| Young the Giant – Apartment Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I see it as being about a breakup. The song is basically in narrative form: The first stanza sees the writer leaving their apartment to go to their partner's, doing some shopping on the way, during which time they are plagued by cold thoughts and emotions related to what s/he is about to do. While taking a train or bus to the other person's apartment, the speaker is afraid to be alone with their thoughts, perhaps due to the possibility of having second thoughts about the breakup, and writes to kill time and take their mind off it. "You carved a boat to *sail* my shadow" seems to refer to how the other person has put in effort and made sacrifices for their relationship, but for whatever reason it is not working and the speaker must now "walk alone". The chorus contains my favorite imagery in the song. The speaker walks down the sidewalk, "hiding" in their raincoat from the elements and presumably from their personal situation, which is "falling apart". At the first chorus, I take this to be as they walk up to the other person's apartment. After ending the relationship, the speaker feels the need to escape, and so goes to the coast at dusk (I hear the lyrics as "I hit the coast by nightfall", though "I hear the coast by nightfall" could mean the same thing). The next line, "So sure to keep you dreaming", I take to be a reminiscence of the relationship that s/he has just abandoned; perhaps they had a favorite spot on the coast where the speaker is now. The next lines indicate that the speaker feels that the relationship's demise is his/her own fault, as the other person understood them, but the speaker was "no good" and could not reconcile their personal problems somehow. This time in the chorus, I see "I hit the sidewalk" either as continual in the narrative, with them returning to their own apartment, or as a flashback of sorts. The flashback interpretation fits with the next lines; the speaker is remembering the time when the two were falling in love, and in retrospect urging them to enjoy it before it is over. A fantastic song, vivid and relatable. |
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