| The Knife – Colouring Of Pigeons Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Darwin's work interspersed with snippets of letters written b/w his wife (and other relatives I'm assuming, from the male voice) and him. I would love to know more about the structure of the song, the selection of words, what it all means. Hopefully there will be some good interviews addressing the construction of this album in-depth. What an homage--Darwin's crying in his heaven right now. | |
| Fever Ray – Dry and Dusty Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| oops, "changed". | |
| Fever Ray – Dry and Dusty Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Two people settling for each other. Codependency. Stuck in their jobs. Stuck with each other. Time capsules, b/c they haven't chaged. Not living, really. Just stuck and comfortable, learning to enjoy it. | |
| Tori Amos – Here In My Head Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| ...and son. | |
| Tori Amos – Here In My Head Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I am a bit surprised at the interpretations thus far. To me, it is clear that the speaker in the song is remembering a childhood friend--probably of the opposite sex. They were probably neighbors. He lied a little bit to impress her; his mother neglected him, so he spent alot of time with her. They're under the table, going through a box of her treasures. She also remembers them at a fair they may not have ever gone to...I don't know, nothing seems grownup about the song except for the speaker, who is remembering being a child, and being best friends with a little boy she loved in more than one way--a brother, lover, friend, father... | |
| The Knife – You Take My Breath Away Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
"We raise our heads for the colour red" also makes an appearance in "Parade." And I agree with beer good; it's kind of feel-good. They reference "we are the people," "the knife," and at least one of the knife's songs (maybe the one jenny heard on the radio): "a bird". Also, it's a very empowered song--it's got a strong, sexual, positive message for women. And, because it's titled after a "Queen" song, maybe it's a bit of a tribute to them as well. I love the lines: Your vibrato's like vulnerable leaves I like vanilla and I like sex/I ride the pony that I like best |
|
| The Knife – A Lung Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
It's "me", not "thee". This song is a dialogue between two people. The female warns that "you're looking for me, but it's not what you seek...", while the male responds, "I was looking for you and I'm glad I found me...". The female speaks in the present tense, as the "action" is unfolding (i.e., at the moment when the two meet), and the male speaks in the past tense, looking back. He is forced to acknowledge that she was right; he was looking for "her," but she ultimately led him to some knowledge of himself. He corrects her, though; she's not "twisted;" she's "special". I agree with pearandgreen and poweroutage that this is an odd take on an odd/unconventional yet honest and therefore more fulfilling, relationship. When she says she is "a lung" that takes the spark out of him, she is saying that something in him inspires her, and that she increases it tenfold, and, since she is a part of him, his lung (not, notably, his rib), he also benefits from her transformative power within the relationship. That said, I wouldn't mind being someone's Darth Vader. |
|
| Portishead – Cowboys Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
I'm taking a History class right now titled "History of the American West," and I do think it's a political song. Cowboys are part of the myth of the West as a place to be conquered--its indigenous peoples, its arid geography (deserts, great plains), its animals even (buffalo and the now-extinct passenger pigeon). Cowboys are the conquerors in this myth, and represent stoic, strong masculinity. (Women in the myth of the west have predominantly played the role of damsel in distress, with Calamity Jane and Annie Oakley being notable exceptions.) America, while supposedly founded on the ideals of democracy and freedom, has historically been exploitative and oppressive towards minorities: women, Blacks, Indians, Chinese, Japanese, and Mexicans. I won't give you a full history lesson here, but you can google these minorities along with something like "history of oppression in America," and you will find overwhelming evidence. Back to the song, it's hard to tell who the speaker is. Could be an oppressed minority speaking to the conquerors, the "cowboys," i.e. the American government. |
|
| Portishead – Mysterons Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
I love that the line "This ocean will not be grasped" also sounds like, "This ocean will not be grass." Both ways, you know that the "ocean" is something intangible, something that cannot be held or traversed, perhaps because it is so huge, perhaps because of the form it takes, the molecules that form it--maybe a little bit of all that. I like xdvr's explanation. |
|
| Viking Moses – Werewolves in the City Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
I love this song. The speaker is a murderer, probably a serial killer--schizophrenic, or at least suffering from blackouts, as is finally revealed in the last line, "I found a kid's head on my bike." In spite of this proof, he's distanced from his actions, can't handle the truth of what he is, and will not ask himself how the head got there--he chooses to blame the police, asking them to "get out of the sky and stop them." The first couple of lines show us that the police are looking for a bicyclist, someone who fits this description, which leads me to the serial killer theory--he's done this enough to be caught in the act at some point. The police shining their lights on the speaker are like stars, which parallels with the killer's own description of himself as "a star with a rocket launcher on my shoulder." The next line, "a placeholder for some inflicter of criminal intent," stresses this parallel: thus, a juxtaposition b/w the police and the lawbreaker is established--they're both symptoms of the same problem. Before the last line of the song, it looks as though the police are wasting their time on the speaker, who criticizes their distance from society, "Why don't you get out of the sky and stop them." This is a criticism of our system of law and government--the police, and society, are so concerned with laws and minutiae (such as arresting potheads and ticketing people for rolling through stop signs) that rapists and killers and other sociopaths get away, literally, with murder. The police do not act to protect us; they are blind agents of the law, thus the separateness and the alienation. The fact that they are higher, in the sky, shows how our government feels about us, the "common" people--they don't care what happens to us. Of course, though on the surface this song is essentially an urban legend, a retelling of a legend (in which man has an encounter with the supernatural), it is also an extended metaphor (which I've already touched on). There are no werewolves in the literal sense, but there are predators, and they don't have to literally "tear up the children"--they can fuck up society just as easily by raping, pimping, and selling hard drugs such as meth, heroin, and crack to kids. |
