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Imogen Heap – Xizi She Knows Lyrics 13 years ago
for me this song is a worldsong, not about people but about nations. It reminds me of dear englishman by sinead o connor in that way. This might not be at all what imogen meant with it, but i see it as a glorious lovesong from england(/europe?/the west?) to china (/asia?/ the east?), begging it not to change too fast, not to loose all those things that makes it special and that we love about it. I feel its about how wonderful that culture seems to us europeans and how much we adore it the way it is, and that it never needs to change.

I also feel that the song is a gentle warning, maybe about how sometimes cultures take after western culture too much, or is driven to progress too quickly so that it looses something in the process. The song sounds like it urges us to take care of our heritage and our tradition. Once its gone then its gone.

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Regina Spektor – Buildings Lyrics 14 years ago
thats how i interpret that sentance too.

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Regina Spektor – Buildings Lyrics 14 years ago
this is pretty much exactly how i read it.
with all the wonderful things people can do, he tells himself, in technology, medicine, architecture etc. Surely there must be a cure!
surely it must be doable to make her stop drinking! when she wants to stop, and he wants her to stop?
And yet it repeats itself again and again endlessly, till its almost a parody of the original story- so well known you dont even need to tell the details, just 'He was a husband drove time, Home, time, car Oh core' etc.

And she asks for time like it would be a magical solution. Like 'getting time' is what will help. But time in itself fixes nothing and that will keep going whether he 'gives' it or not. I think its hinted that they will keep doing this dance till one of them dies

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Regina Spektor – Après Moi Lyrics 14 years ago
for me this song has always been about marching into war, as a soldier.

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Regina Spektor – Machine Lyrics 14 years ago
or if this song is a part machine, it could refer to her human creator that covets her defences

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Regina Spektor – Machine Lyrics 14 years ago
except its sept-jointed. we're not, we got 15 joints in our hands (16 if you count the wrist) unless im mistaken, but she might just mean one joint per finger

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Regina Spektor – Eet Lyrics 14 years ago
i think this interpretation makes a lot of sense, it all seems to be about unlearning things that were once easy.
as a kid, in the song, you know intuitively that its 'wrong' when your brother wont let you try when it was your turn, as a grown up you find yourself questioning the things you never thought you'd question.

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Tegan and Sara – Like O, Like H Lyrics 14 years ago
o and h has a double meaning too with how it is pronounced, "oh" and "age"

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Ani DiFranco – Your Next Bold Move Lyrics 14 years ago
i feel environmental concerns also lurking behind there- a lot of physical/sickness referances in the song, as everything is infected

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Ani DiFranco – Wish I May Lyrics 14 years ago
kylebank i feel you described it perfectly. For me this is one of anis best songs, but it is intense pain- nothing forgiving nor soft, just pure selfhate, selfloathing and pain. It doesnt gloss over anything, this song hurts almost physically for me.

This is the song for when things couldn't possibly hurt any more than they do. The moments where you feel you cant take it anymore, everything is going to hell and that nothing will ever be well again.
Where i feel like "welcome to" is utterly sad in an apathetic, given up way, this song is sad with momentum, the kind of sad that rips you apart. Its sad and angry and afraid all at the same time, overwhelming you. This is being devostated.

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Laleh – Storebror Lyrics 14 years ago
for me this is both about her worrying and wondering about what the big brother is doing, but its also about their relationship as siblings from they were kids and longing back to that. She wants him back to how he was; not toiling for fancy cars, money and insubstantial things like we see on tv, but rather being present in the moment, with his family and both feet on the ground.

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Kate Nash – Mariella Lyrics 14 years ago
I love Mariella! One thing though: i always find myself wondering what happened before she decided to glue her lips together. Like before the point in time that we meet her. Cause it feels like its an "ive had enough!" moment. I dont know why i feel like its her rebelling, maybe because because Kate almost spits out the one songline line; "so she neverhadtospeakneverhadtospeakneverhadtospeak!" Its not a calm decision in my mind, but rather a little child revolution going on there, like "thats it!". maybe she's sick of trying to fit in and saying all wrong things, and she just decides she'll rather set herself properly apart so they'll leave her alone :)

I feel like its a lot about wanting to not conform to whats expected. What she wants for herself is so different than what everyone else wants, and yet she has the courage to follow what she feels is right, screw the consequences. When the surroundings tries to force her she just decides that she wont be a part of that group anymore. And it's lonely and alienating- but also strong and self sufficient- and most of all shes happy that way :)

Sidenote: this song always gives me assosiations to a show i saw about children that feel born with the wrong gender. Naturally I know this is NOT intended by Kate, of course, (please dont take it as that). It just has some paralells; how the other girls and the teachers interprets it, everyone going out of their wits trying to wrap their head around it, and how the mother cries for hours over the 'loss' of her 'perfect little girl'.

