| Regina Spektor – All the Rowboats Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| As far as a deeper interpretation, I feel like there might be a subtle observation on celebrity. Being a celebrity forces you to live in a glass case. The more special you are the less you are free to engage with others randomly in society and the more entombed you become. To an extreme, a person might forget how to sing\forget how to live because they are so far disengaged because their existence is one of preservation, not freedom. | |
| TV on the Radio – Family Tree Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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So, even though the old generation condemning young love makes perfect sense, I listened to it today and enjoyed how well an alternative interpretation fits: Picture the family tree as not a literal family tree but the history of relationships that a person carries around with them. The Silver-haired mama is actually an inner-voice that nay says your present relationship because it is too familiar with the pain your past ones cause. Our sacred "so-and-so's" are the lovers in the past that we can't get over. This interpretation changes the "Take my hand, complete your release, unbury your feet, married we'll be" line to mean a release/unburying from your doubts about marrying the other person even though you know your doubting self to be simply pessimism. Your haunted heart is one tortured with having to overturn years of your own, personal experience in failed relationships to decide to marry another. The protagonist in this believes that the idea that all relationships eventually end in pain is an old, out-dated idea considering their present love, yet the memories of the past hearts, be them 100 or 3, is "pumping blood to the roots of evil to keep them young." I'm not doubting the song isn't written to mean the other interpretation, but it's just a thought. |
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| The Mountain Goats – Psalms 40:2 Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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It's about using faith to empower you. Assuming that your actions are a manifestation of God's will. Allowing you to dismiss personal responsibility in doing immoral things because you have faith, or at least the promise that you will one day be forgiven for the sins of today. "God send me a mechanic if I am not beyond repair" is an interesting line. It's justified rebellion here: I act how I want. God will correct me, or else he doesn't mind that I am incorrect. The speaker follows God strictly because God is powerful (Fixed his sign in the sky) and not out of a need for hope, peace, truth, or morality. He respects only the power, and his allegiance to God is one strictly of submission to authority. |
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| The National – Pay for Me Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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the change in her name from what he knew her as. The return is rather tense based on the history of the separation between the two people. The next part about the keys is a bit unclear but it appears the girl has a friend ("body-double") meet him first. The entire exchange is very orchestrated and planned out to avoid conflict. Nonetheless, the man enters her apartment and drops off the keys without an incident (perhaps, to spite her, without even confronting her at all) and leaves immediately thereafter. She paid for his plane, perhaps as a gesture of reconciliation. He hopes that she is spited by her choices regarding him and that she "pays for" her mistakes with him. On his plane back, he tries to drink his sorrows away but they catch up with him. He's obviously shattered by his history with this girl and starts freaking out after he's in the air("I've never seen a black so dark"). He tries to console himself by calling a close friend or perhaps his actual brother. He also tries to reason with himself that the past is in the past and that there's nothing more he can do. The cogwheel only goes one direction like time only moves forward. |
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| The National – Pay for Me Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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My hearing of the lyrics: I thought I'd come and see you in your long AND lazy scene ... I've never seen a black SO dark. Interpretation: Guy is flying in to visit his ex. Either through a divorce with the man himself or by her marrying another man an adopting his name instead of her maiden name, he cannot get used |
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| The National – The Geese of Beverly Road Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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In contrast to the reminiscence (or romanticized expectations of the future)in the rest of the song, the sky with a big slice of lemon is a view of the life he is in and will be proceed forward with. The sky is an image of life: open, clear, and limitless. I've always seen the lemon as optimism and intentional happiness. He wants to consciously look up/forward to avoid dwelling upon the miserable way one can see life. He's settling down with a wife, the waitress, and knows she'll help him see the ways life can be beautiful. This is an interesting contrast from the harshly-realistic lyrics many other The National songs carry. |
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| Imogen Heap – Loose Ends Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I don't hear any "LIAR" in the song at all. If you're referring to the music at 2:12, that sounds like just music. I really don't think it makes sense, in context, for her to be calling the other person a liar. The rest of the lyrics depict a mutual, progressive detachment, not a scenario of deceit. The lyrics posted originally are filled with errors. | |
