| Modest Mouse – 3rd Planet Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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How is that any time a song mentions a baby, the assumption is that it is about abortion? This song, it seems to me, is very much about miscarriage, not abortion. Look: Outside naked, shiverin' looking blue, From the cold sunlight that's reflected off the moon. Baby cum angles fly around you Reminding you we used to be three and not just two. The potent sadness of those lines is the kind one would feel for a lost child, yes, but the character of it doesn't strike me as the same as most abortion lyrics. Especially given these lines: And that's how the world began. And that's how the world will end. In the context of abortion, the sentiment would indicate that the world will end via intentional termination. In context of a miscarriage, the falling-away of life feels like a withdrawing but also an incorporation, as if a whole universe just gathered together inside you then, in an instant, fell away. Indeed, the larger comments about the universe are the kinds of thoughts inspired by the experience of miscarriage, which puts the miracle of life and death close together in the most unexpected way. Now, I haven't experience abortion, but have experience miscarriage--so I speak from that position. I've been listening to this song for a long time but only now do the words strike me as meaningful at all. |
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| Miike Snow – A Horse Is Not a Home Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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Just to throw a wrench in this thread...what if this song is about...being in a car too much. Horses used to be the things which got us places, were the carriers of romance and chivalry. Now we ride these big "horses" on the large commutes to get places far away and do boring things. Mark this as a "I don't care to make this another song about relationships". |
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| Regina Spektor – Lacrimosa Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Good catch. That's fantastic. | |
| Thursday – You Were the Cancer Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Agreed, best song on the album and that's coming after a whole album of awesome songs. I'll say the same thing about the interpretation of this song that I did for Resuscitation of a Dead Man: there are many layers to this, some more shallow, some deeper. This is how Thursday always works. We cannot forget that this whole Album is called Common Existence. All of the songs work on a shallow "I'm going to paint a picture of X" kind of way but then also speak metaphorically about our greater Common Existence. So in this case, three things here: 1) I don't doubt a scar in the sky's AP quote up there. No doubt they had an encounter with cancer. Who hasn't, honestly? So, yeah, the song is directly about cancer and that is enough to scream about. 2) But to speak more broadly the song is about death and the common existence surrounding it. It is a nice portrait of that as always. 3) Most importantly though is the broader metaphor this works as. "You were the cancer" is not referring to cancer cells. No, the "you" indicates that what he really wants to talk about is someone else, that he's directing this metaphor towards the greater world at large, or perhaps to an individual. So we get two interpretations on this deeper level. A) He's talking about a specific person, say a girlfriend, friend, or parent who's always been there but kept him down, acting like a cancer, always leeching off of him, requiring him to cut into himself (metaphorically) and suffer as they plagued his life. B) He's talking about the cancers of general society. These three lines are particularly pertinent to this interpretation: It's a sound that's spinning out of control It's a light at the edge of a black hole It's killing you but it's bringing me along These lines are talking about the world being on the edge, how people's collective shortcomings--our "Common Existence" is tearing this world to pieces. Like the light on the edge of a black hole...or like any of the other images he puts up there, we are slowly dying, trying to do the impossible (like photograph a sound). So yeah, there you go. Reread the lyrics with any given interpretation. It works. |
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| From Autumn to Ashes – A Goat in Sheep's Rosary Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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This song isn't just anti-religion. It's about hypocrisy, about using good causes to justify wrong actions. Hence the quote at the end. It fits like that as well as the fact it fits as anti-religion song. If it were not for this extensive book collection I would know not what I found: I would think that the fighting for democracy, the killing the wars, the oppression--that it is all what it appears on the surface. This song works with any goats in sheeps rosary, any cause with a brilliant idealistic sheen that underneath is corrupt and horrible and is used to justify death and suffering. Now that is something to scream about. Excellent song. |
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| Scary Kids Scaring Kids – goes without saying Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Definitely works as a love song. Its that moment when you see it in their eyes or feel it inside that its over. It goes without saying it's already gone.... But he doesn't want it to come out. "Keep it inside of you." That's what the whole second verse is about as well as the last line of the first verse (so take advantage, take it all, take it all before the moment dies) He knows its over but wants it to last a bit longer before its gone. The song could also work on a broader light talking about the way people are, how they are dead inside and how much they will disappoint you and how they hurt each other. I could see that one... |
