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David Dondero – Jackson Crosses Lyrics 11 years ago
this song is so, so beautiful

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mewithoutYou – O, Porcupine Lyrics 12 years ago
"This is all that I've known for certain, that God is love. Even if I have been mistaken on this or that point: God is nevertheless love."

And God is love, and love is real. Beautiful quote, beautiful song.

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The Mountain Goats – Romans 10:9 Lyrics 14 years ago
I absolutely adore this song. It reminds me a bit of mewithoutYou — “if there was no way into God/I would never have lain in this grave of a body/for so long”. That last thing (excuse, almost) that you tell yourself/string yourself together with.

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Destroyer – Blue Eyes Lyrics 14 years ago
I sent a message in a bottle to the press
It said, "Don't be ashamed or disgusted with yourselves"

Until reading the above comments I never thought of this as being directed *at* the press - rather I understood it as the message being given to the press with the idea that they would distribute it. I'm positive that that's not the intended meaning, but, well...

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AJJ – Back Pack Lyrics 14 years ago
Echoing 'heartbreaking'. My mouth is all twisted up listening to this.

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La Dispute – King Park Lyrics 14 years ago
wow. disturbing.

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La Dispute – A Departure Lyrics 14 years ago
Brilliant

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Mimicking Birds – 10 Percent Lyrics 14 years ago
Small thing, but I hear
But the always hungry are feeding bacteria

And I know that it seems impossible, but I'm only using 10 percent

Make them think like me, maybe prevent something from happening

And I know this is impossible and I'm only music in my room

Oh. I've just googled - I never knew they put out an album, I'm going off a 23 track bootleg thing. The lyrics might be/probably are different. :(

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Loudon Wainwright III – Swimming Song Lyrics 14 years ago
To me it's about coping with life. 'I might have drowned/but I held my breath, and I kicked my feet/and I moved my arms around' - life is overwhelming, but we do our best and struggle through it and maybe our swimming improves ever so slightly.

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John Vanderslice – Sunken Union Boat Lyrics 14 years ago
fresh blood comes rushing back to me
I never thought I'd remember all of this oh dear me

I always heard it as:

Fresh flood (as in, of memories) comes rushing back to me
I never thought I'd remember all of this so dear to me

I don't think it's necessary anti-nostalgia; maybe 'it's a trick of the mind' refers to the power of memory/nostalgia rather than the unreliable nature of memory (or maybe it does refer to the latter, idk).

A nastier interpretation that has crossed my mind has 'I grew up there the bottom of the swimming hole'
as referring to something horrible, with the 'fresh flood' meaning suppressed memories resurfacing and it's a trick of the mind' a mantra of denial. It also fits with the title - 'sunken union boat' as something deliberately buried.

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Bright Eyes – Haile Selassie Lyrics 14 years ago
I've always heard it as 'memetic/mimetic memory'. But the tape reference makes sense!

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Bright Eyes – Triple Spiral Lyrics 14 years ago
"How sad it is to know I'm in control"

I took this to mean that he knows everything that happens, he's doing to himself.

Just slightly different to your interpretation.

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The Mountain Goats – The Day the Aliens Came (Hawaiian Feeling) Lyrics 14 years ago
While almost definitely unrelated, to me it seems like the song could almost be written by the central character in 'Confessions of a Crap Artist', who is utterly, unflinchingly convinced that his new friends will come, that his life now is just a necessary biding of time until he's taken away to something better or just different.

I love the almost vicious smile I can sometimes hear behind 'And old, friends, old friends, dear friends/I'm gonna look fantastic'

and the 'Hey Mr Hughes and Mr Vanderslice' at the beginning of the recording always makes me grin.

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A Weather – The Feather Test Lyrics 14 years ago
I'm really curious as to the significance of 'Tonight, I'm letting you drive'. It's in a couple of A weather/A Sweater songs. Hum.

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AJJ – Human Kittens Lyrics 15 years ago
Love this song, in an 'it makes me slightly sick' way. Loss of innocence/growing up is the theme, I guess - contrast the innocence of the kittens eating their siblings with the murder of the kittens later.

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Defiance, Ohio – Grandma Song Lyrics 15 years ago
Nope, my first thought was 9/11 too.

