| Swans – Bring the Sun/Toussaint L'Overture Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Toussaint L'overture! Toussaint L'overture! Toussaint L'overture (From French) Freedom! Equality! Fraternity! (From Spanish) Blood of God! Son of God! Love of God! Blood is Life! Blood is Life! Blood is Love! Love is Blood! Toussaint! Toussaint! |
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| Animal Collective – Alvin Row Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Note that this WHOLE album are stories about growing up, being independent, and how terrifying that is for a young adult. Spirit They've Vanished is about loss of innocence and growing up. Generic "growing up sucks" stuff. April and the Phantom is about a girl who rebels against her parents and their conservative views on sexuality, and as a result of her sexual liberation she gets an unwanted pregnancy. By the end of Penny Dreadfuls the singer is angry and embarrassed that his mother had to come protect him from a bully. Chocolate Girl is about a dad watching her daughter grow into an adult and how much that scares him, but at the end instead of being overbearing he asks her to be open and honest about her life, so his imagination of what she may be doing doesn't run wild. La Rapet is taken from a story about a Man who has to watch over a hateful old woman, and to try and gain freedom from his situation he tries to kill her. Bat You'll Fly is about someone moving away from their family and hometown, and as a result they're resentful and burn their bridges with him. And Alvin Row? The first section is viewed from Alvin's mother's eyes. She watches him grow from a little child to a young adult. He seemed so innocent such a short while ago, but now he's getting drunk on New Years Eve. The "Broken Kite" section is now about how the mother views Alvin as unremarkable, and becomes overbearing. He tries to be Ben Franklin, but he screws up. He makes mistakes. These sorts of things are common for a kid to do, but to her sees it as evidence as how he's mediocre, and tells him to stop trying to be better than he really is. "Accustomed to the rust you silver child" (as opposed to being Golden.) "White corn grow on every side But you can't take it, the yellow wardrobes suits you fine" He lives in an unremarkable area, and he hates it. He hates being in the middle of no where, but the mother tells him to get accustomed to it and accept the role she and his peers wants to give him. The third section is about what she wants for him (her selfish visions are on his side), which isn't healthy: Stay in your hometown, stay with your mother, stay unremarkable and just fade away. She's not an unkind person, she's just not open to Alvin's ideas, she doesn't see the potential in him and he sees. Of course, I doubt she's really saying "I'm not unkind, I'm just not open", but this is what Alvin thinks of his mother. Of course, all of this is all extremely overbearing to Alvin. So instead of of accepting this he runs away, much like the song "Bat You'll Fly." "I told the baker's daughter that I didn't want the water She only likes it when I beg, so I expect she's waiting" After gaining his independence. He finds a girl, and knows she's into him. What happens at the end of all these young adult coming of age stories? Alvin has sex with the girl, and enters manhood. The second half of this song, "I remember the day that I walked away from this empty flight" onwards, is sang through Alvin's own eyes. Actually you know what, I'm sick of saying Alvin. So here's what's really going on. ALVIN ROW IS AVEY TARE. THIS IS A AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL STORY ABOUT AVEY TARE LEAVING HIS HOME FOR NEW YORK CITY. This whole album, actually, is exactly that. This is a young Avey Tare, feeling what most kids to leave their home (for college or whatever) and being on their own: A simultaneous feeling of independence and sheer fucking terror. Listen to all of these songs through that lens, and they all make a ton more sense. Anyways, "I remember the day that I walked away from this empty flight Cause the demons are really the ones when there's nothing on Would slip by when I'm silent I have to let so many people down But the bell from the ice cream man comes to save the day" He's thinking back to the first section of the song, and how he left a potentially empty and dull life and it fills him with guilt, because it meant leaving his parents who had other aspirations for him. He let them down, and left for New York to pursue a career as a musician. "The winter comes we do not wander, I belong The chocolate shakes, the sun awakes, I play ping pong The autumn clouds distort and crowd the petal lawn I pulled the glass it dripped too fast for second dawn" And despite his demons, time moves on and he grows older. "Since we passed through the maze as we unlock the stage of my other ride I remember the shining, the spot on the day she played Though I never knew Moses I know many noses with thoughts like me Take a drive to the Jacksonville pharmacy and pretend" Growing older, entering new stages of his life while still looking back on his childhood. And while he isn't really a religious Jew, he has many Jewish friends that he can relate to. I don't know what that pharmacy entails. Depression medication? A metaphor for taking psychedelics? Probably the latter. "But I'm walking on a wire with eight other eyes Be sure to play the best of you eight other sides" Now that he's on his own, his peers are now watching him. And I guess he's saying at the end that he'll try his best? Maybe? "I'll stay shy, you'll stay shy etc. etc." Alvin Row is the embodiment of Avey Tare's childhood. And even though he's becoming an adult, his childhood will always be a part of him. Sorry if this is messy. |
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