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| Thursday – Resuscitation of a Dead Man Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Two more things I forgot to add. There is an element of desire, of wishing to be saved, to be resuscitated and revived from a life that has grown static and dangerous, to be reawakened to the reality of this existence. That is why it starts with the plea of "Ambulance, let me in, Don't let me stay here!" and ends with the very important change in chorus lyrics: When alone You see clearly I would know Now I want to live and love All these fragile things That gives me chills every time--in the course of this resuscitation, we've learned to love this fragile existence. But this (secondly) is unfortunately found only at the edge, when one is near death, so-to-speak. I say so-to-speak because he's also using it as metaphor to not only say death but also the edge of emotions: the emo kind of despair that people make fun of, where you realize just how screwed up the world is and how blind and horrible the whole structure of our society is. At that point you truly realize the need for a reawakening. Brilliant job Geoff. Thank you again for your music. You've helped me through some of my worst and best times. Oddly enough, this song and album fits right along with where I've come to. |
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| Thursday – Resuscitation of a Dead Man Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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This was a perfect opener for their new album as well as a fantastic first single. As far as I can see I'd suggest three basic interpretations. The first I think is just a light-hearted quip (if such a thing exists with Thursday): "Let's restart it!" What better line to start a new album, especially an extremely emotional and well put together one? The song is a wake up call, a breath back to life of the listener. It says "come back to life for this album, you'll love it but more than anything you need to FEEL it." You can't take Thursday lightly and they are letting you know it, trying to wake you up. And boy does this song wake me up. That's the first impression. But of course it goes much deeper than that. The second is what the actual lyrics are directly talking about: death and the fragility of life but also our incredible ability to restart it. This, in my opinion is why Thursday should be considered Gods of rock music. Who else can sound so desperate and torn but simultaneously so hopeful? I think it is the way we ought to be in a screwed up world this where there is as much reason to despair as there is to hope, and the two mix together in one beautiful, heart-rending moment. The song says, yes life is fragile, people are fragile, our bodies are fragile, but we can restart it. We can fix it. We can move on. But sometimes we only realize this once we are at the edge, about to dissolve into the blackness of death. But I am getting to the third meaning, the broader metaphorical one in which the fragility of our bodies and our ability to resuscitate them is likened to the the fragility of our whole existence, our whole society, and our ability to fix and enliven it. This is why he includes the line "We all stand on a bridge thats been slowly burning." Yes this could indicate the bridge of life, so to speak, but it broader than that. This bridge is our whole existence. This is a very politically charged album. Like every good artist, Geoff's lyrics speak in direct images that work in their direct content and in their metaphor. In this case, to bring all three meanings together, Geoff's opening song to the Album Common Existence is a plea to all of us to wake up and realize that our existence is fragile, that our world is slowly burning down, but that we have the incredible ability as human beings to revive it, to awaken ourselves and restart our flickering, dying hearts. You could be the breath of air that saves it! With a drum hit and and a thousand voices (that's you, the listener, screaming along with him), we can utter that single word to this decaying and sputtering planet: live, live, LIVE! |
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| Thursday – Friends In the Armed Forces Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I also agree that Thursday is a fantastic band, one that changes lives. This song was a welcome straightforward critique of war when many of their other songs that have sounded anti-war they wanted to work as metaphors (the whole War All The Time album). As for mrsRidgway there, I'm glad you have something to devote yourself to. But listen to this lyric man: You say you're defending me I'm sick of tying yellow ribbons Praying not to see. I know the commitment you've made is a big deal but it is hard to justify death and destruction. To quote the wisdom of bumper stickers: "Why do we kill people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong?" What are you defending? Did I ask you defend me? Are you defending freedom? How is that? By killing people and tearing a country apart? Every war through all of time has been justified on noble grounds. They are thinking the same exact things you are, finding the same sort of justifications. It's like trying to put out fire with fire. We continue to burn. If this was Hitler taking over half of Europe in ways that are beyond our reach, murdering and torturing millions of jews--then ok, I could see that some action is needed. But this is the twenty-first century. There are a million things we could have done beside tear two countries apart. We call this a Christian nation but we don't even come close to Christian principles. Turn the other cheek? Love your enemy? If we were really a Christian nation we would have responded to September 11 by apologizing for tearing the region apart for decades then turned to them with understanding and patience, trying to work out the conflict and improve their lives. Ludicrous? Yes. Christian--very much so. But that is the kind of thing that would work in this new century. We've been responding with paranoia and war for so long it is just our automatic response. No, Thursday is right. You think you're defending me? Well I'm sick of tying yellow ribbons trying not see all of this pain and death that we are perpetuating. We're not going to hell over silly wishes. It is death. We die. Why hasn't humanity moved past this yet? Anyone who liked this cd I'd really commend checking out Story of the Year's latest cd, the Black Swan. Excellent anti-war message. **end rant** |
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| Thursday – Jet Black New Year Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Wow.......that's intense. Geoff is my hero...I know of few other people who feel that deeply about life. | |