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Defiance, Ohio – Dissimilarity Index Lyrics 15 years ago
D: No comments?

I just want to register my love for this song. Especially now it's winter. ♥

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Meursault – One day this'll all be fields Lyrics 15 years ago
♥

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mr. Gnome – Titor Lyrics 15 years ago
Crazily gorgeous.

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The National – Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks Lyrics 15 years ago
Oh, I thought it was 'string ourselves up for love'.

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The National – Little Faith Lyrics 15 years ago
Now that you mention it, that is what it sounds like.

High Violet is an album full of colours, it seems. :)

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The National – England Lyrics 15 years ago
Weirdly, I'm getting 'Afraid of the heights, spend the night with the city'
which doesn't make much sense considering the rest of the song. :/
I wish the CD had included lyrics.

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The National – Runaway Lyrics 15 years ago
He won't run away, but he's unhappy with the situation, what he perceives is going to end badly - 'What makes you think I enjoy being led to the flood?'.
He justifies not putting up a fight/ arguing about it with her(?) by saying 'we don't bleed when we don't fight'
'I'll go braving everything
With you swallowing the shine of the sun'
He's sticking it out, even though she's taken all the joy out of their relationship.
Which all sort of begs the question, why?

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The National – Bloodbuzz Ohio Lyrics 15 years ago
The 'blood buzz' to me, is that kind of overwhelming feeling you get when you go back home - it's all so familiar, but so different, hugely exciting to be back but also horribly sad.
It's about going back home - he never married (as in, he never found a new place to call home, never fully settled elsewhere) but even so, Ohio's not his home anymore (Ohio don't remember me).
'I still owe money to the money to the money I owe'
All the stuff that was left behind, unresolved?
'The floors are falling out from everybody I know'
How much it's all changed?

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The National – Afraid of Everyone Lyrics 15 years ago
I don't know, mental illness or some sort of crippling anxiety about how the world is today? ('Lay the young blue bodies...')
'With my kid on my shoulders I try
Not to hurt anybody I like'
and 'I defend my family with my orange umbrella' - he's intent on protecting his family from perceived threats, and at the same time scared of what he might do?
Idk, the colour thing is intriguing.

Tennis shoes do sort of make me think of a mental institution, reinforced by the fact that they're 'star spangled' and especially when I look at the line 'I don't have the drugs to sort it out'.

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The National – Anyone's Ghost Lyrics 15 years ago
I think it's sort of dissociation on both character's parts - the girl is dodging the guy and wandering about by herself, but equally he seems like he has spells of emotional distance "you said I came close /
as anyone's come / to live underwater / for more than a month / you said it was not inside my heart, it was." He doesn't want to be her ghost - also, ghost itself implies some sort of non-existence, like he's not really even there - but that's all they've got.



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Okkervil River – Dead Dog Song Lyrics 15 years ago
It sort of reminds me of those poems by Robert Sward, specifically 'Letter to his First Dog'.

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Okkervil River – No Key, No Plan Lyrics 15 years ago
Idk, I always thought this song was about Will Sheff himself
"and then it�s back on the road again with maybe thirteen grand."
This makes me think of touring.
"I�m a rich young sophisticate, I�ve got girls and friends.
I�m doing what I really like and getting paid for it."
Again, he's the singer in a band, doing what he loves and getting paid.
"You�ve never earned your soul. I know, (x 3)
but I�m gonna try, though, I�m gonna try."
The way he sings 'I know'...
He's happy, but unhappy because he thins he doesn't deserve it? Never earned his soul because he has had a relatively easy life/hasn't always done the right thing?
That was my interpretation anyway. :)

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The National Lights – Mess Around Lyrics 16 years ago
Hilarious, I love how on almost every song there's a comment with completely the wrong interpretation, and then another correcting it. But yeah, listening to the music, if I didn't know what the album was about I guess I'd probably be thinking along the same lines as comment #1...or at least hoping that was it.

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Shearwater – Mountain Laurel Lyrics 16 years ago
To me it's about living together through something awful.
Anyway, I love this song, the first verse especially.

