| Death Cab for Cutie – A Lack of Color Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I think the song's title sums up the song 'A Lack of Color'. That on the outside their relationship seems boring, uninteresting, stale and to not be trying too hard. But the character in the song feels that it's really bursting from the seams. He remembers her, thinking of how special that kind of love was. That it didn't need to be showy and colorful. It was true on the inside, a deep unconditional love. The kind of secret beauty to be envious over. But it was only him that felt this way. She didn't. She left him, and he's desperately trying to figure out why (why this keeps happening). After remembering what their love meant to him, he wants her (that kind of love) back. He calls her and leaves a message. But he knows it's too late. He knows that she didn't feel the same. To her their love was just a lack of color. After years of repeating this pattern, of others not feeling the same, he realizes that only a colorful relationship will work. One in which the love is on the outside, is shallow, where rather than absorbing all the colors of the spectrum, they only reflect color, and have no value on the inside. Obviously, that silent sweet love isn't enough for anyone else, he thinks. Hence, "I should have given you a reason to stay." "This is fact not fiction, for the first time in years." This is his resolution to the issue. The fiction was his fantasy of true love. The fact is that they leave you if you lack visible color. He realizes that the kind of purely abstract love he wants is unrealistic. He's no longer living in fantasy. Through the trauma, he's learnt a lesson. Now that he's not pursuing a path that's doomed to always fail (and get him hurt), he is now wiser. He's not going to turn anyone around from being upside-down to fit what he wants love to be. In future, he'll come closer than he ever could before to that kind of abstract love! No more will there be a lack of color here. |
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| Modest Mouse – Four Fingered Fisherman Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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This is a really really interesting song. Is everyone thinking of a four-fingered fisherman as having four fingers in both hands? What about the thumbs, are they fingers? One of the most childish arguments people can have with eachother is whether they have four fingers and a thumb on a hand or five fingers (as in 10 fingers and 10 toes). I think this is what the fisherman was argueing about. Also, the stereotypical identity of the fisherman is that he is extremely stubborn, arrogant and bitter (from TV and movie fictional representation), so I think this song explores those qualities within us rather than telling the story of an actual fisherman, hence he doesn't have to actually be a fisherman (as no other nautical links are made in the song). I think this song is about what one partner thinks about after having an argument with his/her lover. I think I'll explain myself by going through the lyrics in detail. You're in the back seat and you say to yourself "Ok, it doesn't matter anyway" The 'fisherman' has been kicked out of the house (or willingly left) and has been forced to sleep in the backseat of his car. He is feeling guilty over the argument and says to himself, admittedly, that what he was argueing about doesn't really matter anyway. It's weeds pulling weeds and you're blaming yourself Ok, we're all indifferent in our own ways The 'weed' is someone to blame that's being 'pulled out' by another person trying to win the argument, but when everyone is to blame 'weeds' are pulling 'weeds' out, and in the end it leaves you just blaming yourself (the result of such an argument). The fisherman is feeling guilt now, and he reflects that although his opinions and his partners' differ, everyone being different is ok because everyone having differences unifies us. You're in trouble now and you say to yourself "Ok, my baby clean conscience anyways" The fisherman's lover is upset with him and so he says to himself, "oh well, atleast she's got a clean conscience". Four fingered fisherman, all right Four fingered fisherman so uptight The fisherman concludes that being stubborn and arrogant makes you a horrible 'uptight' person. I'm not sure but it sounds like the second line says "Fingers for fisherman so uptight", which says that stuff in the world is only there to give people something to argue about (which might be what the fisherman is thinking now). Hello You're getting on no one You're both right The fisherman says "hello" to his partner in the morning after the argument but she has been hurt by it. She hasn't forgiven the fisherman, so she won't have sex and he guessed as much. So that's something that they're both right about. Four fingered fisherman all night long [Fingers for] fisherman so uptight though So uptight though I'm not certain about this part. Maybe in the past the arrogant attitudes worked with the other arrogant ladies but it ends up just making the man so 'uptight and bitter' with this lady. |
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| Modest Mouse – Karma's Payment Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I love the song. The "Uh oh, down low" part is so catchy and imaginative, but has anyone wondered what they actually mean by it. Did the character have an 'accident' after experiencing the car accident lol? Probably not, but funny thought anyway. |
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| Modest Mouse – Secret Agent X-9 Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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The first 11 seconds of this song remind me of some childhood memory. I can't quite figure out exactly what it was though. It just makes me feel a really strong emotion I haven't felt in a long time. Strangely, this song made me immediately think of the early black-and-white dr Who's first time I heard it. Did anyone else get that impression? I think the way they say "for a secret agent" sounds like a Darlek. Probably must have felt that emotion and just happened to be watching dr Who at the time. And the start of this song reminds of the emotion I felt at the time, so I linked it with the early dr Who. |
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| Modest Mouse – The Fruit That Ate Itself Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| I love the singing style of the 'muffin' part. It sounds cool the way Isaac sings it. Anyway, when I first heard the last part, I thought it was saying 'muslim' not 'muffin'. It still sounds like that to me, but Modest Mouse tends to sing in a way that is different to the words they're singing, so it could be anything. I hear "s" not "f". Actually the last time he says it I can hear muffin. That's probably right. Don't worry about me | |
