| Bastille – Pompeii Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| I somehow did the exact same thing as epiccoffee, I think you nailed it | |
| Bastille – Pompeii Lyrics | 12 years ago |
|
I can say with relative certainty that this song is NOT about a relationship, a specific person/story, or and definitely not just telling the story of Pompeii. The song is dense with truths about humanity and our tendency to inadvertently cause our own downfalls. Here's my interpretation: Both on a large scale (wars, poverty, etc.) and a small scale (hopelessness, poor relationships, etc.), our world falls apart due to our own faults ("vices" in the song — selfishness, greed, general wrongdoings). We look around and recognize that our society and our own personal lives are flawed. Over and over in anyone's life, there are problems and difficulties. Yet, when we "close our eyes" (stop thinking about the problems themselves), we realize that despite our recognition of these flaws, we really haven't changed our attitudes at all to help make things better ("nothing's changed at all"). For that reason, we keep making the same mistakes over and over again — we've "been here before," and we're making the same mistakes again, one reason why the metaphor of Pompeii and it's destruction is brilliant for this song. We want to change everything that's going wrong, when maybe we should be looking to change ourselves and our own shortcomings. One of the most powerful lines of the song conveys this message — "Where do we begin? The rubble or our sins?" In other words, do we just clean up and hide our messes, or do we dig for the root of the problem first? It seems to suggest that the first option will lead to continued failure and an endless cycle of destruction. There's definitely more here, but I think that's part of it. And like many songs, there are multiple valid interpretations, but I think this idea of our cyclical flaws is definitely in there. Fantastic song, even better lyrics. |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.