| The Strokes – Reptilia Lyrics | 1 year ago |
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@cjota I don't think it is written to be interpreted as rape, at all. I think those interpretations are just the result of it being a little tricky to tell who is talking in certain parts of the song. It seems to me that Julian is painting the gf and bf as a bad fit and contrasting their personalities. The girl is the life of the party and the center of attention. Julian is the "sleepy" one who is being a downer. So his girlfriend gives him some drugs and tells him to go off, so she can have fun her way. |
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| The Strokes – Reptilia Lyrics | 1 year ago |
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I think it's about a man finally finding the courage to break up with his gf at a party. In the first verse, the couple arrive at a party together. The gf becomes the center of attention in some group conversation and the bf makes a sarcastic comment about it. The gf tells the bf he's being a buzzkill, gives him drugs or a drink to try to perk him up and tells him to go off somewhere else at the party so she can continue talking with her friends. When he's off by himself at the party, the bf enters into a drug or alcohol fueled state where he can't stop thinking about all the problems he has with the relationship. Many lines in the song imply that he has felt the relationship is not right for him for a while. In his heightened state, things boil over and he decides that he will finally end the relationship and tell the girl all the problems he has with her at that moment ("the wait is over, I'm now taking over"). The bf tracks the gf down at the party and unleashes his feelings on her. However, as he is going on this meaningful, angry rant and breaking up with her, she is just standing in front of a mirror fixing her hair, only worried about her own appearance and impressing others. After he's done, she hasn't heard a word he's said. The gf recognizes the bf is angry, but doesn't care why and just assumes it was because he couldn't find her. |
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| Bayside – Killing Time Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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It means he's being too complacent in terms of what he wants. He won't be truly happy until he stops accepting things the way they are just because they're "ok" and begins to actively pursue the change that he really wants. It mimics the sentiment in other lines in the song, like "Hope for the best, but okay with anything" and "can a person make a difference if he never makes a sound." He is realizing if he keeps "waiting for his moment to come," he will always be stuck at just "halfway to happy." |
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| Coasta – Young Blood Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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The singer Jamey is the brother of Jesse from Brand New and this song is about not following in his brother's footsteps to feed off his fame. The title references the fact that he's the younger sibling. The lyrics focus on how he wants to make a name for himself on his own. "Hey hey, they got you on a little roll. Flying by, you're running through the tolls. Short trip, now the top is blowing off. Long fall once yourself's been lost." Coasta has a fast-track to recognition. Jamey could easily use his brother's reputation to get attention, sell music and grab some of the Brand New fanbase, but he wants to do things his own way and have his own identity. "Bright lights shining on the other side, blind yourself just to live the life. Young blood, show them what they wanna see. Now I'm you and you're me." There's temptation to walk in his brother's footprints, because he sees all the success and riches Jesse has. Knowing that he can have all that, too, by dropping the Lacey name and conforming to a Brand New type sound can distract him from his own visions, but he knows that if he does that and gives people Brand New part two, he will lose himself. He'll be indistinguishable from his brother and people won't be able to tell he and Jesse apart, because artistically, they'd be the same people. |
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| The Front Bottoms – Bathtub Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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He wants to change who he is and is trying too hard to do so (scrubbing his body til it bleeds, washing his hair with soap, running and even driving away from where he is now). He's questioning if he can really become a different person, though. This girl he loves makes him feel like he isn't this great person he wants to be. Yet, it's not always so black and white. Maybe you can't or don't have to drop the bad parts of yourself when becoming who you want to be. Kind of like his friend's mobster grandfather who is actually a really nice guy. |
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| The Front Bottoms – Legit Tattoo Gun Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Interesting. I always took the puddle metaphor to be optimistic because it sounds kind of serene, but it definitely fits in well with your interpretation. Going by your interpretation, the dirty god and dirty body lines may be him failing to get over the girl by sleeping with random girls at parties. He wants to fuck anyone he can just to forget about this girl who is now with a new guy (perhaps her ex, making this the same girl from Looking Like You Just Woke Up), but that's not the kind of person he is, so he can't. It bothers him when he's hooking up with this girl who is high. He tries to rationalize and say she's hooking up with him because she wants to, but really he knows she'd probably hook up with anyone. This makes him feel dirty. That's why he's only alone half of the time. The other half, he could be with someone (like this stoned chick) but he chooses not to, he hides. |
