| Antony and the Johnsons – Another World Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Hi there, yeah I wrote that nearly a year ago and looking back I feel like I don't even know the person who wrote them. I was in a rough state of mind to say the least. In any case, I suppose there might be some plausbility in that theory of disconnected voices... but there's really not enough evidence to prove it. I totally agree it is important to simply enjoy the experience of the piece. I think it was a matter of me enjoying it so much that I had to know what it was that was affecting me so profoundly. The reason this piece is so beautiful is simply that, you aren't able to truly dissect it all. It is abstract, founded in familiarity but not exactly definitive. Moreover, I dislike how in all my comments it was as if I was writing a persusasive essay. How can anyone truly be certain in anything? I'd say the comments on 'Her eyes lay beneath the ground' are the most plausible, and everything else is pretty much shit. Anyway, Hegarty is an incredible vocalist who will always stop me in my tracks and make me ponder. I'm sorry if I in any way tainted that for you. Cheers~ |
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| Antony and the Johnsons – Everglade Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Having spent the entire album in Limbo yearning for a world where he feels at peace with his ideologies and life choices he finally finds that refuge through that of narcotics. It is a uplifting but bleak coda to a contemplative album. Hegarty makes total use of the swelling strings, woodwinds, and shrill vibrato heard throughout the album to express a dynamic conclusion. Antony's vocals personify the yearning and mourning expressed through the previous songs on the album in the second stanza. Although minimal at first through his lyrical passages, all the tones are gathered in the final stanza for a profound sense of pride, which is carried through the last half of the song by the instrumentals, showcasing the wonderful musicians involved in this project. At the 2:27 mark we hear the dark cellos once heard before in the first track "Her eyes are underneath the ground". The song is finished by a hushed fluttering of bowing, expressing a sort of underlying aggression or tension. The sum of which produces a sort transcendental piece. Antony's choice of words provide insight to the refuge found in narcotics. He uses metaphors, personification, and antherimas to convey lies and disconnection from reality. "And your eyes are lilies all around / The sun plays crystal with my eyes / And the leaves are winking all around " (Lines 2,4, 9) And then the numbing sensation providing release from his pains "Then I stop / My body stops crying for home / My limbs stop weeping for home" (Lines 5-7) And the subtle, but brief awareness of his state of mind "But brains they play the softest games" (Line 11) |
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| Antony and the Johnsons – Her Eyes Are Underneath the Ground Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Incorporating the biographical knowledge of Hegarty's fascination with trans-gender individuals (like that of the Bhuto dancer on the cover) further adds to the complexity of this song. As Maykasahara stated above, this song is about the relationship with his mother. As far as the flower is concerned, it may symbolize that of femininity. "In the garden with my mother I stole a flower / With my mother and in her power I stole a flower" (Lines 8-9) and then later "In the garden with my mother I stole a flower / With my mother in her power I chose a flower" (Lines 15-16) where Hegarty concludes stating that he chose the flower, which runs contrary to conventional belief that homosexuality is not a choice, but rather inborn. | |
| Antony and the Johnsons – Her Eyes Are Underneath the Ground Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| I'd also just like to comment that the title alone of this song evoked a great deal of emotion for me. Literally it means to be buried underneath the ground. Metaphorically illustrated to me the idea of being removed from your senses, or even the idea of senses existing outside of your body. Thematically it is an excellent emphasis on the darkness of humanity, the unknowing. Stylistically it turns 'eyes' into a suggest part of your existence (also known as a metonymy) , which I do find to be true: it is the eyes through which the brain creates subjection. The line itself is also written in Iambic Tetrameter which create heartbeat-like pulsations, further adding to the sentimentality. | |
| Antony and the Johnsons – Her Eyes Are Underneath the Ground Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Hegarty creates a spectrum of life and death, and jumps focuses on these transitions laced with empathy. The first quatrain literally speaks of death "Oh her eyes are underneath the ground" (line 1), then later juxtaposition with that of life in the second quatrain "Oh her eyes are basking in the sun" (line 5), and then later again in the third quatrain a sort of limbo is created with that of the womb "I saw six eyes glistening in my womb / I felt you calling to me in the gloom" (lines 11-12) in that he is acquainted with the darkness, yet able to see the light and have feelings. This is also the spectrum of nominalism in that we are unable to understand universal truths and find reality only in the things which we use to describe them. Limbo, the first circle of hell, is where Hegarty resides on this entire album, with the exclusion of the final song which is a sort of crossing over. The disestablishment of stages of life creates a sort of yearning for the listener, as if through music Hegarty is trying to create a time machine to relive or forgive or reassure the moments of life since passed. This is similar to that of Neutral Milk Hotel's timeless album "In an Aeroplane Over the Sea" in which he agonizingly tries to bring back to life the woman for which he has such strong affection: "Where their bodies once moved but don't move anymore And it's so sad to see the world agree That they'd rather see their faces fill with flies All when I'd want to keep white roses in their eyes" (Lines 34-38, "Holland, 1945") Hegarty also makes an allusion to the Christan Master narrative in that of original sin "In the garden with my mother I stole a flower / With my mother and in her power I stole a flower" (lines 10-11/17-18) in a sort of remorse for having taken the apple from the tree, and now having 'infinite knowledge' by that of knowing both good and evil. |
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| Antony and the Johnsons – Another World Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Hegarty's minimalistic selection is profound and the use of language conventions create a solid thematic statement, riddled with romantic irony. The song opens with solemn piano chords and faint yearning moans. Hegarty sings the first stanza alone, and then joined by another voice in the second, with the faint but swelling moans in the third, and the personified 'wind' via flute in the fourth. The joining of voices do not seem conscious of each other - 2:55 the voices do not finish together, one lingers. The swelling moans and the personified wind in the background seem to be disconnected, abstract, but founded in reality in that they are creating dialogue in harmony. To me it suggests a universal truth of fearing or being anxious of the unknown. I wonder if these faint discords are even in the world of our own, as if the are representative of spirits seen in other planes of existence yet bound by the same universal truth. The intentional repetition of the same group of words at the beginning of successful clauses "I need another.../ I need another... I'm gonna miss the... / I'm gonna miss the" (lines 1-2, 67) also known as an anaphora creates the effect of a trance like beckoning. It reminds me that of a child's pessimistic lamenting while coming of age, that regardless of what you tell them they are going to be anxious and fearful for the change that inevitably will come, primarily because they have not experienced or know. This inability to know what is to come from death is spotted throughout the entire album, until that of the final song which provides a great swelling of empathy. This is similar to that of Heart of Darkness with the thematic agony of not knowing, yet contrasting in that it suggests that universal truths do exist. | |
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