sort form Submissions:
submissions
Róisín Murphy – Dear Miami Lyrics 16 years ago
I'm not sure there's a person actually being addressed in this song. She's referring to Miami (the city) the entire time. Apparently she's living in a post-apocalyptic Miami where an ice age has overtaken the once sunny city. She says to Miami, "you're the first to go, disappearing under melting snow." Given the southern position of the city, it would make sense that it would be "the first to go" back to back to its former climate. The irony then is that people mourn the return of a tropical climate, especially because today Miami's prominence is due in part to the year-round sun:

Each and everyone
Turn your critical eye
On the burning sun
And try not to cry

The climate change is not only occurrence mentioned. It also appears that an empire which coincided with the ice-age is also collapsing.

We got it all
The empire ever falls
We got all control, untold power to
Do what we wanna do
We got the moves
But there's nothing left to prove
There's only stardust memories
We can make come true

One would expect the fall of an empire and new freedom and power to be greeted with trepidation and perhaps cynicism. However, it appears that the ice-age was a welcomed era and may have been more akin to a winter wonderland than a hostile and cold environment.

One can only assume that the singer was part of a resistance who found great joy and meaning in her purpose. Furthermore, the underground he or she lived in may have been a very unique and perhaps romantic arena. The opening stanza may enlighten this aspect:

Behind these walls
You can be so self-absorbed
Behind those eyes, no disguise
Disguise, no you can't disguise
Behind this fortress of an address
Stuck in the passion void
With a little style full and for a while
But you can't turn back time.

Originally it appears she's anthropomorphizing the city, however these lines may be directed toward somebody. Perhaps the resistance movement was a catalyst for a romance and this opening stanza is indeed directed to lover who's new found power in overtaking the empire has left him jaded and empty. And in this song, the longer longs for the times during the resistance where their romance held more passion.

* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.