| Andrew Bird – Darkmatter Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| I love the imagery of becoming fascinated with medicine, which I can relate to. THere's something so amazing and magical yet industrious and morbid about a hospital, medicine, surgery, etc. And I love how this song touches on those aspects at first but also a kind of "soul searching" part with the self residing part. Someone who worked in a psychiatric hospital once told me that a hospital is the "most eerily clean and detached place they've ever been, yet more human and vulnerable than anywhere else." I'd like to think that this song dabbles on that contradiction that is modern medicine. | |
| Andrew Bird – Armchairs Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Without really looking much into what everyone else has been adding into this discussion, I'm just going to throw out a bunch of jumbled ideas. First, the alternate titles being apocalypse-related lead me to think that this is a song about the end of humanity. When Andrew Bird was talking about this album on NPR, he said initially that he wanted to name his album Armchair Apocrypha, and then actually found out what it meant (by his definition, something from a sketchy origin) and so was considering calling the whole album Armchair Apocalypse but that seemed "too death metal," so he changed it back. I love how this song seems to be about the apocalypse but strays very far away from death metal. I see this song as I kind of would an apocalypse. First, it is starting with people who are infatuated with each other and who are only focused on each other, but the clock is ticking until they're trying to save themselves but it seems too late and it builds up to this massive point of impact in the first climax part. It slows down again, and I view that as kind of the people still being around and alive after that moment (which is when the talk of fixing things and craters comes up) but immediately after that is the second big chorus and the song pretty much ends on a single note. I also see "tawny at the Apocalypse like a prequel or sequel to this song. I love how even the title alone has son much meaning. It brings to mind people sitting in an armchair watching the world end like it was something normal, like falling asleep watching TV in the living room. I don't really know. That's just what I think about when this song plays. |
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| Andrew Bird – Heretics Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Bird said this song is "talking about the damage we do to ourselves and whether or not we're going to get credit for it. The chorus takes it one step further–it's something to do with saying how you're going to go. Are you going to torture yourself, or are you going to go the extra mile and do it til it kills you? It's just trying to understand the ways we push ourselves." Whether or not this is what Bird meant by it, I see it in a very atheist light. The lyrics about "tell us what we did wrong", the fatal/God lines, the door lines, the "We'll be back/What a crack" part, and the "Now don't you think we might have heard that before?" But I guess you could take those and apply it to pushing ourselves. |
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| Andrew Bird – Plasticities Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Andrew was talking a little bit about this song in an NPR interview I just listened to, and he did say that plasticity is the malleability of the brain and your "internal real estate...the neural wall against invasive media, referring to our imagination." I don't think Andrew would write a song so blatantly about something like MTV or the music industry, even. I think he was exploring the idea of how the media in general, or the digitalized world we live in, can mess with our creativity and talent. That first line is really great because you're thrust into this great song with a catchy hook and the first thing Bird says is "This isn't your song––" it totally calls the listener out haha. I don't know that much about Waterloo, all I really know is that it was a battle Napolean lost. It would be great if someone could expand on it and connect it to this song. |
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| Andrew Bird – Imitosis Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Andrew said in an NPR interview that this song was about "a scientist who's looking at the playground as if it's in a petrie dish like it's bacteria...as it's clumping together and splitting off...and trying to relate that to how kids behave socially...the comfort of others can be an illusion." I have also heard that he was bullied as a child and didn't really kids, so that could be the "How can kids be so mean" part. This broad idea is so interesting that even though we aren't really connected to science in day to day stuff like love and relationships and emotion, there are reasons biologically for the things we do. Yeah, it may take away some of the magic, but it also is just fascinating. This song seems to be kind of exploring some of the people who may ignore that (Anything but hear the voice). |
