| La Dispute – Stay Happy There Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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It's about all of the seemingly unimportant things that make up our lives and our relationships. It's about the build up to the collapse of a relationship. Within the narrative arc, this song would be the point at which the couple break up. There hasn't been a huge conflict, but rather lots of things have built up (his drinking, her fear that he would turn out like her father, their unhappiness with their life in the Midwest) and the woman has left or is leaving. There are a lot of references to things building up and reaching some sort of critical point- snow collects and bends boughs, traffic backs up and the bridge has collapsed, a woman stands at a ledge about to end her life, there are too many deer, coffee boils and burns on the stove. The narrator thinks back through all of the little experiences in their relationship that built up and caused it to break. He thinks about all of the things that are happening at once, the things that happen all around us, all of the things that build up- it can be overwhelming getting caught up in them (everywhere the wind) and they can cause things to break but they're all important. Sometimes we don't realise how important each moment is until it's too late. |
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| Manchester Orchestra – Top Notch Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I think the song is an exploration of the different ways in which we can cope with guilt. In the beginning of the song, the two kids have done something wrong (killed someone, perhaps) and are trying to decide who is going to stay and take the blame for it and who is going to flee. Instead, they decide that they'll both stay to cover up what they've done, dispose of the evidence and 'wait it out in the closet.' With the 'dead and buried underneath the yard' part - I'm not sure whether that is the children imagining what will happen to them if they are found to be guilty or whether they've killed someone and that is their proposed way of getting rid of the body. Either way, they realise that burying things is not the way to fix things so they give themselves up. Things are still not fixed. Confessing doesn't take away the fact that they perpetrated the initial crime and they've learned things about themselves and each other through the experience that can't be unlearned ("That's a stain that won't dissolve" part). The children come to understand that hiding guilt is not a solution but sometimes coming clean isn't either. |
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