submissions
| Bat for Lashes – Sad Eyes Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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The saddest song. I agree with Moominhannah.
Maybe it's not that there's this deep depression, though. Maybe it's just that he doesn't want to be in the relationship anymore but can't tell her. And she, sensing that, lets him go. It's this beautiful, terrible recognition that something she has poured so much of her self into and worked so hard to maintain is gone before it's over.
Can't listen to or sing without crying. |
submissions
| Joanna Newsom – Only Skin Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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To me, this tells the story of a relationship the way that a relationship should be told: in fragments of memories, tides of emotions, and the bittersweet ends. I don't think there is a way to find a concrete narrative or to truly dissect this song, but you have to let it wash over you. It is all the joys and sorrows and beauty of love, love lost, love found again, and to overintellectualize that would be murder.
I can't get over the way she ends it. |
submissions
| The Dismemberment Plan – The City Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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I feel like it's connected to the same emotional stem as Catcher In The Rye, but it almost certainly is based on Morrison's real experience; given the man's brilliance, I doubt he needs to draw his material from other sources (which are also brilliant). |
submissions
| Pixies – Subbacultcha Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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I agree with the above. "Looking like an erotic vultcha!!!" is up there with the best lines ever written. |
submissions
| Amanda Palmer – Another Year: A Short History of Almost Something Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I hate to burst everyone's bubble... but Amanda is quite un-suicidal...
"I tried to fall in it again" "it" is love. And her friends bet on whether it would work out and then faked sympathy when it didn't.
The lines "I want your chest pressed to my chest / my nervous systems interfere" are pretty telling. This song is about wanting someone, but not being able to work up the courage to do it. It's a very vulnerable place. Rather than a fear of talking to them though, I think it's a fear of letting someone in. She tries to focus on everything else she has, and how much time she has left, but she knows it's dwindling and she wants something more.
There may be a specific person in mind, she seems to be asking him/her to wait another year with her before she commits, etc. It's heartbreaking because it seems to be a repeating cycle with her in the song. |
submissions
| Grizzly Bear – Two Weeks Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Well I'd say it's definitely... a single. It's very very accessible. I really like it though, this whole album is incredibly well thought out and well put together. |
submissions
| Radiohead – Bangers + Mash Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Thom said this song is about "Whatever gets you up" in an interview. I agree with the corruption implications though. |
submissions
| Amanda Palmer – Strength Through Music Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I really agree with citycomeawalkin's interpretation of the opening. That has to be it.
Other than that it's pretty straightforward lyrically... but emotionally complex. It's about the kid, but it's also about society. The ticks are the sound of societal strain on not just him, but everyone. It's so quiet, but so powerful. It's chilling. Especially the last word she says. |
submissions
| Amanda Palmer – Leeds United Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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What everyone needs to remember is that often Amanda's lyrics will be genius nonsense. She writes stream of consciousness, and not everything she says has literal meaning. However, she believes that it's still valid sentiment because it must be floating subconsciously for it to come to mind. There are some lines that are deliberate (Who needs love when there's dukes of Hazzard is almost certainly a social criticism) but often it's just for the sounds of wordplay and strings of emotional connotations. She's very genius at that. |
submissions
| The Cooper Temple Clause – Digital Observations Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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This song is a journey... it's about the burden of the thinker. He can try to ignore his role, abandon himself, and live happily, but he knows he must be the one to question life and its facades. Beautiful, sad... about the longing for normalcy. |
submissions
| Neon Blonde – Dead Mellotron Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I think the best part of this song is the way the text is set. Tons of words are stressed "incorrectly" and I wouldn't have it any other way. It's so disconcerting and perfect. |
submissions
| The Blood Brothers – Spit Shine Your Black Clouds Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I'd say this song is positive... Take all the darkness in your life, all the bad luck and terrible circumstances, and by your own power, make them brighter. Also, it seems to say that everyone has black clouds of their own, you can take comfort in that. |
submissions
| The Dresden Dolls – Boston Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Well this is definitely not the version on No, Virginia... but I think the lyrics on the album are incredibly powerful. I think she's in love with someone, but they fight a lot, particularly about people they've been with in the past and the fact that it seems he's busy and away all the time. She suspects that he cheats on her, but she doesn't care as long as she's with him. She doesn't even mind if he forgets her completely, as long as they can forget about everyone and everything else when they're together. Very emotionally complex, and musically built brilliantly. |
submissions
| Björk – Cocoon Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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This is one of the first Bjork songs I listened to all the way through. I was completely in awe of her ability to describe something as commercialized as sex in such a beautiful, heartfelt way. The background music is so simple and ambient that it makes you feel like you're right there in the middle of this perfect peace she's created. (I get the same feeling from the song "Headphones" on post). However, without changing much of the river flowing under her vocals, she builds the song to a climax that is both musical and sexual. Very artful. |
submissions
| Thom Yorke – The Eraser Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I like the relationship perspective. I don't think Thom is always writing about climate change and society... it seems like he's talking about the game of love here. She's playing with him, he's not giving her encouragement, but they can't stop thinking about each other. |
submissions
| Thom Yorke – Iluvya Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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YanYan I think has it. I love you should mean something very beautiful and special but the way it's just been colloquially shortened demeans its value. |
submissions
| Thom Yorke – Atoms For Peace Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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This is a beautiful song, and I think rather simple comparatively. It seems like he's singing to a person who he wants to be closest to, someone he wants to protect from all their sorrows. However, this person needs to let him in and allow him to do this.
