| Boat – Landlocked Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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Really like how this song, released on Boat's album Dress Like Your Idols, features John Roderick of the Long Winters, one of my favorite bands. Also cool that Boat parodies a version of the Long Winters' album cover When I Pretend to Fall on the cover of Dress Like Your Idols. Also a great song about feeling useless -- I appreciate the boat pun, Boat. Landlocked indeed. |
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| Boat – Clasically Trained Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| I think it's a song from the point of view of a musician who is defending themselves against a "fine artist" who doesn't think they truly know the challenges associated with making art, and that their art doesn't compare to the more "classically trained" pursuits of the artist. The musician proceeds to take the artist down a peg. | |
| Vampire Weekend – Ya Hey Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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It's about God. "Ya Hey" is a play on "Yahweh," the name sometime attributed to the one true Lord. Not supposed to be spoken, either, so I suppose the approximation is a play on that too. When Moses asked God His name in the bible, he only replied "I am that I am." Interesting flip to the script of the old question "If God really loves us, why do terrible things happen?" Ezra seems to be asking "How can God love such terrible things?" |
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| Harlem Shakes – Strictly Game Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| I thought of "bitters"-- i.e. a kind of alcohol. More of a call to drink your problems away, if anything else. I can imagine a homeless guy (milk crate king) spewing fire and brimstone, encouraging everyone to get drunk because God has it out for us. | |
| David Bazan – Eating Paper Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| I think the second line is, "To see while you have been leaving me BE" | |
| Band of Horses – Our Swords Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Roman soldiers, when they knew they had been defeated in battle but hadn't yet been killed, would fall on their own swords. It was an act that admitted defeat but also salvaged their diginity and honor. The lyrics therefore seem to paint a story of someone that has made a very large mistake and upset a good deal of people. Basically, they've been socially defeated. People "want to wring [his or her] neck", and are "stomping on [his or her] name". So this person should be caounted on to "fall on their sword," so to speak. Whatever that means in a social context. Resignation? Self-destrcution? Apology? Who knows? |
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| The Mountain Goats – Genesis 3:23 Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I think it's more like he's breaking the lock as a big "Screw You" to the Big Man Upsairs. If the character in this song is/resembles the mental state of Adam post-banishment, then it makes sense that he wouldn't necessarily care for locks on garden gates. It's a way of saying, "I'll be more welcoming and understanding than You." |
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| Neutral Milk Hotel – Little Birds Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I don't think it's a mistake. The speaker starts "beating" his wings, i.e. like a bird. This continues the bird metaphor. Since the speaker is at this point made up of thousands of little birds, when the father grabs him, all the little birds start thrashing and beating their wings like birds are prone to when grabbed forcibly. Of course, the term "beating" used in this way still contains its residual meaning of abuse, and leads one into beleiving that the father is going to beat his son, so it works on multiple levels. |
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| The Postal Service – Nothing Better Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Sorry, I forgot to mention yet another layer to the lyric. Really, if you unpack the line, it does have merit and weight. While I offered one interpretation above, another could simply be that the male speaker here is introducing error via a Freudian Slip. While he means, he knows, it's the third period he's talking about...his subconscious is so railed against it that it causes him to speak "quarter" instead, showing just how deep the desperation goes. The "time to make it right" is just a figment of the imagination, a slip of the tongue. Once again, brilliant on Ben's part, but just so out of left field. You don't really see these literary techniques employed in consistent fashion in his songwriting, and juxtaposed against the Postal Service's overall lyrical simplicity, it provokes a moment of annoyance rather than an "ah-hah!" moment. |
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| The Postal Service – Nothing Better Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Yes and no. From one perspective, I agree with you. I've never particularly appreciated this line due to its overall obscurity. Regardless of the sport, from a straightforward, surface-deep look at the lyrics, this line just doesn't make sense, precisely for the reasons you stated. But the two-speaker call-response set-up of this song forces us to acknowledge that these are two particular characters filtering their emotions through their own interpretive lenses; their own psychologies. For this man, it's not over. So why would he equate it to anything in the 4th quarter? A time for endings? He instead insists, to his audience, to himself, that it's only the third quarter. A slight admittance that things have begun their decent into completion/destruction, but not wholesale resignation. In this scenario, even if she does manage to get by him, he still has time to make it right. It won't be a buzzer-beater. I can understand what Ben is going for here, and saying "third quarter" is really the only way to elicit all of that. But shit, the line is just too damn clunky. L'art pour l'art. For shame, Gibbard. |
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| The Postal Service – Nothing Better Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Haha Nice interpretation, Spearemint. |
