PJ Harvey – The Piano Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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The song is titled "The Paino" because that's partially what it is about. Look at the first verse. The "her" in the first line is referring to a piano, and each of the following lines in this verse fits with this idea (the "hammer" being a straightforward part of the instrument, "teeth" being the keys, "tongues" the strings, and "skeleton" the frame). It is appropriate that the first line, when taken out of context, has a violent quality to it, because this song also seems to be about dealing with problems around oneself (in this example, intolerable familial relationships) and venting the aggression this causes (pounding on the piano's keys or "teeth.") However, it would appear that the piano is an object with which the speaker associates an absent person ("Where I feel your fingers have been") who was formerly another means of solace from the violence around her (in PJ's case, we'll assume this person is her grandmother). Still, the speaker continues to play the piano and escape her unstable family life, the memory of the absent person giving her the will to do so ("Ghostly fingers/Moving my limbs"). |
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| Grizzly Bear – Colorado Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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This song seems to be about removing oneself from society and the constant bombardment of technology, possibly going into the wilderness. However, people have become so reliant on things like computers and TV as necessities for living life that when these things are taken away and they are forced to actually think for themselves and worry about survival, they become lost ("What now?"). It's very fitting that the song says so much with so few words. "Simplify," as Thoreau would say. |
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