| Chevelle – Antisaint Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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An edit to my last post. Thinking about the white elephant a bit more, I think that the white elephant is innocence and purity as people have suggested. This makes sense and still fits with the rest of what the song is about. I think that sets it up well enough. The rest of the imagery fits into that general area, including the crows as symbols of death and fear and the lion as basic fierceness, instinct, and violence (which is always caught up in corruption). My personal favorite lines are these: The stakes are too low. We may not need any. In other words, at this point the is so little riding on it that we shouldn't be on it at all. That's this world for you. |
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| Chevelle – Antisaint Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I like what people are doing so far with this song but I want to add some stuff. A cursory search for the cultural background of some of these terms is helpful. White Elephant: According to Wikipedia a white elephant is a valuable possession of which its owner cannot dispose and whose cost (particularly cost of upkeep) is out of proportion to its usefulness. In this case I think that The Hallowed may be on to something then in saying it was something he's done wrong but can't rid himself of. The Loom: Given the references to lying at the end, the loom is referring to the weaving of lies...a loom is a tool used to handle thread. Given those two things, the third and fourth lines are saying: Will we sever everything with these lies you can't rid yourself of? Its as if to say, is it worth it? Chevelle wants you to ponder that while they examine the why. Now, we need some other things: Antisaint: I think this terms has confused a lot of people. The prefix "Anti" means either "Against", "Opposite", or "Counteracting/neutralizing." Meanwhile, keep in mind that a saint, depending on your definition, a really good person or a person sent from God. Given the context of the song I'd suggest that the best definition is to say that the Antisaint is a counteracting of a good person; it is the person having his good neutralized by his lies and continued deceit. I have to go for the moment but I'll leave a followup comment with some more helpful definitions |
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| Chevelle – Closure Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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A few notes: First off, having grown up really religious only to completely turn away from in the past few years, I'll say that it doesn't matter whether these lyrics are religious or not. I have noticed that every single love song (unless its about sex) can be interpreted as a religious song and vice versa. I think this is why a lot of Christian songs do well in the mainstream because they are easily interpreted as love songs. Its easy to do. The struggles and feelings mimic each other both positive and negative. Second, every person interprets songs in their own way. That is the essence of art. This website, I think, is about sharing those interpretations. If you'll notice some of the best interpretations were ones that were highly personal. So it doesn't matter if you don't get the same thing as long as you get something. Third, this song does have definite Christian imagery. But this may simply be coincidental since people who have strong Christian backgrounds tend to use a certain form of language. But more likely it isn't accidental but meant to contain an ambiguous duality. For instance, it could easily be interpreted as someone struggling to overcome an addiction of sorts, trying to achieve forgiveness and closure from a struggle and be reborn into something new out of the struggle. But this is hard to do, hence the "forget closure" at the end--you still struggle with an addiction for a long time after. However, I think I'll agree with the general consensus here. The best and most helpful interpretation for me personally is the relationship one. As someone who has struggled with some addictions, I would think that people might appreciate the addiction interpretation, especially given the religious imagery. |
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| Assemblage 23 – Infinite Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I agree, fantastic song, very direct and incredible. One of the best EBM songs out there. | |
| The Faint – Forever Growing Centipedes Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Yeah sanguinaress got a large part of it. I think the science brilliantly convolutes all sorts of scientific stuff together in a really cool, kinda vague way. Was totally going to say what jicksta said about that part about the dimensions of time. When taken as a whole the song is about moving forward through a world completely different, changed by science. Its a wacky way of looking at the world derived by science. Like if you actually thought of your life in terms of dimensions, life extension, and such then its actually quite screwy. As to the people who think he's just on shrooms...yeah he might be but there are way too many references that make sense if you're familiar with science and especially Slaughterhouse 5. |
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| VNV Nation – Saviour Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I don't think it is necessary to say whether he was talking about religion or not. I'm an avid VNV Nation fan, listening to all their songs. I really don't think they'd ever make a direct statement about religion. Ronan really likes to use religious imagery in his songs, but he does it in such fascinating ways, which do not necessarily encourage nor discourage religion. I think this song is about how people always look for things to save them instead of changing and seeking after their own path. These "gods" don't have to be actually God, but could be anyone or anything that people blindly seek after and put all their faith in. More than anything he is speaking out against when people give themselves up, sacrificing themselves and their will to the power of others. This forms the "Hollow bonds" from the killed pride; but these idols are just as lost as we are. Btw, just a note on one of the comments up there: any song that sound religious can easily be interpreted as a love song. But my experience is that Ronan doesn't really write love songs. Beloved was rather an anomaly there. |
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