| Vampire Weekend – Unbelievers Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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It's a song about a girl Ezra knows. Maybe they should be in a relationship but neither will acknowledge it. Maybe they should settle for each other; maybe she is exactly "the fate that half of the world has planned" for him. Maybe they could go to church and get religion and baptize babies and grow up in upper manhattan. Maybe he will... |
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| Vampire Weekend – Diane Young Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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This song is Ezra reflecting on a breakup and on the give/take/competition/thinking that couples do about each other after they separate. It's a modern turn on a Springsteen-style track. Where Springsteen would have been all passion and focus on the present moment, Ezra's getting at the subterfuge that defines modern urban love, especially after a separation. "You torched a Saab like a pile of leaves I’d gone to find some better wheels" Her 'torching the Saab' represents that she threw away what they had together, but it was his fault too -- he'd already started looking for other relationships. "If Diane Young won’t change your mind," 'Diane Young' represents getting old -- so the lyric could read 'If gettin' old won't change your mind'. It's a reference to the Diane Young Anti-Aging Salon on E 79th st in UES manhattan -- and also a double entendre for 'dying young'. He's saying that the existence of the anti-aging salon (and things like it) should remind her that she might die young -- she will get old -- she won't be young forever, and maybe that realization should make her think twice about their relationship. "Out of control but you’re playing a role Do you think you can go til the 18th hole Or will you flip-flop the day of the championship? Try to go it alone on your own for a bit" She's playing the role of the young, single, urbane woman, but is she really willing to go all the way with it and risk being single forever? Good luck... "Irish and proud, baby, naturally But you got the luck of a Kennedy So grab the wheel, keep on holding it tight As I go it alone into that moonlight" She's too proud to give their relationship another shot, but can she really handle being on her own? Can she really steer her own life without him? Is she really willing to risk losing him forever? "Nobody knows what the future holds Said it’s bad enough just getting old Live my life, they say it’s too fast You know I love the past, ’cause I hate suspense..." This is the crux of the song -- Ezra's getting old and he's starting to give up worrying about what will happen between them. He loves thinking about this past relationship because it's a person that he knows and he'd rather not endure the "suspense" of getting to know and falling for anyone new... "If Diane Young won't change your mind Baby, baby, baby, baby right on time." But if getting old hasn't changed her mind about giving him another shot, then that's "right on time" -- i.e., it isn't meant to be yet, and he's cool with that. |
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| Vampire Weekend – Step Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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This song is about coming-of-age in the context of a relationship with an ex-girlfriend. The "you" Ezra addresses in the song ("you always step to my girl") is actually himself -- he always screws himself over. The first verse alludes to an earlier time in Ezra's life when he was more pretentious. (End of college / just after college, knowing Ezra's story.) He used to "front" as if he were worldly, but in reality he was just sitting in New York listening to disco. His girl was actually worldly ("in Berkeley with her Communist reader") - but in retrospect he knows he "entombed her in boombox and walkman" - which is to say that he only saw her through the lens of his own needs at the time, ie his music. "I was a hoarder but girl that was back then" -- he was a hoarder of obscure references, a hoarder of "vibes," basically he was just trying way too hard to be cool, and he knows it was actually selfish of him, in retrospect. He treated her selfishly. The hook elucidates the meaning of the whole song: he's "ready for the house / such a modest mouse" -- he is way more modest/mature than he has been in the past -- and acknowledges, finally, that he "can't do it alone" -- he needs a girl to complete his life with. The second verse harkens back to the time he spent with this girl when they were first together. His family ("ancestors") told him to find someone richer and tougher - they told him she wasn't ready to ride or die with him - but he didn't listen, cause he was so in love with her. Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum, young "punks" huddled smoking weed on Astor Place didn't believe in their relationship either, those people thought serious love was silly in general. Ezra rejected both points of view ("stale conversation deserves but a breadknife" & "they didn't know how to dress for the weather") because he was so in love with this girl at that time in his life. He couldn't picture life without her, he felt as if they were right and everyone else was wrong. TRUE LOVE etc etc. *INSERT BRIDGE HERE, THEY BREAK UP CAUSE HE AINT READY FOR CHILDREN, YEARS GO BY, ETC* Third verse. "Wisdom's a gift but you'd trade it for youth / age is an honor but it's still not the truth." He's older and wiser now which is great but he's still, even now, searching for that young true love that he had with this girl. "We saw the stars when they hid from the world" - he's saying that she and him found the true meaning of life even when no one else could see it. "You cursed the sun when it stepped to your girl" - now he's speaking to his younger, more naive self, who blamed fate for breaking them up and got angry about it. "Maybe she's gone, and I can't resurrect her The truth is she doesn't need me to protect her" - current Ezra, though, is older and wise enough to know that the love they shared is gone, maybe forever, and that his girl doesn't need him to have the life she wants. "We know the true death -- the true way of all flesh Everyone's dying, but girl -- you're not old yet" But he still wants her back, before she gets "old" i.e. dies - he wants to get old with her. |
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| Dirty Projectors – About To Die Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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It's about facing existential angst after a breakup. You leave your "hoodlum love" and you're forced to define your own place in the world without her. |
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