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Amanda Palmer – Astronaut: A Short History of Nearly Nothing Lyrics 15 years ago
oh that fits with how ive been hearing it

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Amanda Palmer – Runs in the Family Lyrics 15 years ago
for some reason "we tend to bruise easily" and then "bad in the blood" always makes me assosiate heomphilia

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Amanda Palmer – Runs in the Family Lyrics 15 years ago
grr.. meant to say "i agree" not "im agree" .. sorry i just H A D to correct that

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Amanda Palmer – Runs in the Family Lyrics 15 years ago
"I seriously think people are reading too deeply into this."
im agree, but then again i think that with a lot of the songinterpretations i read.

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Amanda Palmer – Runs in the Family Lyrics 15 years ago
this might be a normal family in a fucked up dysfunctional way, you know one of those intrusive, extreme, pushy and overpowering ones? Might even have the best intentions but destined to toss you around like a ragdoll, they decide it all, they know best, they will meddle non-stop in any way they see fit.
Then you have a confused child, a little bit emotionally unstable, doesnt know how they feel, who they are, and so easily influenced by them, theyre absolutely overwhelming her and having all power.

"it runs in the family, this family that carries me
to such great lengths to open my legs
up to anyone who’ll have me
it runs in the family, i come by it honestly
do what you want ‘cause who knows it might fill me up"

This part makes me think of the parents that are so desperate to see their girl married, that they're practically throwing her at any bachlor in sight; it doesnt even matter who it is as long as they'll have her and marry her. And she doesn't have much more say in this than if she were a goat they were selling.

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Ani DiFranco – O.K. Lyrics 15 years ago
(reposted at the right place)
i feel its about trying to resist the temptation (maybe even sexually) of a person that you have this magnetic attraction to. Shes practically begging them for mercy saying im weak for you, please dont offer me anythin gor i will not have the willpower to say no.

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Ani DiFranco – O.K. Lyrics 15 years ago
ops meant to post that not as a reply to your comment but to the lyrics, sorry

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Ani DiFranco – O.K. Lyrics 15 years ago
i feel its about trying to resist the temptation (maybe even sexually) of a person that you have this magnetic attraction to. Shes practically begging them for mercy saying im weak for you, please dont offer me anythin gor i will not have the willpower to say no.

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Ani DiFranco – Half-Assed Lyrics 15 years ago
i feel this is a comment on feeling like nothing is making you feel alive, wanting for even 1 brief moment to feel something grab you.

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Regina Spektor – Scarecrow and Fungus Lyrics 15 years ago
Im kinda drawn to the line "solder two wires together", welding metal together making 1 out of what was before 2 seperate pieces. I think she means forming a tight relationship with someone.
When considering becoming "one" with this other, this "brother", she decides she'll leave that to somebody else, its not gonna happen.
Cause this "brother" or person, whoever he is, he doesnt need anything or anyone, he's "got enough money to buy a new father", he's got this he's got that. I feel its 2 persons that neither like eachother or need eachother very much, but that meets this pressure to "bond". Any thoughts?

The chorus i see as two made up characters, theyre surreal characters; ugly, almost comical/rediculous, almost as if Regina put a joke within the song. These 2 goofballs named Fungus and Scarecrow ran through a stoplight, but noone was hurt - naturally- cause it turns out, in the last line, they were both on foot. Not like they can run over someone when theyre walking :) It might be that it has a deeper meaning, i dont know; when the speed/intencity is too low there is no danger with impact --> if nobody gives a shit then nobody gets hurt.

Im not sure i view the whole song as 1 coherent story, maybe its a lil of this a lil of that. I personally feel a lot of this is playing, play with words and assosiations and joking around to a very playful and childlike melody. Like in childrens rhymes, or dr. Seuss, having fun with words and rhymes and rythms. Breaking our expectations to produce surprise, having fun with us as listners and playing with us. So i dont think i'll search for destinct meanings there, just enjoy the images that float to the surface when im listning to it :)

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Massive Attack – Paradise Circus Lyrics 15 years ago
"Love is like a sin, my love,
For the ones that feel it the most
Look at her with her eyes like a flame
She will love you like a fly will never love you again"

the ones that feel love the most, they does so in an allconsuming way with no regards for anything else; almost sick, almost past evil and good, devouring them from the inside, their eyes flaming.

