| Pavement – Trigger Cut/Wounded-Kite at :17 Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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Top work tinydancer1. I'm surprised by the comments below suggesting Pavement's lyrics are very abstract and that these can't/shouldn't be made sense of. I guess I'm happy for you if you can't relate to these lyrics, but if you've been there then this is pretty blatantly a song (and album) about someone doubting a relationship and dealing with the emotional struggle of that. Consider the song in the context of the whole album. The "wounded kite" starts singing at :17seconds or thereabouts, explaining he's still in this relationship, but weighed down by the realisation that he isn't everything he wants to be and that the relationship is holding him back. But he suspects that if he breaks it off before the marriage, and he perfects himself and arranges his life just the way he'd like it, he'd be back here one day still wanting to be a part of the 'system for two.' He's got the trigger cut, he know knows the truth of all the words (I love yous and so on perhaps) he used to just say automatically, and he can't unknow it.. or pull the cut skin back over the wound to fix the problem. It's as if the whole album goes on inside the head of the confused singer, and the last song of the album "Our Singer" sees the breakup on the horizon, but it never comes. The specifics are always open to interpretation as any good song should be, but the overall message communicated throughout the album could not be clearer. You've one life to live and you realise you aren't really living, and this relationship is an anchor to that, a heavy coat you need to take off to be able to feel free. |
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| Pavement – In the Mouth a Desert Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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intestellarloveburst nailed it below. 'Our singer' has gone through an existential crisis of sorts, or a realisation regarding life as he has grown, having watched the 'ball of twine unravel' and being unable to go back to viewing his relationship the way he had previously. Clever lines like 'pretend the table is a trust knot' (like living in a domesticated situation is a promise of fidelity) point to this. He's explaining that he has realised he has one life to live, and the only thing he has is control of his life being crowned 'king of id', which intestellarloveburst explained below in the Freudian context of the sub-conscious. One life to live, and if he gets out of this binding system for two, he could really make a try rather than waiting to die. So to that lover, he's seeing the situation where he explains all this with his diamond-sharp words and gut their relationship. She won't want it to end, but seeing her beg him not leave just makes her seem pathetic, like a little dog. It's what he wants. |
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| Pavement – Perfume-V Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I think you have to consider the song in the context of the whole album. Throughout the album, 'our singer' explains to us the death of a relationship; perhaps not a specific relationship but certainly the mental acceptance of a droll traditional relationship. If you've grappled with the mental anguish of ending a perfectly workable long-term relationship for the promise of charting a new course, you can probably relate to the whole of S&E on this level. Some key indicators in this song include "She's got the radioactive" .. it makes me think that perhaps you don't need a wife at home for the regular unfulfilling sex when one night of dirty, passionate 'radioactive' sex (obviously in this case a prostitute, given the 'hour') could 'feed 40 days', taking care of the urge until next time. In some ways, perhaps there's some merit in prefering one night of passion-fueled sex to the regular (if you're lucky) boring familiar sex? The second verse conjures in my mind the destruction of that relationship and whenever you miss that ex-partner, you cover it up with cheap perfume and move on. |
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