| Silversun Pickups – Kissing Families Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Pay attention to who's singing which parts. It sounds like the guitarist wants to hold things together, the bassist is ready to break it off. The majority of the song is just the guitarist, but the bassist sings "soon you'll be there, too," like she's sure it won't work out, and despite his insistence to try to fight to stay together, it's not going to last. The video involves her showing up late to practice, looking distracted. She doesn't notice that she drops the laundry basket and cages the cat in. She drops her pick and knocks the grandfather clock over when retrieving it, and the drummer catches it and avoids injury. The keyboardist ducks his head just in time to avoid getting smacked with the neck of her bass. She kicks beer onto the power strip, and the keyboardist unplugs it. She leaves her grilled cheese sandwiches on the stove, and the cellist (who's not even in the living room with the rest of the band - someone outside the core band/their circle of friends?) extinguishes the fire. The only person in the video who doesn't clean up for the bassist during that video is the lead singer/guitarist... who has a black eye. It's safe to assume he got that from something she did. Somehow she looks like she's escaped all this injury-free. They sing together on "move on/roll along," but then the guitarist alone says "not today." In the chorus, "looking forward" seems to indicate that the singer wants to keep doing the right thing, holding things together, even if the direction the relationship is moving in right now isn't going there. Then there's another part with both of them singing. "This could be the bitter end/I know it won't." For him, I think the bitter end is the end of the relationship. For her, I think it's their friendship. She doesn't think the end of the relationship is going to mean they're going to go on hating each other... it might just be the best resolution to their fighting. In the video, SHE walks toward the window like she's ready to step out, and HE pulls her back in. The "season" referenced a couple times in the song seems to be the current phase/mood of the relationship. It would seem that it's storm season. The song opens with "stop the season, stop the sting," a plea for an end to the fighting. The final chorus says "the seasons always change too late." It sounds like it really was too late to save the relationship. "Now I know just where I stand" sounds bitter, even the first time he says it more calmly. The second time, he follows it up with a screamed "Thank God it's over." And here the video shows the bassist meandering around the room while she plays, tangling up all three of her bandmates in the wiring before she falls out the window - and, for the first time, we see some kind of danger to the bassist herself, with a set of concrete steps to fall onto. But she gets caught in her own tangled wire. For the first time, she smiles. She's no longer in the room with the rest of them, but her "ties" with the band - guitarist included - keep her unharmed. So that's a little long-winded, and maybe it looks like I'm reading into the combination of the lyrics, musical arrangement, and video a little much, but I like the story it paints. |
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| Silversun Pickups – Surrounded (Or Spiraling) Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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The verses are about a romanticized (in the sense of "made larger than life") version of a relationship. The chorus refers to exaggerating the good times and covering up the bad, whitewashing over a more realistic memory of their past together with "distortion" and taking "liberties" with their time together. The one thing I really don't have a handle on with this song - and it bugs me because it's the title, which is a testament to its importance in the theme of the song - is the relationship between being surrounded and spiraling. Being surrounded indicates being trapped in one spot due to outside forces. Spiraling seems more like a self-directed path to an inevitable center point - usually, as someone else mentioned, a downward spiral, as if the end result is undesirable. It doesn't seem like either of them is something you'd want to be... both indicate a type of being trapped. So what's the important distinction between the two? Others surrounding you and boxing you in vs. spiraling out of control, doing it to yourselves? So then they're stuck in this idealized relationship, that they want to think is "perfect," even though it might just be "our little hell." Maybe if they're not actually surrounded/trapped in the relationship, if it's really not working out and they're just spiraling toward a more and more broken relationship, they need to come clean with themselves about how unhappy they are? The surrounded/spiraling imagery is so vague and not directly related to anything else in the song, so it's harder to get a handle on. |
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| Kashmir – Miss You Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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The lyric is actually: "But she seems to have lost her interest in meat." It's a lot easier to hear in the acoustic version off the Home Dead EP - which has a much more fittingly somber tone. But that doesn't change the meaning a whole lot; the "meat" in the shark metaphor is him. The lyrics seem to indicate that there used to be something between them. She lost her interest in him. He waits for her return. The worst part is that she's still a part of his life. He doesn't miss her because they've lost touch; he misses her because she's not acting like the same person she was when they were together. She's just locked him out emotionally. |
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| Kashmir – Graceland Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Excess, as seen from the working class. | |
| Kashmir – The New Gold Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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A song about America. The lyrics are even less subtle when you check the liner notes and see that "Bush" is the only capitalized word in the entire song. |
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| Kashmir – Gorgeous Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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In a song about death, the final line is so chilling. "Is it tomorrow?" |
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| Kashmir – New Year's Eve Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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We'd like to think this marks the beginning of something new, celebrate the new year like it's something significant, but it's all just pageantry, and it's wearying to watch. For all the bad habits we promise to kick, we should know better. I like the pause between "It's time to quit" and "And start again." It indicates that any commitment to our resolutions early in the year is temporary. A very cynical song. |
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| Kashmir – The Cynic (featuring David Bowie) Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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It was never supposed to be a relationship... he was in it for the sex, without all the emotional tie-ups. But he starts to realize how hollow this leaves him. His life's passing him by, and he's denying himself any real personal connection with the lover he's been with for almost a year. He sees what he's doing to her - she's torn up by the emotional distance he demands of their relationship, and he thinks it's beautiful that she cares so much. He thinks that perhaps this is love, and proposes. I originally doubted the sincerity of the last stanza, but notice that he's specifically taking note of her feelings, which he was trying to filter out during the first part of the relationship. Maybe he just doesn't want to be alone, but at the same time he's ready to acknowledge her feelings and turn this into something meaningful. The music video indicates that, by the time he comes around, it's too late. |
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| Kashmir – In The Sand Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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It's the story of an affair... not necessarily an extramarital affair (although that seems like the easiest explanation), but it's something short-lived, passionate, and secret. He's in a position to commit to her (he's in the sand), but she's setting the rules, because something in her life is pulling her in another direction (she's on the ocean). He wants to hold on, but she lets him slip away. However, after whatever life-changing experience she went through that separated the two of them, she finds herself moody, irritable, unpredictable - lovesick. She drinks alone, wanders off, and doesn't tell anybody what's wrong. It meant more to her than she'd wanted it to. She thinks the two of them could have been something amazing. But with time, she moves on, like nothing happened. |
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| Kashmir – Its OK Now Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Pretty straightforward... it's about a breakup being put off because of all the good memories of the past. One of them is trying to put the pieces back together, thinking things could be the same as they used to be. The other (the speaker) believes this is futile. | |
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