| They Might Be Giants – Unrelated Thing Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| I think this is one of the more sadly insightful songs ever written about human connection. "Please explain the expression on your face/Then I'll know what's beneath it said the man/No you won't". In the end, even if we were to try our hardest to really, actively communicate with someone about their inner selves, we still would have no guarantee that they are being honest with us. Even the direct words of someone you love will always be a distortion of their true thoughts You can't know someone who doesn't want to be known. This song could just just about the frustration of a flighty woman who refuses to engage with the male narrator. But it's such a simple song that you can easily read a lot of subtext into it. This could also be about the last days of an unhealthy relationship, about the woman's need to extricate a toxic lover from her mental headspace. Whether it is just about a normal healthy couple or a dysfunctional couple, I think the song implies that none of us might ever be able to truly know the people who we feel we should know best of all. And if that's the case, how disconnected is the human race as a whole? | |
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