I was really stuck on how the title fit in, but, I like Suesam7's interpretation. I think that the person to whom this song is addressed has perhaps been hurt by love, even hurt by his love, and he wants to turn it around.
Also, "I wanna get out and make it work" is probably one of the best displays of his voice I've ever heard. |
submissions
| The Dresden Dolls – The Kill (Album Version) Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I agree with xShani totally. This seems like a second draft so to speak of "The Perfect Fit." The lyrics have the same introspective feel, although he song itself is much more aggressive in nature. However, the entire second half seems more difficult to interpret... |
submissions
| Thom Yorke – Skip Divided Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I don't think this is just creep. This is a totally different situation.
He's in some kind of relationship with this person and I think she does love him too. But it seems more like an affair to me. It's definitely not an ordinary one. He's completely in love/lust with her, uncontrollably so. And because its an affair, they can't relate properly, he has to take her "elliptical caresses", which I like eatenbytheworms' interpretation of, like obscure hints he has to take from her. That also explains "Without appropriate papers or permissions..." and perhaps the french windows line. He has to enter secretively, through the french windows, usually located in back of a house.
I also think he's repeating some imagery here, from All i need. I think Thom really likes the image of a moth being drawn to light. The first verse shows a lot of that.
And of course he's a fool for sticking around, because its a forbidden relationship, but he can't help it. "don't look into my eyes" says that if they exchange a look it will give it away. The relationship is a skip divided malfunction, because they can't communicate as well as they should, and because of that, something is lost. The number and location is probably dealing with meeting places and times.
Anyways, just my thoughts, but it seems to fit very well. |
submissions
| The Dresden Dolls – Modern Moonlight Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I definitely see the comparison to girl anachronism in its pace and feeling. She really rocks out on this one, doesn't she? It's great.
It's obviously all about technology and society and how much it's ruining our lives; something I don't necessarily believe but it's definitely cool to write a song about, especially one so well-written and witty. Modern Moonlight is the false shining things that fill up the night that has become our lives. |
submissions
| The Dresden Dolls – Delilah Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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God this song is so sad... but so true... Delilah will always go back to him because he is at least someone, even though he doesn't truly love her. She isn't getting what she deserves...but at the same time she is. It's difficult. It's about someone who can't be saved and won't save herself. |
submissions
| Björk – Pleasure Is All Mine Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I think it may just be a philosophy on relationships in general. While a giver also receives happiness from giving, it also makes them stronger because it creates a dependency from the other person to the giver. And giving could be in any way, not just sexual giving or physical gift-giving. At any rate, it's a beautifully made song, with powerful layering of sounds and chords. |
submissions
| Björk – Vertebrae By Vertebrae Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I am a firm believer that the best songs are the ones that you don't always like at first. Once I got to listening to this one though, the intensity with which she sings it made me love it.