| The National – Lit Up Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I see the following situation being described... a man, perhaps a musician, has the option of being with one of two people. One, "My Bodyguard," is the woman whom he is either already with (or at least, she'll claim that he is). She is assertively protective of him and makes a point to deter others from getting close to him with a "revolver." My Bodyguard is who wants him, but not who he wants. The other, nicknamed "Manhattan" in the song, is the "you" who the song is essentially written towards. "Wear[ing] [her] skirt like a flag," she commands his attention with how she conducts herself. He believes she possesses a longevity, a wisdom, as she "doesn't fade" which directly contrasts how he sees his own seemingly-temporary contribution to the world. His work "only lasts a season" and only captures the interest of fad-happy and uncritical "bedroom kids." "My Bodyguard" girl tries to convince him that "Manhattan" girl is "bad blood" and the "low-life of the party" because she feels threatened by her and wants to persuade him that she is bad for him. The man, however, is conflicted. Manhattan is "the only good part of [him]" when she is around. She's only near him for "a little while" but makes such an impression on him that all he can do is "[light] up" and smoke his anxiety down. When making the case for "My Bodyguard," he wants to be able to convince himself that he has tried to "untie" from Manhattan. This may be to preserve his relationship with "My Bodyguard" or, perhaps, because he's intimidated by how desperately he wants a potentially unobtainable "Manhattan." He's not satisfied, of course, with that answer. He wants to be "in control" of the situation but he's torn and, instead of getting what he wants, he can only, helplessly, light up. |
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| The National – Lucky You Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Almost every reference to "you" can be really inverted to reflect right back on "him." Example: He says "Lucky You" but what he could just as easily be saying "Unlucky me." She has no more involvement in the relationship at all- he sees that she has moved on and isn't troubled by it. Nearly everything can be turned around to examine himself. It isn't she who is never getting rid of him in doing every mundane activity such as getting a drink, it is he who goes through each part of his day being reminded of her. The last "Lucky You" is different than the earlier "Lucky you"s. The earlier ones bitterly reference the enthusiasm that the girl at one point would have expressed if she had known that he belonged to her. Things went wrong, however, in a way that he finds intolerable and is expressed in the twist of the last "Lucky You." This last Lucky You references the harsh contrast between his inability to let go of the relationship and her ease in erasing him from her thoughts. He wants nothing more than to be able to clear his head of her, but can't. Because she can, she is the lucky one. My take on "You wake up in the bed you make, I think you made a big mistake": He was not in control of the relationship. He feels like she found him and then broke him. I think of the phrase "You reap what you sow"- she became uncomfortable with the path that she, herself, had selected in him and then broke it off. This seems cruel to him- and he thinks it was a mistake of her to capture his heart only to break it. She shouldn't have made his bed if she didn't want to wake up in it. Brilliant break up song. |
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| Radiohead – True Love Waits Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I agree with Hanenbro. The line "True love waits in haunted attics" conveys a rather critical view of the notion that we are meant to wait at someone else's mercy for love. You'll sooner become a restless ghost than find true love that way. |
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| Mute Math – Pins and Needles Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Ahh, facades! I couldn't for the life of me figure out what that word was when I heard this song. It makes a lot of sense now. This song is an excellent disillusioned critique of the false identities we let rule our lives. |
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| Ben Kenney – The Ether Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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This song is a reference to a person who is forced to realize the situation they've placed themself in by actions they seem to not have fully realized would take control of and damage their life. Considering the song's title, this may be a reference to someone accepting the consequences of their alcohol problem. |
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| Foo Fighters – Another Round Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Wrestling. | |
| Ben Kenney – Walking Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| One of the cooler tracks off of Distance & Comfort. The repetition of the last line creates an awesome driving quality to the end of the song. | |
| Incubus – Oil and Water Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| This song is so much better than I first realized. Brandon's voice really sticks out powerfully in this song. | |
| Pepper – B.O.O.T. Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| The Creed comment gets me everytime I hear the song, haha. | |
| Pepper – Wanted Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| This song got me into Pepper. Great stuff. | |
| John Mayer – Belief Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| This song is amazing. Lyrically incredible, musically intriguing, and it's 3000x better live than the already awesome studio version. It really shines as one of Mayer's best. | |
| Dave Matthews – Eh Hee Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I believe the song starts off with Dave having a short verse about telling everyone to "Come on in", not chanting. I didn't see any obvious political overtones in this song. Not every song is a political statement. This song deals with the presence of the actual devil, not George Bush, influencing the world. |
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