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| Andrew Bird – Fiery Crash Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Yeah, I definitely think this song is about an airport. Bird himself said in an interview it was "about replaying the worst case scenario to keep it from happening" and also "being in an airport and having your personal space violated by CNN." I love how this whole song doesn't really have a big buildup to a certain moment––it's just kind of catchy and keeps going and layering on itself, which kind of contradicts that idea of a massive, chaotic plane crash. And god, how amazing Andrew's lyrics are, even if they aren't laced with that much meaning. Singing those first few lines is so fun. |
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| Andrew Bird – Fake Palindromes Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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My dewy-eyed Disney bride, what has tried Swapping your blood with formaldehyde? -I like how right away Bird gives us a seemingly innocent girl and makes something morbid out of it. I think that this is where "Fake Palindromes" as a title comes in-in an interview Bird said that he was trying to entertain himself on a long car ride between tours and was making up palindromes that only work if you don't pay much attention or look too closely. Dewey-eyed is the only one I can find in the song currently though… Formaldehyde, as I vaguely understand it, is for keeping dead people preserved at the morgue? Whatever it is I think someone is upset with the bride of the speaker. Monsters? The only people that supposedly could think such horrible things in a perfect world would be monsters. Whisky-plied voices cried fratricide! So now there are drunk people accusing the bride of killing her sibling. I think those people would probably want to kill her if they thought she was ironically truly evil. Jesus don't you know that you could've died (You should've died) With the monsters that talk, monsters that walk the earth I'm guessing she somehow escaped the angry mob after either killing or being falsely accused of killing her sibling, even though she should have died at the hands of the justice seeking monsters. And she's got red lipstick and a bright pair of shoes And she's got knee high socks, what to cover a bruise The bruise suggests some kind of trouble. Other than that I think her clothing choice kind of suggests that she's feminine, attractive, a girl. She's got an old death kit she's been meaning to use She's got blood in her eyes, in her eyes for you She's got blood in her eyes for you She;s out for blood--she's looking for people to kill. Certain fads, stripes and plaids, singles ads They run you hot and cold like a rheostat, I mean a thermostat Bird is talking about the whole "dating" scene. A rheostat is an electrical current that you could use to shock people, like on those chairs. So you bite on a towel Hope it won't hurt too bad Since Bird has been referring to his bride both as "you" and "she" I don't really know who's being tortured here. And she says I like long walks and sci-fi movies If you're six foot tall and east coast bred Some lonely night we can get together And I'm gonna tie your wrists with leather And drill a tiny hole into your head The bride is in the dating scene, saying the typical cliche things used in dating biographies. I'm still unclear about who "I" and "you" are but if I had to guess I'm going to day Disney bride had a rough past, escaped death, and being so emotionally scarred starting luring men to her so she could torture/kill them. I think that person that is talking in the very first stanza "My dewey eyed…" is probably discovering who his bride really is. |
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| Andrew Bird – Danse Caribe Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I think that I have read various interviews that Bird says this song is about him throwing his stuffed animals out of his crib when he was little. The clouds for mountains part I have also read in interviews being about him touring around and being really tired emotional and physically after a rough show and catching sight of clouds that he thought were mountains and being so tired that he just started laughing. Interesting either way, and I do love singing that lyric. |
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| Andrew Bird – Armchairs Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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For all you who wonder if a crooked bow is bad in violin, I played cello for a few years and you are always striving to have a very straight bow-pulling motion. The crookedness of the bow isn't a problem, but if you don't pull the bow parallel to the ground and instead let it fly up or slide down, the sound is not great. But my interpretation of this instead comes from this little nugget that showed up on tumblr for me one day. I can't prove the authenticity of this interview or quote, but it sounds like something Bird would say. "Sometimes you have a really good line come to you before you fully understand what it means, but you’re really anxious to use it. On ‘Armchairs,’ I wasn’t sure what that line [‘Time’s a crooked bow’] meant, but now I’m more certain. After touring for years, your whole life is chopped into real life and tour life. Things get out of order. It’s not linear." The interviewer said that the quote didn't work for the Rolling Stone article but she wanted it to be posted anyways. It came up because he used it again in Lazy Projector (time's a crooked bow, oh come on, tell us something we don't know) Anyways, reading the quote did kind of relax me a bit, and it seems Bird was just as confused as the rest of us. |
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