| CHVRCHES – The Mother We Share Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I was surprised/intrigued by the comments here about the singer supporting or propping up a younger sibling–for me it was absolutely the other way around. "You can seem as old", "you can make it easy on me", "I bet you even know"–all imply, or seem to imply, that the song's "you" is an older sibling to whom the singer looks for advice or protection. Her loyalty ("I will cover you") and emotional support ("You put your head in my hands") are in exchange for that guidance. I would agree that the eponymous mother is dead, absent, or antagonistic–"the mother we share" is a very oblique, and "the mother" an almost dehumanizing, way to refer to what we would expect to be a close relationship; certainly a mother who will "never keep your proud head from falling" is somewhat derelict in duty. So: the siblings are in an unpleasant family situation, and rely heavily on one another–an unsettlingly close relationship, complicated by ambiguously incestuous undertones (repeated references to being alone together at night, "our cold hearts from calling", etc etc). And then there is the repeated refrain of the verses: "until you go", drawn out, emphasized. Who leaves the close contact of a sibling relationship first? The older sibling is old enough, or almost old enough, to escape the family and live on their own. The singer is miserable at the thought of losing her protection; her sibling, at the idea of leaving her alone; both, at losing their sole emotional support. They both flirt with the idea of staying home (one suggestion of "you can make it easy on me") or of running away (one suggestion of "where we could go") together–but in the end, the singer loves her sibling too much to ask them to stay for her sake. "We've come as far as we’re ever gonna get
 / Until you realize that you should go": they can't keep prolonging this; it's time to leave it behind. (But "until" is a double-edged sword. It's possible they'll come back to each other when they're both grown; what kept them going under their family might keep them going under the whole world. "The mother we share will never keep our cold hearts from calling...") |
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