submissions
| fun. – Some Nights Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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No idea what this song is about. But I find the line "This is it, boys, this is war" very interesting, as it also appears in 99 Red Balloons by Nena. I don't know if it was an intentional reference to 99 Red Balloons, but I would love this song even more if it was–it's always nice to see people respecting the classics. :) |
submissions
| Mumford & Sons – Hopeless Wanderer Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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Yes, I know what you mean–I've heard both of those, depending on which recording of the song I'm listening to. It wouldn't be the first time they've played a bit fast and loose with their lyrics when performing live. Which is part of the fun of a live performance, of course. I think they're both interesting lines. And just like you, I saw it as being related to loving your ground, which seems to be a theme with M&S. |
submissions
| Josh Ritter – Another New World Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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Ridiculously brilliant song–you could publish the lyrics as a poem and they'd be brilliant on their own, and the music adds immeasurably.
The part that always stands out to me is the line "And pretend that the search for another new world was well worth the burning of mine." We have this old explorer who's clearly been all over the world, and he wants to discover something new, this other new world, but he doesn't realize that doing so will cost him the only thing he loves. And that's something I think a lot of people can relate to: we charge forward, seeking something new and exciting, only to realize after it's too late that this new pursuit requires us to sacrifice things and people we love. And is it worth it? The narrator doesn't think so.
It reminds me a bit of Tennyson's Ulysses: the aged adventurer grows restless and wants to set out again on a new voyage, to "sail beyond the sunset . . . until I die" (which has always bothered me–that he can leave behind his wife and his son so easily). The difference is that the poem ends before the journey begins, and now, listening to Another New World, I wonder if Ulysses, like the unnamed explorer in the song, will ever feel that the search for another new world was not worth the burning of his. |
submissions
| Mumford & Sons – Roll Away Your Stone Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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I would prefer to think of this song as the narrator finding a higher calling, religion or a cause or whatever it is, that fills the void in his life, but just not I was looking at the bio page on the band's website, and it describes this song as "a fabulous hoedown about a man unsuccessfully filling the hole in his soul." So it doesn't seem like it ends on much of an up note. |
submissions
| Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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I interpret this song as the narrator apologizing to the girl he loves, whom he has hurt in some way. He states that he is flawed and imperfect ("My heart was never pure," "Man is a giddy thing" [when the play was written, giddy meant flighty, inconstant, foolish]) but asks her to forgive him ("Serve God, love me and mend") because he's sorry and it wasn't what was in his heart and things will be better ("This is not the end," "Live unbruised, we are friends," "You know me").
The song ends with the narrator extolling the virtues of love, romantic or otherwise: it may seem difficult and painful, but in fact it will make you a better person. It's higher and loftier than us mere mortals ("There is a design, an alignment") and he himself wants to embrace love and see how beautiful it can make life.
As for the religion question, I think most of Mumford and Sons' songs are written with lofty spiritual and philosophical overtones; they're addressing these huge questions that face all of us, but never very specifically and with very few concrete references to any actual religion. So people who want to see religion in their songs find it with very little effort, and people who don't want to see religion there don't find any, and both camps are right to some extent.
Oh, and I think it's "live unbruised," not "lived unbruised," as per Much Ado About Nothing act 5 scene 4. |
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