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| The Front Bottoms – Mountain Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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At a show I saw, Brian said this song was about buying drugs and during the last chorus, he sang "pot" instead of fireworks. I love the chorus. Just a simple look into a specific moment. Brian's paranoid about getting caught with the drugs, but everyone else in the car is just fooling around. The rest is over my head. Climbing up a mountain to ride a skateboard down it is thrilling, but in the end, you're in the same place. You spend a lot of effort and energy walking up the mountain for a few seconds of fun during the ride down. Maybe he is questioning his drug use and whether or not it's worth it? In that case, the second verse doesn't fit in, though. |
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| The Front Bottoms – Looking Like You Just Woke Up Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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The first two lines are sarcasm. His girlfriend has left him for her ex and now he's given up hope of finding a happy relationship (it's a "place he's never been and will never go"). He'll continue to keep on fighting by dating others, but only "for the sake of the tradition." He has resigned to the fact that he will ever find someone he really loves who will actually love him back. Instead he'll pretend to love any person who can truly love him. Though this will leave him disappointed and aching for the rest of the live, he'll put up with it and become better at hiding his disappointment and unhappiness. |
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| The Front Bottoms – The Beers Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I believe this is about pretending to be someone you're not to impress someone else. As well as setting a scene for the listener, the beer "in coffee mugs, water bottles and soda cups" is a metaphor for Brian adapting to what his friends and the girl he's interested in like. There's beer taking the form of every kind of container other than its natural one. Just like the beer, Brian tries to act like others to fit in. His prospective lover is in "one of those moods", so therefore he puts himself in that mood himself. His friends are happy, so he is happy. He will learn to adapt to the darker sense of humor they have. The most dramatic example of this is Brian taking steroids to impress his lady friend. This is less subtle and also drives home the point that all of this pretending isn't harmless. I'm not so sure about the "aerial view" part. Maybe by doing these things, he is implying that he is not good enough for these people in his natural state. So, by pretending to be what they like, he is essentially placing them above him and giving them an opportunity to look down on the real him. |
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| The Front Bottoms – The Beers Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I believe this is about pretending to be someone you're not to impress someone else. As well as setting a scene for the listener, the beer "in coffee mugs, water bottles and soda cups" is a metaphor for Brian adapting to what his friends and the girl he's interested in like. There's beer taking the form of every kind of container other than its natural one. Just like the beer, Brian tries to act like others to fit in. His prospective lover is in "one of those moods", so therefore he puts himself in that mood himself. His friends are happy, so he is happy. He will learn to adapt to the darker sense of humor they have. The most dramatic example of this is Brian taking steroids to impress his lady friend. This is less subtle and also drives home the point that all of this pretending isn't harmless. I'm not so sure about the "aerial view" part. Maybe by doing these things, he is implying that he is not good enough for these people in his natural state. So, by pretending to be what they like, he is essentially placing them above him and giving them an opportunity to look down on the real him. |
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| The Front Bottoms – Flashlight Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I take it to be about an ex-girlfriend moving on while he still has feelings for her. He wants to wake up to pictures of her, so he can pretend that they are still together and in a happy relationship. Dog whistles are whistles that emit frequencies only audible to dogs. Often, they are used to train dogs. Basically, this line is saying that she still has this unique hold on him, even though he's alone and she's off somewhere else. In addition, he's overanalyzing things (attempting to read flashes of light as morse code messages). This mindset leads him to interpret an email she sent in which she says "I was sorting some things out" as her meeting someone new. He imagines (note: "she's probably with a few of them right now" this isn't actually happening) she is developing feelings for a new man ("smell plastic burning, smell chemicals breaking down" chemistry is building between her and the new man) who will be the new person to be under her control ("he will be able to hear her dog whistle"). I get the feeling that he was the one that broke up with her. When Brian is picturing his ex with the new guy, she seems pretty down herself. Perhaps this is why there is "no place in between for them to meet." When they are together and Brian is happy, he doesn't want her. But when he is sad, he feels he needs her. I think this is their best song. Very dancy, with somber yet (at times) humorous lyrics. |
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