| VAST – Flames Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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As someone pointed out earlier, there is a key difference between what most people are taking this as and what the lyrics state. "When I am with you, there's no reason to pretend / That when I am with you I feel flames again," This song is about delving to the furthest emotional depths you can with someone, realizing that you adore them, care deeply for them, knowing that they are special beyond what words can describe and at once realizing that you are too emotionally twisted and damaged to feel with the depth of your heart that you should be able to. There is a large difference between recognizing how wonderful someone is and wanting to spend time with them and that crazy, sick-to-your-stomach, upside down feeling of love you know you should feel. We can be cognitively aware that we do (or SHOULD) love someone and would be a fool to leave, but that can be there without the feeling of your gut twisting into knots every second... and I think that getting older some people sometimes settle for one and forego the other. When we are young, we strive for both and often settle as loneliness sets in--to me, that's a large part of this song, loneliness. The cello is soft and flowing, almost melancholy. It touches you gently, much as Jon describes touching the woman he is talking about... but there is hesitation, withdrawl and sadness in the slow, steady vibrato. The solo is glorious, touching, tear-jerking... but it is the cello--alone. The tones are warm, but I am almost left with a feeling that the music is hollow. In the end, though the words assure the woman he'll never leave, the cello's voice is alone still. As his voice trails off, the strings speak more words than his voice ever could. |
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| VAST – You Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I'm having a difficult time seeing that there are so few comments on this song. I've listened to it for a number of years and my understanding of it has gradually evolved, so maybe I just think about it too much. To me, it's about him coming to the understanding that the woman he loves is caught up in the here and now--she doesn't understand what it is to exist beyond the physical plane. "Your dress looks good on you my love / And your house looks like it's heaven" describes a person who is caught up in the physical, in making things around her beautiful and sacred. She cannot see past that, though, and he laments the fact that she will not see Heaven with him: "Why are you / going to be outide eternity? / Everything you know will be.." This is also clear in the lines "Your eyes look like they're from God / And your face looks like it's from God." He is essentially saying that he is reminded of the beauty of Creation in this woman he loves, and he can't understand how she can't accept Jesus, accept salvation. Also, "Why are there so many people outside of it?" serves a double meaning: you could take it as 'why are there so many people outside of your house,' but you could also take it as 'Why are there so many people outside of Heaven,' as he refers to her house looking like Heaven in the line before. This is interesting to me because it is clear through many of Jon's songs that he has the same crazy relationship that many people do with God--it is a struggle to keep the Faith, gasping for air in a sea of people belittling you for your beleifs and stereotyping you. He struggles with the idea of faith through many of his songs, and for this to be such a clear message, such a plea to his love to just see the light... well, it's both touching and sad. |
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| Muse – Unintended Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I originally learned this song for a girl I was dating, which was all the more astounding for me considering I often have a hard time playing/singing at the same time (but can do either separately pretty well, lol). I hadn't picked up my guitar in almost two years, and I practiced until my fingers were cracked and raw... spent the better part of two months teaching myself how to play again. Then she dumped me. >_< The song took on a different meaning for me after I talked to a good friend of mine; she told me she'd seen an interview where Matt said that the song was about God, and in retrospect the reference makes sense. Now bear with me. I know people try to make a LOT of songs about God that may or may not be... and sometimes I agree, sometimes I don't. Realistically, though, this could just as easily be a Love song to God, as anyone who has strong faith can attest to the intense, often confusing, deeply emotional and tumultuous love you can have for Christ. If you'll notice, HE NEVER MENTIONS THE GENDER OF THE ONE HE'S SINGING TO. The song is about feeling unworthy of a perfect love, and I'm pretty sure most people can agree with that. The first stanza is the realization that this... this love is what he's been searching for. His love is the one he turn to with unanswerable questions and darkest secrets. "You could be my Unintended / Choice to live my life extended" could very easily be seen as a roundabout way of saying that he has found salvation... life beyond the one we know. The chorus is self-explanatory if you're looking at it from this perspective: "I'll be there as soon as I can / But I'm busy mending broken / Pieces of the life I had before" -- I get the feeling this isn't someone he's seen face-to-face, and he realizes that he's not ready yet. He's imperfect, battered, scarred, and hurt by the things life has thrown his way. He eagerly awaits the time when he can be done with this and move on to Heaven. "She could never be as good as You," at its face value, is finding a new lover who is better in every way than the last one. For me, it was the realization that no earthly love, no matter how strong, will ever fill me the way that Christ does. The last line, perhaps most simple, is the most telling and true to me--"Before You." Before Christ, my life was empty. Now, it has purpose. Yeah, it's just my $00.02. Take it or leave it, I'll have to try to find the interview when I'm not at work... XD |
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