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| Brand New – Coca-Cola Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I thought of that originally, but the revolutionary war myth is "one if by LAND, two if by sea" They didn't have aerial warfare in the 1770's if you can believe it. I still think this reference is what BN is trying to elicit, though: A: One if by land, two if by sea... B: Yes, but what if it's by air? A: Well then, I don't want to know. My interpretation of the song is that many things have changed over time, and changed for the worse. So much so that something like love has become an instrument of war, death and strife, rather than an aegis from all these things. This message is embedded in the narrative of a love story between "dead duck" and "hound dog." Great use of symbols and references here: the traditional literary symbol of feminine beauty is the swan, but now she's just a "dead duck," and the male is correctly noted as Elivis' "hound dog." BN has basically defiled that "swan" image by juxtaposing it with the more modern male "hound dog," transforming love into no more than a hunt, which is often how it is referred to nowadays. This reflects the change theme quite nicely. I have more to say but I should really get back to work. |
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| Brand New – Coca-Cola Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| The demo version of this song (Demo 03) has different lyrics than the studio version (aloC-acoC), whose lyrics are listed here. The demo version, alternatively dubbed "Brothers," is what you're looking for. If you listen to that song, I think you'll be less confused. | |
| Plants and Animals – Bye Bye Bye Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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The lyrics of this song remind me of the film Dark City. If you haven't seen it, the film's plot consists of a society of people monitored by an alien race that has harnessed the ability to physically and psychologically rearrange the city and its inhabitants every night. At midnight, the aliens stop time, emerge from out of the shadows and swap different fabricated sets of memories between the citizens. The aliens have created these memory sets to create certain types of people...essentially, "programs" to precipitate different human beings: successful entrepreneurs, racists, murders, happy couples, etc. Ultimately, their goal is to see if anyone will act against the "programs" and exhibit free will. The protagonist of the film is a man who "wakes up too soon" during one of these injection/rearranging processes and tries to get to the bottom of the alien occupation. Completely off the mark, I know, but I think of it nevertheless. |
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| Born Ruffians – Hummingbird Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I don't really see the VPW comparisons -- although BR and VPW employ many of the same musical techniques (call and response, scalar riffs, "perfectly off-pitch" harmonies) that doesn't mean they sound alike. If anything those are just trappings of the indie-pop genre, and both wield them in a signature way: BR certainly have a "dirtier" sound, much more down-to-earth and stripped of pretension. No mentions of middle-eastern apparel or obscure baseball players here--just pure, focused lyrics. Also, the instrumentation is not nearly as eclectically effete as VPW -- which I like. Besides, I think the entire VPW lineup would blush if they ever uttered the lyric "You're running down my thigh". This song kicks it. |
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| Devendra Banhart – Little Boys Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Something that has only been mentioned thusfar in a cursory fashion is the overall surprise of the second part of this song due to the musical genre that DB is employing here. Motown as a musical genre has always concerned itself with love as a core thematic tenant, but that love has always been a heterosexually coded one, where the "man-crooner" spills his pained heart out to the (feminine) object of his affection or any listening bystander in the hopes of turning things around or at least getting a bit of sympathy/empathy. It's utterly brilliant what Devendra does here by lulling you into that tradition and then smashing it apart in one of the most hilarious and disturbing fashions possible. Great song with a lot of depth; musically, psychologically, lyrically...a lot of defiance and flouting of all kinds of "traditional decency" here. |
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| Okkervil River – A Stone Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| umm...it's called songmeanings.net? | |
| Vampire Weekend – Horchata Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Looking at the lyrics again, I'm inclined to agree that there is a death involved here. It might not have been a murder (although I can't rule it out--maybe someone else can shed some light?) but the lyrics definitely do suggest a death or disappearance. The tensing of the lyrics--all the "you'd"s--and the last verse, along with all the references to body parts make it seem like someone's dead and no longer possesses the "lips and teeth to ask how my day went". Only thing I'm hung up on is if the "you" in the song refers to the same "you" throughout, or if it jumps around. Same with "December". Any ideas? |
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| Vampire Weekend – Horchata Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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According to the bastion of knowledge that is Wikipedia, horchata is a drink of Spanish or Valencian origin that is traditionally "served ice cold as a natural refreshment in the summer." This little bit of knowledge, reinforced by the rest of the verses that the beverage is featured in, suggests that the speaker is in a warm climate (pincher crabs, reluctance to wear a balaclava, "winter's cold is 2 much 2 handle, et al.)The speaker seems to be running away from something/someone in a colder realm. The "murder" interpretation is interesting -- especially with the last line "you understood so you shouldn't have fought it." Not sure if that's what VPW is going for, but it makes for a chilling listen. |
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