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MGMT – Alien Days Lyrics 12 years ago
This may be a very literal translation so I look forward to hearing other fans interpretations. This song is a really a poem. An inner voice is speaking to his/herself. The song is a moment of self-reflection and thinking.

Sometimes the windows combine with the seams
In a way
That twitches on
A peak at the place
Where the spirit was slain

The song begins with the speaker trying and failing to fall asleep. In the darkness of the room, the speaker cannot see where the windows begin and the walls start. Staring off into space, the speaker's thoughts turn to a crushing memory or experience in their life.

Hey!
One foot leads to another
Nights for sleep, blue curtains, covers
Sequins in the eyes
That’s a fine time to dine
Divine who’s circling
Feeding the cards to the midwives
Love those alien days
The nonstop alien days
Ooh, the alien days

The speaker gets out of bed, restlessly walks around their home, and eats a midnight snack? I'm not too sure how about these lines, but this is a beautiful verse.

Must’ve skipped the ship and joined the team
For a ride
A couple hours to learn the controls
And commandeer both my eyes

The speaker feels they missed an opportunity and joined the team. The team being a symbol for graduating from college and getting a stable yet unfulfilling career.

Hey!
Be quick dear, times are uncertain
One month crawling, next year blur
Decades in the drain
Monograms on the brain


Act fast. Life does not wait for you. The daily grind of the 9-5 cycle are "decades in the drain" that leave "monograms on the brain". A better way of showing the relationship between work and conspicuous consumption. The ubiquity of logos, brands and advertisements and how they have become ingrained into our collective consciousness.

Decide what’s working
And what’s moved on to the last phase
The floodgate alien days
I love those alien days
Ooh, the alien days

The speaker remembers to accept the challenge of being more conscious of their emotional intelligence and how to improve that by making positive changes in ones life. Those positive changes don't happen overnight, and doing so is often a difficult, anxiety-ridden process. This process overwhelms the speaker yet he/she appears to be at peace with those thoughts. Possibly because the speaker is now at a place of total self-acceptance and is no longer holding regret in their heart. There is nostalgia for the alien days when life felt like it was closing in on the speaker.

When the peels are down
It feels like traveling in style
You don’t need wings to hover
Forty ton stones for a mile
And in the summer, virgin visions
Mindless humming
Numbers can’t decide
If the day’s supposed to smile

I can't decipher much from these lines. The last two is about pleasant weather being irrelevant to one's outlook on life.

Today we find infinite ways it could be
Any worse
It’s a blessing and it’s also a curse
Those days have taught me everything I know
How to catch a feeling
And when to let it go

The speaker laments how having socio-economic privilege makes one feel guilty for discussing problems aren't as severe or life-threatening as those in more dire circumstances. While you should be thankful for living a comfortable, sheltered life, there's no end to the idea that your life "could be worse" because the chain of human misery is endless and using that cliché to help you feel better is another example of exercising your privilege.

The days of frustration and anxiety have shaped the speaker into who they are now: a wiser, hopeful soul The speaker learned to accept loss while looking for more things to gain and share.

How all the scheming, soulless creatures
Can’t find dreamer’s honey in the hive
If it’s right beneath their nose

The speaker sees the limitations of the inherent cynicism in the modern condition. We all have talents, hopes, illusions and dreams yet we never rise to become our higher selves.

And when the light is new
The sky shows trembling cartoons
You don’t need smoke to cover
Most of the world in a gloom
But here comes racer number 7
Watch my fingers
Ripping out the lines

If it looks like we could lose
If it looks like we could lose
If it looks like we could lose
If it looks like we could lose

..These are the most exciting lines in the song mainly because I have no idea what they could mean. I look forward other people's thoughts on the end of the song. I'm just soaking up the energy I feel from this song. These guys keep getting better.

submissions
Little Dragon – Looking Glass Lyrics 13 years ago
This song is about a painful breakup written almost like a memory.
In the opening verse, Yukimi remembers how she fell madly in love; how it fell apart despite her and her partner's best efforts. There's nothing they could do, it was natural to let the relationship die. "I watch it bleed/I let it be."

On the surface, the chorus is Yukimi shattered a mirror because she was angry at her ex/distraught over her ex/went through a shitty break-up with her ex. The result of the break-up was a frigid emotional detachment, or she spent an entire summer depressed and lonely.

The second verse is beautiful. "The moon, the dust, the dreams, the rust." Everything that went into the relationship, from the moment they met until the day she was over him "are all shattered now." Even the bitterness that almost washed over the chorus is destroyed. She has reached closure by letting those feelings pass and dance. Referring back how her ex made her summer pass, Yukimi sings an exquisite metaphor about the nonlinear nature of time and how the experiences we engage in burn with cosmic intensity; as if our experiences with love immortalize us, yet are not unique in any particular way. That's the way I feel about stars. Everyone reading this will be dead before the light of distant burning balls of gas reaches Earth. They are eternal in the sense that we won't live to see them die. At the same time, on a clear night, how can you tell the stars apart from each other? So many of them are similar looking, and we humans share similar feelings.

In the end, the song feels like a cathartic experience for the singer and the audience. Definitely one of the most danceable break-up songs ever.

submissions
The Growlers – Feeling Good Lyrics 13 years ago
I think after Brooks says, You'll take anything/ If you don't have to buy it, he says You have no age/And phones for friends.

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