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Linkin Park – Iridescent Lyrics 14 years ago
It's weird, I think the song has a much more ubiquitous meaning than just nuclear war. It could certainly be interpreted as someone witnessing a nuclear explosion, or even just a missile strike or bombing run or something. But I feel like it could describe many other situations, especially with the "remember all the sadness and frustration/and let it go" in the chorus.

I think that still keeping in line with the rest of the album, it could simply be about letting go of some pressure, kind of like Robot Boy in the album, and it could be taken as breaking away from pressures put on society. When I listen to this song, I think about a period of calm in the storm:

"And in a burst of light that blinded every angel
As if the sky had blown the heavens into stone
You felt the gravity of tempered grace
Falling into empty space"

I think especially about the myriad of issues that we face today; while some people may panic, and others may just not care. But whoever may be described in the song looks through the issue and becomes enlightened, acting past the worry and sadness, and feeling pure and free.

Or at least that's what I think of.

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Junkie XL – Cities In Dust Lyrics 15 years ago
I swear, the beginning of this song makes me instantly think of Mount Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The second verse gets kind of weird with that idea though. It'd be an odd topic to discuss for the music, but awesome in the way that it's catchy to the layman but has an interesting story behind it

Love this song :D

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Sum 41 – Pull The Curtain Lyrics 15 years ago
A bit late adding my thought in, and fergality's already solved the mystery of what it's written about, but here goes.

Honestly, all I can get out of this song is an execution. To me, it all fits towards it. I love this CD so much that I've begun to write a book loosely around my interpretation of all these songs, and one of the events is an execution, around the same point of the book as Pull the Curtain is in the album.

"(Where'd I go wrong?)
Pull the curtain, begin
Bear a noise, wearing thin now
It's wearing thin now"

Look at this, and I see that the narrator is asking himself where he went wrong in his life, why he did whatever he did to deserve his punishment. Pulling the curtain is the literal pulling of the curtain to begin the execution, and the stark reality of his situation is setting in, he realizes that everything's real and there's nobody's left to blame but himself.

"(Where'd I go wrong?)
Close my eyes, realize
I've become the victimized now
Desensitized now"

So here, the narrator is just saying that while he was one the person doing terrible things, now he is the victim of someone else's, literally the victim. And through everything he's done, once again the burden of reality is coming down and he comes to grips with his situation.

"The one and only day has come
I'll pay for all the bad things I've done"

Literally, the day that he pays for his crimes has come, and he's going to die.

"(Where'd I go wrong?)
Something's wrong because I find the glamour
In the dark side, In the dark side
(Where'd I go wrong?)
Cheap regrets, can't forget
Falling victim to the debt still,
Unpaid in my mind"

He's now deeply thinking about his actions and the results of them. He's done very dark deeds, and those actions have made a permanent stain on his mind and soul.

"It's gonna take me, you don't know tragedy
I've been to hell and back, can ya tell it?
Close my eyes and lay me down to sleep
I fear the worst might be the urgence to explode
And my time is up so..."

At this point, he is just about to go. He realizes his own humanity, and is both angry at himself, understanding that he is evil enough to go to hell. Yet, he understands what he's done, and accepts that he deserves to die, whether it's the fair and just thing to do, or just to put him out of his torturous misery and guilt that he has to live with.

"The living dead awake, the horror show begins
So pull the curtains over me
(Bring on the panic
The uncontrolling manic
It's a free for all com memo
Every last word) (Well, hey hey hey hey)

Suffocate the dreams in my mind
(Well I can't stop believing)
Drown the thoughts that have me confined
(This life is hard to begin)
Good as dreams as black as the night
No one told me end is a lie
Suffocate the dreams in my mind
Drown the thoughts that have me confined
Good as dreams as black as the night
No one told me end is a lie"

Here, he's experiencing death (which I think is fitting, as it's the loudest and most intense part of the song.) In the end, he's just saying bring it on. He's reconciled with fate, and feels a deep emotion just wanting to get his life over with. Perhaps he's decided that he deserves it, or perhaps he's realized that he doesn't want to live with himself. Or, it's possible that he simply understands that there's nothing he can do for himself anymore.

"Now we're gone, do you still feel
the same? Well now, can't you see?
I need help to stop me from myself
Well can't you help me now?"

This is just a little piece of commentary at the end of it all, saying that an eye for an eye is perhaps not the best ways to do things (do you still feel the same?) Saying that there is no real closure just from killing a murderer, and it just spreads around the grief. Instead, people need to be fixing the problem by helping others and preventing this in the first place, or taking pity on them.

So... is this a valid opinion as well?


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