sort form Submissions:
submissions
Niki & The Dove – Winterheart Lyrics 11 years ago
There's obviously the element of a past relationship the narrator hasn't quite gotten over, maybe one from a winter long ago. What REALLY comes to mind at least for me is Seasonal Affective Disorder, routine depression experienced in the winter months. Normal people may find the season dreary enough, but for those with SAD it's pretty gruelling. Maybe has nothing to do with the song, but it screams such to me.

submissions
Emilie Autumn – If I Burn Lyrics 13 years ago
Pretty straight-forward, so nothing much to analyse. But it's by-far my favourite "new song" (previously unheard, sorry I'm being difficult, but then I'd have to actually choose between Take the Pill and If I Burn, and I don't want to make that decision).

But basically, if he destroys her, figuratively or literally, nothing can ever change that fact. Stockhill will always have her blood on his hands.

Then he talks about his persistence, pretty much saying the same thing back to her. No matter what, I'll always be in your life, even when I'm gone. What I've done will never go away. You can try to run away, but it'll always catch up with you.

And even when she escapes Stockhill, he will still loom over her for the rest of her life. It isn't over until it's over.

Overall, with a full-on concept album (as opposed to more "themed" albums prior), this one, along with Take the Pill, were the only ones I could relate to, and that helped my love for them. I like almost every song on the album, but because FLAG is specifically about Wayward Victorian Girls and not everyone's been in a Victorian asylum, it's slightly less relatable than Opheliac in my opinion. It's also probably going to be most of the soundtrack of the musical, so there's that. Still, great album.

submissions
Arcade Fire – Black Wave/Bad Vibrations Lyrics 13 years ago
I see the song in like two halves, Black Wave referring actually to the beginning, what they are running from, and Bad Vibrations referring to the change later that Win sings, instead of literal vibrations more figurative bad feelings about what the person is doing, "Stop now before it's too late." At least, that's how I see it. I haven't spent the time to really analyse this song as the end just confuses me.

Also, it may even be literal, referring to the last line. Sound is just vibrations, and sound is mentioned in both sections, "Je nage, mes les sons me suis" and "The sound is not asleep / it's moving under my feet."

submissions
Garbage – Only Happy When It Rains Lyrics 13 years ago
Man, story of my life. No one seems to understand it though. Happy is great, but for some reason, there's this sick little satisfaction with fucking my life up. It's INTERESTING. I can't take just constant happiness. I need darkness. Never do I feel so right when people think I'm crazy, when everything is going wrong. I've never really fit anywhere else. I'm a conditional masochist I guess.

But when you've struggled with depression for that long and things are finally going right, then you feel completely out of place. Depression is nice and comfortable and happiness is wrong. It's like the complete opposite of the typical problem people have, feeling like it's wrong to be negative. To me, it's wrong to be fully positive.

submissions
The Goo Goo Dolls – Iris Lyrics 13 years ago
I really can't see it as purely a love song. I know it gives that message to a lot of people–and maybe it's just me with my own life experience–but I definitely get a hint of some psychological issue, whether self-harm, depression... there's a huge part of it that is darkness and/or insecurity, it really can't just be passed off as a love song. The first stanza is very much about love, but even then I still get a "Creep" by Radiohead feeling, you know. You're perfect and I always drag behind. "You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be."

However I think the stanza transitions perfectly "And I don't want to go home right now" makes me feel like it's in fear, fear of being alone with yourself without this person who has lit up the darkness inside of you. Fear of what you'll do without them.

My favourite is of course the chorus, but because it's what makes me relate to it the most.

"And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand"
Your common person can't fathom that type of pain and no matter what you do you just get ridiculed by anyone who hasn't been in your shoes before. You just feel so separated from the rest of the universe.

"When everything feels like the movies"
In this context, I think it's just referring to the next line, but I do have to share I've been frustrated throughout my life because life isn't like the movies, at all, and you so desperately want everything to turn out like it does on the silverscreen, but it just doesn't happen like that. No person is as great as the characters in that movie. No one will care for you unconditionally, forever. No one will even notice when you're screaming, and it's foolish to expect to be rescued.

"Yeah you bleed just to know you're alive"
Should I even comment? Eh... come on, you know how I'll take this, right?
Okay, to be brief, numbness and depersonalization can later accompany bad forms of depression and other mental illnesses. Self-harm can let you feel something, anything, just to remind you that you can still bleed, that your veins haven't run dry.

submissions
IAMX – Ghosts of Utopia Lyrics 14 years ago
Here's what I hear very clearly. Listened to the studio version as well as a couple live versions.

"You are haunted by the turmoil of your lives."

"You are drowing in the sorrow of a billion opinions."

"You're the conquered stars, the divided heart."

"All your hurting, all your debts."

"Because the wife and kids won't help you to forget."

submissions
Tarja Turunen – Our Great Divide Lyrics 17 years ago
Well, I first heard this song when I was scouting youtube, and found a live version of Our Great Divide. All the comments were pretty much about how we all noticed Tarja was crying when she sang the song, which in turn made me cry. My current impression is that the song reminds her of Nightwish, which it does to me also.

How can I see through your eyes, my destiny?
I fall apart, you bleed for me.

This feels like she's asking the band how could she have possibly seen the situation through their perspective. "I fall apart, you bleed for me" meaning she blows up and emotions run wild, while the band took the pain.

Open you heart,
to close our great divide.

Stating for them to forgive her to close this deep crevasse separating them
So, there's a little bit about my theory

* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.