|
| CocoRosie – Japan Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Everybody wants to go somewhere else, but people suck everywhere, so start to go different places by "just holding hands," breaking down barriers, becoming less sucky. Look to your self to really change; travel is superficial, and will not change the most basic things. | |
| James Iha – Winter Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| I'm pretty sure that he's singing "And Jesus loves the FIRST". 2nd time he ends with "night," not "lover's light." That's how it sounds anyway. | |
| Nine Inch Nails – Closer Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
First verse: "Violate" and "desecrate" reveal the narrator's understanding/feelings about "penetration"; the idea of penetration/sex as a violation/desecration is something he has learned (via social conditioning). In the last line, we get a tiny hint of redemption: you let me "complicate" you (b/c it feels good, and it feels right...this creates tension with what the narrator and the subject, the woman he loves, have been taught-->hence, complication, the layering of personal desire and learned guilt/shame.) And of course, we can't ignore the significance of "You let me"--it is repeated four times. He has her permission to do these things. First two lines, it seems he is condemning her for this, with his choice of verbs. But he struggles with himself. Third line, he "penetrates" (neutral, clinical); fourth line, you can almost sense the wonder (and the delicious opening up, the recognition of the sacred in their act) in the verb "complicate". And, of course, what he's doing to her is also being done to him... to be continued |
|
| Smog – To Be of Use Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
"For the first time in my life, I think we were created to be incongruent and unique-shaped. This song sounds disappointed." . |
|
| Smog – To Be of Use Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
"For the first time in my life, I think we were created to be incongruent and unique-shaped. This song sounds disappointed." . |
|
| Smog – Cold Discovery Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
I went through an Ayn Rand phase when I was a teen, and this reminds me so much of the f*cked up relationship b/w Roark and Dominique (?) in...what's the one before Atlas Shrugged? Yeah, that one. I'm not so sure it's about rape. I think it may be about what occurs b/w two people who hurt each other as much as they love each other. All too often we are fed images of shiny white shallow bridal happiness--this song talks about the flip side of that. Tori Amos has explored the dark side of sexuality in plenty of her songs, and in her own life. It's there, and too often we do not have the tools to deal/cope with it in this society--which means that it festers, then screams out of us, and when it's gone, we're left with the guilt and the shame that diminishes our own personal understanding of the experience. |
|
| Joanna Newsom – Only Skin Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
Just a nugget: "Rowing along among the reeds, among the rushes..." and "...as you sink into your crib" make me think of the story of Moses, which in turns pulls me back to Emily--the pharisees, the pharoah... |
|
| Joanna Newsom – Peach, Plum, Pear Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
People keep saying this song is about a love that ended. I think it's about one that never started. He liked her; she didn't; he moved on; they randomly see each other; she sees what she missed before, but too late--he's no longer interested. He leaves to do whatever delightful thing he has planned (or that she jealously assumes he has planned) and she's left to ponder what could have been. I don't think she's censoring herself with the "bolt like a horse" line. I think she deliberately chose it for its ambiguity, its duplicity of meaning. And both meanings work very well within the context of the song. |
|
| Devendra Banhart – I Feel Just Like a Child Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
"See I was born thinking all under the sky Didn't belong to a couple of white guys" To me, this is a deeply sarcastic song. Either way, the narrator is a bit of a jerk. Taking it the sarcastic route, however, you can see why: we live in a society that idolizes youth; increasing amounts of "children" are living with their parents as adults. They are controlled by a society (the "couple of white guys" that own everything) that has a vested interest in keeping them this way--they spend their money on such toys as games, laptops, cell phones, and cars; they ignore and accept unnecessary wars and unelected presidents. There's more, but I'll leave someone else to connect the rest of the dots. I've got work to do. :) |
|
| Saul Williams – NiggyTardust Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
"I tried the chorus out on CX and he naturally said "nothing" which I responded with a very Prince-like "shutup". We kept it, as it was funny as fuck." Ahaha...I totally started cracking up when I heard the chorus for the first time...thanks for posting that, laurelinwyntre. |
|
| The Knife – Forest Families Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Having read westost's and Casiotone's interpretations, which really helped me to come to my conclusion, I think that they're satirizing fanaticism. I'm imagining a 13 or 14 year old girl here. She's grown up "safely" in the country, protected. Her parents (or since "mothers" are mentioned a couple of times here, her father) have demonized the city, and though she may like living in the country, she also just wants to dance ("I just want your music tonight.") It's about control (having to wear a mask, TOO far away from the city, etc.), and about the perils of being extremist, and how sometimes when we think we're "protecting" others, we're hurting them. And there are overtones of the consequences of taking your beliefs too far: "and the mothers walked toward the forest." | |
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.