"Oh well, the devil makes us sin
But we like it when we're spinning in his grip"

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Regina Spektor – Samson Lyrics 15 years ago
isnt that about the stars just being old light?

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Regina Spektor – Laughing With Lyrics 15 years ago
i think the song is about those moments in life where existential questions suddenly reach us and death and loss is staring us right in the face. Then on the other moments, the mundane and easy moments we can afford ourself to laugh about those matters. But it just takes a split second and suddenly everything is at risk and we're feeling our own mortality and how tiny we are.

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Regina Spektor – Oedipus Lyrics 15 years ago
for me this song is bout the relationship between a mother and a son. Me i take it quite literally as the mother being a queen and this all happening in tht kinda almost mythical surroundings :)
The main characters suffers an intense, almost physical longing for his mother, missing her touch, emotional closeness, desperately needing any kind of contact with her. Almost the way an infant needs their mother. (this is where i assosiate the oedipus metaphore, i dont feel like it goes any further than that).
He is lonely, special to none, left to his own devices and basically growing up in a loveless environment. And in his universe there is only his mother and his dreams of her, only able to view her from afar.

The mother on her side is too damaged to be able to stand any contact with him without feeling extremely conflicting emotions about it. To me it feels like she is deeply unhappy. Sounds like she is mostly the breeding-cow of the king, not sure the sex has been of her free will either (thats probably just my impression) and as a result she resents her son, his bare excistance reminds her of the situation she is stuck in and brings up only bad emotions, so she cannot be strong enough to be close to him.

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Ani DiFranco – Names and Dates and Times Lyrics 15 years ago
in the live version (well several i heard) she sometimes sings a different last verse. This might be old news to a lot of you, but for those that are curious this is what she sings on several concerts:

i'm big on your face
yeah it's big in my mind
i remember so clearly
that place, that time..
that place, that time

yes, i talk too much
i laugh too long
and that is how i miss you when you're gone
i talk too much
and i laugh too long
babe that is how i miss you when youre gone

Just wanted to add that, cause its some of my favorite parts in this lyrics, i actually prefer her live version of this songtext to the one thats stated everywhere

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Laleh – Kom Tilda Lyrics 15 years ago
come lets move Tilda, come lets move away from here
we don't need to stay here any longer
come, lets move, Tilda, what would we be doing here?
partying, shopping, drinking and consuming?
no, let us move, Tilda
move away from here
to a place with more people like us
come lets move Tilda
noone would miss us anyway
lets just go, lets not think about it
no lets just go, lets not think about it

cause they are pretty we are ugly
theyre happy we are grumphy
theyre content, we want more
oh i wish there were more like us
oh how i wish that we were more
oh how i wish that we were more

but me and Tilda packed our bags to go and
then we rode our bikes towards the trainstation
and we threw away our bikes
and we hopped on a train
and hid ourselves under the table in the restaurantcart
so the ticketseller did not see us
lucky for Tilda and for me
SJ is so pricy to travel with,
and the endstation Helsingborg
took a bus towards Trelleborg
there are boats there one can travel with
and there are boats there one can travel with

cause they are pretty we are ugly
theyre happy we are grumphy
theyre content, we want more
oh i wish there were more like us
oh how i wish that we were more
oh how i wish that we were more

there we stood on the docks and we looked on eachother
then we turned towards the big ocean
all the boats around us became silent, nothing was heard
we only heard the thoughts that wondered
if there ever would be a place for me and Tilda
and we both just wondered, she took my hand and
we both closed our eyes
the waves were calling, we jumped into the water
we both jumped, into the water, we both jumped
down into the water, we both jumped

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Laleh – Storebror Lyrics 15 years ago
attemt on a translation of the lyrics

laleh - bigbrother

A desperate attemt,
it will take a heros courage,
who of us is brave enough
to help my bigbrother,
bigbrother, my dear bigbrother
he has an eye for that (a knack for),
his mind searches lucky clovers,
staying out all night,
with guys that he call his brothers
oh dear lord, dear bigbrother

always something going on, i have no idea what its all about,
staying out all night, god knows what hes doing
maybe something illegal or maybe he is just extremely social?