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Okkervil River – Red Lyrics 16 years ago
He does say not yet. :/

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The National – Val Jester Lyrics 16 years ago
I always thought this was about meeting his daughter for the first time, after leaving the mother when she was pregnant or something.
"Take your time when you tell her
How she lives in your blood"

"You should've looked after her better
You should've looked after her more"
He should have stuck around and been a parent to her?

"All the most important people in New York are nineteen"
Sounds to me like she's always on his mind, that line repeating again and again.

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The National – Cold Girl Fever Lyrics 16 years ago
Put your spine in your back and your arms in your coat
Don't hold on to me when there's nothing to hold

Aaah, so lovely.
Yes, about breaking up. She's growing distant, he doesn't want the relationship to end.

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Joker's Daughter – Worm's Head Lyrics 16 years ago
Their feathers only grow at night
And metamorphasize in the dark (?)

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Willy Mason – Where the Humans Eat Lyrics 16 years ago
I think it's from the POV of a mother, about her kids?
'You don't belong where the humans eat' and 'you don't belong to me' sounds kind of like what an exasperated parent might say to their kid.

I don't think it's about cats.

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Sparklehorse – Grim Augury Lyrics 16 years ago
There is such a huge disconnect between the way these lyrics read on paper, and the stuff you see when you hear them.

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Panda Bear – Take Pills Lyrics 16 years ago
Sounds like it's being sung in an old cold tunnel with puddles of water in it, and everyone's dancing and singing and echoing - also, the freight-train noise at the end.

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AJJ – Let Us Get Murdered Lyrics 16 years ago
Will always remind me of 'A Matter of Death and Life' by Andrey Kurkov.
'And when you go to bed at night you're a skeleton.
With visions in your head too big to see.'
This. I really like this part, even though I kind-of/don't-completely understand it.
And I love how the last two lines are sung.

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AJJ – Heartilation Lyrics 16 years ago
Pretty self-explanatory. I guess we all feel like this sometimes.

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AJJ – A Song Dedicated to the Memory of Stormy the Rabbit Lyrics 16 years ago
I <3 the alliteration.

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AJJ – Love in the Time of Human Papillomavirus Lyrics 16 years ago
Also my favourite off the new album.
The way I look at it, it's from the pov of a guy with a 'somewhat unsatisfactory' girlfriend, as imp put it. Not a particularly happy relationship (at least not all the time) but one he just puts up with, never blaming her for any of their problems. Kind of a really apathetic relationship, where they stay together just because.
Or on a more positive note, maybe it's about two really unhappy people, staying together because it's slightly better that way, in spite of all the problems they have. (After all, he does say 'Or I'll live alone less happy.')
The last verse kills me dead each time I listen to it.
And I've never thought of Sean as particularly suicidal, just a guy who calls it like he sees it. A lot of AJJ's songs are actually weirdly optimistic.

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A Weather – The Feather Test Lyrics 16 years ago
I think where the ??? are, and a bit before, the lyrics are actually:
'It takes a lot of faith, to know, to know/
That the car will stay firmly on the road.'
But a lovely song and doubly so with the music video.

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AJJ – People II: The Reckoning Lyrics 16 years ago
Parasympathetics =/= fight or flight.
I <3 this song.

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Human Highway – Get Lost Lyrics 16 years ago
0 comments?
It's such a lovely song. Really simple lyrics, but beautiful.
I love the apathy/disconnect it projects.

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The Submarines – You, Me & The Bourgeoisie Lyrics 16 years ago
<3 this song. A little less now that I've read the lyrics, but still - vocals, tune + chorus make up for the rest.

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Cansei de Ser Sexy – Rat is Dead (Rage) Lyrics 16 years ago
I actually think the girl DOESN'T fight back, but someone else does it for her.
'Up the stairs
By the bed
There was a dead man waiting
Waiting for someone to find him out
And bury him deep down the ground
He looked so scared
But not regretful'
To me it says, yeah, abusive boyfried. He's a 'Dead man waiting' once the girls friends find out.
'Waiting for someone to find him out and bury him...' reinforces this.
And 'I know he will never hurt you again' implies certainty on the friends, rather than the girls part, again illustrating that the friend(s) found out and killed him. 'Rat is dead'.
Maybe?

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