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Neko Case – This Tornado Loves You Lyrics	12 years ago
Nope. Lerxst nailed it. No metaphor -- just a tornado in love. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJjsft2gTPg and go to minute 3 to see her explanation.

submissions

Neko Case – This Tornado Loves You Lyrics	12 years ago
Here's the link to the interview with Jian Ghomeshi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJjsft2gTPg. She explains the tornado dream in detail about 3 minutes in.

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Neko Case – This Tornado Loves You Lyrics	12 years ago
Bingo. Glad to hear that she confirmed what I've always thought about this song. Sometimes songs use metaphors to convey a larger meaning, but this one is simply a song about a tornado that's in love. That's it.

submissions

Bowerbirds – Now We Hurry On Lyrics

13 years ago

A beautiful song to end a beautiful album. This seems to me to be a call to enjoy life while we have it, before we "hurry on" (that is, die). Take your time to enjoy nature and take it all in, knowing that we share it with others ("we're not alone"). I'm not sure about the lines about "now we see the trees" instead of the whole forest. Is this a comment about aging making you focus on the fine details instead of trying to grasp the big picture?

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The Mountain Goats – The Autopsy Garland Lyrics

14 years ago

On the words of the chorus, I assume they are the same "fat rich men" -- presumably studio executives like MGM's Louis B. Mayer. The wikipedia article on Judy Garland has this: "Insecure about her appearance, her feelings were compounded by film executives who told her she was unattractive and manipulated her on-screen physical appearance." I wonder if the chorus is about seeing some publicly admired men behave in really cruel and manipulative ways in private.

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PJ Harvey – Written on the Forehead Lyrics

14 years ago

Dinars aren't Lebanese currency (they use Pounds), so Beirut seems unlikely. I'm thinking this is likely Iraq just before/during the "Shock and Awe" bombing raids in 2003. Everyone knows the attacks are coming -- the trenches of burning oil are to create smoke to make it harder to spot targets. In the chaos, some choose to pursue pleasures like the belly dancers and some try to flee, their possessions now worthless.

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PJ Harvey – The Colour of the Earth Lyrics	14 years ago
ANZAC = Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, which likely means this is about the fighting in Gallipoli in World War I. A simple song about a soldier haunted by the memory of losing his friend and being unable to save him or recover his body.

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Villagers – Pieces Lyrics	15 years ago
Great song on a great album. The lines "You just split yourself in two/One for them and one for you" are about the difference between how you see yourself and how you present yourself to others (feels connected to That Day) -- you can only remain in pieces for so long until everything comes apart in chaos, which happens to Conor and all the instruments by the end of the song.

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Villagers – That Day Lyrics

15 years ago

I keep going back and forth about whether this is about unrequited love, with two people who long for each other and yet neither expresses their feelings to the other, or about the unspoken thoughts and fears that are not shared between a couple who seem to be in a healthy relationship. Maybe it's both. The repeated "Can you hear me now?" is strange because it doesn't seem like they are trying to speak -- or maybe they are each "speaking" in their own way and longing for the other to "hear" what they are "saying" in this unspoken way. Beautiful song.

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Villagers – That Day Lyrics	15 years ago
Ha! I'm pretty sure it's "The dust that bears gifts," not "Nudist that bears gifts." But the latter is a better image -- well, depending on the Nudist...

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Belle & Sebastian – Mary Jo Lyrics	15 years ago
It's interesting because "The State I Am" In begins Tigermilk and this song ends the album, so everything came full circle at the end of the album.

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Erin McKeown – (Put The Fun Back In) The Funeral Lyrics

15 years ago

When introducing this song at a concert in May 2010, Erin explained that she wrote this song while on a concert tour in Europe. She was the opening act riding on a tour bus on which she was the only female and the only one not smoking. The sense of choking on bad air in a tightly enclosed place comes out pretty strongly here. I like the witty title, but I have to admit that this is one of my least favorite Erin McKeown songs -- too dirge-like from an artist with so much energy. Still, it's interesting to know where this song came from.

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Joanna Newsom – Does Not Suffice Lyrics

15 years ago

I'm fascinated by how she quotes herself from songs earlier in the album -- like "Of how easy I was not" referring back to "Easy," the "bales" and "burn" pointing back to "No Provenance," and the La-la's at the end quoting the melody from "In California." This feels like a fitting way to end the album, with her stating why she's closing the door on this relationship, even as she regrets it in many ways. And I can't help hearing the "In California" La-la's at the end as a reminder, with all the caveats present in that song ("But when you come and see me, in California, you cross the border of my heart."), about where she can be found if he ever changes his mind.

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Joanna Newsom – No Provenance Lyrics

15 years ago

littlelifegiver definitely has some good points here. I find it interesting that several songs on the first disc refer to being held (Easy, HOOM, Good Intentions Paving Co., and this one), and this one keeps returning to the line "in your arms" as a touchstone. In the narrative arc of HOOM, this feels like the final moment when she seems to be able to convince herself that this relationship can endure, even though there a tons of warning signs. Any ideas on what the Big Return is? I wonder it's the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about because havoc will ensue, but the elephant is still there. This reminds me of the line "we're blessed and sustained by what is not said" in Easy.

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Joanna Newsom – In California Lyrics	15 years ago
I notice that there's a Milk Lake that's about an hour east of Nevada City, CA. And I assume that "Tulgeywood" is a reference to Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky.

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Joanna Newsom – No Provenance Lyrics

15 years ago

Lots of interesting allusions here, but I'm still trying to put the pieces together. Spinning straw into gold is a feature of the folk tale of Rumpelstiltskin, but I see few other parallels between that story and this song. The mentions of the horse seem tied to You and Me, Bess, though when I read about Johnny Appleseed in wikipedia, there are mentions of his kindness to horses and his life-long bachelorhood. I love the oboe and bassoon here and how her voice twists on the line "your 'arrangement' with Fate." And you have to admire the audacity of a songwriter who writes the line "her faultlessly etiolated fishbelly-face" -- "etiolated" = pale from lack of light.

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Joanna Newsom – On A Good Day Lyrics	15 years ago
Really heartbreaking. Coming right after Baby Birch, I can't help assuming that the "right down to what we'd name her" is about plans for having a child that are never realized. Also, I find the final line so sad -- seems like this is a relationship that's ending not because she wants it to. But, since it is over, she is walking away and not turning back.

submissions

Belle & Sebastian – Lord Anthony Lyrics	16 years ago
Though the meaning is probably so obvious to folks in the UK that no one has commented on it, the "lift two fingers in the air" reference might mystify some Americans. It's the UK equivalent of giving someone the finger -- and gives a nice triumphant end to this story.

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