My brother dreams of the life,
they show him on tv,
he always wants to be like them
i want him as he is, my brother,
dear bigbrother,
brother, are you going out into the night?
come, lets bond in friendship,
come, stay here with me,
i want to be with you,
bigbrother, dear bigbrother

Come, stay at home, here with mother
we can talk to eachother,
drink tea and have cookies,
come lets remenisque, lets remember
do you have the same dreams now?
about becoming kung-fu
master, and president?
brother, tell me what has happened
my brother, dear bigbrother

always something going on, i have no idea what its all about,
staying out all night, god knows what hes doing,
maybe something illegal or maybe he is just extremely social?

my brother picked me up this morning
in his new, shiny Porsche
dear brother wouldn't answer
if it was bought with stolen money
it could happen
but he took me to an office
it turnes out that bigbrother
has started a little business
everything right as rain
and the nights he'd stayed away
he had been there, working

everything turned out very well,
but this was not how it was with brother,
dear bigbrother

always something going on, i have no idea what its all about,
staying out all night, god knows what hes doing,
maybe something illegal or maybe he is just extremely social?

he who lives fancy and well leaves no trace
he who lives fancy and well leaves no trace
he flies high between all particles and forgets all years
he flies high between all particles and forgets all years
but he whos left deep traces in the mud every day
has hardened his days who has felt every last breath
he doesnt live for a future
but for today

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Laleh – Det är vi som bestämmer Lyrics 15 years ago
Doing an attempt at a translation:

It had been a long time since we'd met,
it must have been a year,
time flows by,
great people have no time.
and here you are in the markedsquare,
and running around in between all traffic and
screaming, screaming
and you scream
there is more, there is more..
and you scream

who has decieved all the children?
this here is not all there is
this is not all there is
there is more
there is more
it was us that made the calls
it's us who makes the calls
its us that..


and what has happened to our missus
the one noone can bare understand
the one everyone yelled at on our farm
she asked to many hard questions
but if thats what she believes in
then thats what I'll believe in,
that yet there is time

it's us who makes the calls
it's us who makes the calls
it's us who makes the calls
its us that..

who has decieved all the children?
this here is not all there is
this is not all there is
there is more, there is more
there is..

This is not all there is,
there is more, there is more,
there is more, there is more
Cause it's us who makes the calls
its us that.. x8
it's us who makes the calls..

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Ani DiFranco – Hypnotized Lyrics 15 years ago
i feel this song is to be taken quite literally too, i feel its a long describtion of an encounter with someone that she meets as a stranger visiting a foreign country.

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Ani DiFranco – Fire Door Lyrics 15 years ago
hm come to think of it ive always taken the first part quite literarilly, which i dont mind- i think its a strong scene shes describing even if you dont take it as a metaphore. Her walking in on her lover kissing someone else, complete with her walking out of there split seconds later into the cold, harsh reality; no intention of ever taking the cheating partner back and aknowledging the definity of the loss (where your hands were missing).

Ive interpreted the rest of the song as thoughts, observations and flashbacks walking away, trying to digest what she just saw (something's been rearranged). In the end of the song she is regretfully missing what she has lost: the possibility of making up (substituting the conclusion of confrontation with a kiss) and the leap of faith that she will no longer take, thinking she has a future with this person (walking up to the edge and jumping in like i could taste the future on your skin)

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Ani DiFranco – Dilate Lyrics 15 years ago
The basic feeling for me in this song is apathy /resentment.

Contentwise, i dont know. Ive always felt like this song is also a comment about being on tour or moving around endlessly, and that apathy that comes with it. Where you kinda dont care anymore where you are, it removes that sense of being safely grounded and attatched somewhere. It doesnt matter where you are and what you do cause noone here knows you anyway. The constant moving distorts time and place, and this feelng is magnified because she's in bed half asleep or just woken up and disoriented. It all melds together, the different towns and hotels, to where it holds no more meaning. Must surely feel very bizarre and surreal sometimes.

So maybe the only constant in her life is this very dysfunctional relationship? Cause the song is definitely directed at someone, she clearly states that in the lyrics ("every song has a you.."), who she is emotionally connected with. Painful/ambigous feelings to this person; shes kinda floating in between wanting to fight for it and wanting to give up, in between being painfully attatched or resentfully not giving a damn.

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Ani DiFranco – Second Intermission Lyrics 15 years ago
i think theres a description about a phase in her life, her puberty and that in-between insecure feeling, comparing it to an intermission on a theater.

Or maybe shes comparing both to something that is affecting her now. Maybe someone being too close for comfort ("stroll past i realize do not enter and touch me at my epicenter") which is reminding her of her insecureties and feelings of being bare and vunerable when she was a teenager?
Its about being alienated and out of place, in herself and with the surroundings i think.
And the narrator holds a distance to it all, almost ironically discribing it all.

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Ani DiFranco – Studying Stones Lyrics 15 years ago
on a gut level i realy feel this song is directed at someone, like mickzzzz says. She has to numb herself from feeling towards what person and this is her way of coping.

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