| Modest Mouse – Long Distance Drunk Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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lol karma_sutured. The way i see it is, a drunk person is repeatedly picking up the phone and putting it down again, deciding whether or not to call a past/present love. He is in a weird depressed state over this love thing, and is not thinking clearly. The alcohol hasn't made him blissfully ignorant, but instead has just intensified his pain, into an almost dreamlike nightmarish delusional state. When someone calls him (maybe even just a telemarketer), he "wakes up" and snaps out of his emotional state, and realized that really what he wants is to be alone. He realizes it would be a bad idea to call the girl while in that state and thus wants to remain a 'long distance drunk'. This song really reminds me of the way I felt in a depressing relationship, wracked with the pain of self-esteem issues and being on an emotional low, all on my own, pondering it all. I am diabetic, so getting a low blood sugar level (hypo) during this is not pleasant! It amplifies the depression 100x and causes me to no longer make sense. I become indecisive too. Talking to a real person wakes me up from that 'nightmare', bringing me back to reality. The song is about alcohol though. However, being hypo has some similarities with being drunk. Btw, the girl singing in the background is really beautiful. |
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| Ugly Casanova – Parasites Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Maybe parasites feeding off the living is relatives trying to get an inheritance from the dead ( : | |
| Ugly Casanova – Parasites Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I'm sure it's bright and burning. "It's sprite" the "s" is carried over from "it's". It sounds like bourbon because the background vocal starts singing louder on that line and he sings "burning" slightly differently to Isaac, resulting in extra sounds that make it sound like "bourbon". Yeah I thought this song was saying in the first line that bugs are happy when you die because they get to eat, but then I read Serilazareth's post about another "song that deals with parasites (actually not parasites; parasites feed off the living)...". So if parasites feed off the living (eg. head lice are only interested in living heads), it makes the line, "the parasites are excited when you're dead," alot more interesting. Why would parasites be excited when you're dead if they feed off the living? Maybe they're sick of their appointed role (as parasites) in the "joke", just as the host life-form is of his, and they're happy one line of the "joke" is finally over. I am a Modest Mouse fan, but have only recently learnt of Ugly Casanova. Apparently, Isaac said in an interview that "...some homeless guy" (Edgar Graham) was fictional. I think the whole story is funny ( : Who knew the Modest Mouse/Isaac history was so interesting. |
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| Modest Mouse – One Chance Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I agree 100% with tinycitiesofashes in everthing he said (below), I feel exactly the same way, no songs stick with me as well as modest mouse, they are so unique, I also like their change of music style because it reveals a whole new modest mouse genre to explore "Modest Mouse has the amazing ability to stick so much meaning into one song. They dont [follow] the rules of music, they raise the bar so far its hard to see. I find myself addicted to a new MM song every day and I've had all of their cds on my playlist for 5-6 months straight now. I cant get over them, I cant explain to other people how profound their messages are. Everything is done so perfectly, I dont understand how they can do this. This song just reaffirms that. One chance to get everything right..." When I first heard this song, I couldn't figure out what they were saying in the chorus, but it sounded really cool. "I'm just a box in a cage" will be playing in my head for days ( : I think, "Didn't mean to laugh Didn't know I had Didn't know the better part of what you said Because in your head you are not home Didn't get the joke Didn't mean to poke another Just to save myself from some something Something or another one Well, walk home" means that he's in his own world, not really understanding the real social situation, laughing at something he thought was funny, but actually being offensive. I can relate. |
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| Modest Mouse – Fly Trapped in a Jar Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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For me, understanding the meaning of the human story part of the song involves visualizing the fly trapped in a jar story. Imagine the horror of having no-one care about you, even those that put you in the jar in the first place don't care anymore and you've been left on the shelf. Contemplate that all you have is one wing, and that isn't enough to escape out of the jar. The open lid of the jar is torturing you. You're even thinking of how "I'm going to thank myself when it's finally over." Ultimately the fly has no chance and is doomed to die "We were already dead." The human story is the same sort of predicament, although the circumstances are obviously completely different. You've all put very intelligent suggestions. This is solely what the song means to me. I don't expect anyone else to feel the same way. |
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| Modest Mouse – The Good Times Are Killing Me Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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People have mentioned the conversation preceding the song. When the metronome starts, after "The good times, yes!" I believe that someone else says, "Who needs the good times." Also, a personal note; the title, The Good Times Are Killing Me, feels like a phrase to me. It's the sort of quote that I could use in a conversation. Modest Mouse has it's charms, before and after Good News. There's nothing wrong with the "poppy" new MM style. Just because a song is up-beat and immediately appealing doesn't mean it can't have emotionally deep lyrics, and I believe this song testifies of that. The empathy in the music expresses the emotions underlying the simple lyrics (simple for an MM song), in my opinion. |
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