It seems to me like an emotional cataclysm leading to the revelations in "pneumonia." I think it's about a woman (possibly autobiographical) who, filled with emotions and turmoil, has gone to a place where she can be alone (to me, it seems to suggest some kind of mountain or cliff) and try to release these feelings which have snowballed inside her and built up like steam in a tea pot. Perhaps the "beast" alluded to is her inner chaos which is trying to get out. "vertebrae by vertebrae" seems to make sense with the song because it frequently refers to standing tall to look forward (perhaps metaphorically, attempting to see how there can be a future with all of these feelings exerting so much pressure on her). Notice how the song has no lyrical or musical resolution in the end. I think that that fact, the rain beginning on track 6, and the similar instrumentation insinuates that this song and pneumonia were meant to be taken as a set. Perhaps pneumonia was meant to be advice for the character in "Vertebrae by Vertebrae." That seems plausible, at least to me. |
submissions
| Björk – Pneumonia Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I cannot even begin to comment on this song. I suppose I'll start with the beautiful and subtle musical crafting of it's form. Without using much more than rain sounds and a structurally repetitive accompaniment, she uses only her voice and chordal tension to produce the ebbs and flows of this song.
There seems to be no end to the topics that the lyrics cover. Regret, love, survival, depression, freedom...It speaks so well about life that I could write an essay on it. But it's all about forgetting about the sadness that isn't yours and living your life in such a way that regret cannot touch it, taking every chance and speaking every belief you have, even when it becomes so bad that you can't even stand the sight of people. The lyrics are actually not lengthy, but they speak so much in every line that this has become my favorite bjork song; maybe my favorite song of all time. |
submissions
| Björk – Isobel Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I think it's pretty basic and straightforward, at least compared to many of her songs. It seems like a conflict betweeen nature and civilization, obviously favoring nature. Isobel represents the purity and solitude of nature, uncorrupted by dark things like lust and despair. The tower of steel seems figurative as well–a symbol of isolation from which nature will fight back against the evils of society.
Also, the moth stanza was taken from a true (or at least allegedly true) occurrence that happened to Bjork. A moth landed on the collar of her shirt and did not leave for the entire day, even when she took the shirt off. This seems like another manifestation of the purity of nature.
I also think that this has one of the most utterly beautiful instrumentations out of all her work. |
submissions
| Björk – An Echo, A Stain Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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First of all, I want to say that this is an excellent song, one of my favorites by bjork. The instrumentation, lyrics, vocals...every part of this song is basically perfect.
It reminds me of a couple of things I've read and heard...and sort of lived, I guess, which is perhaps why it has such an impact on me, or why I interpret it this way. Firstly, it kind of reminds me (lyric-wise) of Cursive's song "The game of who needs who the worst" from domestica. It also seems reminiscent to me of F. Scott Fitzgerald's story "Winter Dreams" (which, I have heard, is similar to "The Great Gatsby").
I see Bjork as portraying a flirtatious, manipulative woman who is in a physical relationship with one man and probably several others. However, she is not very committed to the relationship and may leave him any day (one of these days/soon/very soon/love you til then). She feels confident that he is completely devoted to her ("feel my breath on your neck/and your heart will race", or, "you can't say no to me").
Then he sees some other man kiss her or make some other suggestive action, and he threatens to leave her. It sticks in his mind like an echo or a stain, something which cannot be removed. She then realizes that the power has reversed and that she needs him to be there for her own ego, and that his ability to reject her is just as injurious to her as her affairs were to him. His attention makes her powerless (free-falling) but also keeps her mentally secure (complete).
Most of this is inferred and very possibly completely off-base, but it seems plausible to me since I identify somewhat with the "character" in the song (though not to such an extreme degree). |
submissions
| The Mars Volta – Meccamputechture Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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I'm just throwing my two cents in, but I was thinking about the title "Meccamputecture" and initially, I thought "robot something." Then I realized that was probably not it. I think that something mechanical would have the prefix spelled "mecha." So maybe it relates to "Mecca," a holy city. It could mean something along the lines of "an examination of the effects (architecture) of being cut off (amputated) from religion (mecca)." I'm not saying it's right, I'm just throwing ideas around. |
submissions
| The Mars Volta – Tetragrammaton Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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I agree with nosam. Although I'm definitely not turning up my nose at the first half. This song is so epic and climactic...it really is genius compared to so much of what's out there today. It's worth all 16 minutes.
GreenFace, I'm going to have to give you that demand. I love this song so much, and I think that if you actually do know what it's about (as you certainly seem to), then a lot of people would appreciate a full description from such an enlightened interpreter. |
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