| Islands – Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby Lyrics | 3 years ago |
| @[petietothecore:43178] I don't think it's an accident | |
| Islands – Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby Lyrics | 3 years ago |
| @[petietothecore:43177] I don't think it's an accident | |
| Fleet Foxes – Maestranza Lyrics | 4 years ago |
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"These last days Con-men controlled my fate No one is holding the whip And the oil won't stick But I will" "Now that a light is on Now that the water runs And the heartless are nearly gone No time to get it wrong" Makes me think of the 2020 election, which was on the horizon when this album was written and released. "These last days" could be the last days of the Trump presidency, and the "con-men" are Trump and the toadies in his administration. If you think of "If You Need to, Keep Time on Me" from the previous album, this song seems like a desperate plea to brighten things up again after things had been thrown into darkness so suddenly half a decade ago. "The heartless are nearly gone. No time to get it wrong!" |
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| Coldplay – The Hardest Part Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| this song reminds me of high school (the line about the bell makes me think of school bells - waiting for that bell to ring is like waiting for the end to come) and the relationships that come to a close either because things just didn't work out or because high school ends and everyone inevitably has to go their separate ways... the hardest part is saying goodbye and letting go of your friends, family, loved ones, etc. We get nostalgic about high school and home and hang on to the bittersweet memories of the people we used to see all the time. This change leaves us feeling vulnerable and at a loss... We wonder what everything is all about, and we might become hyper-aware of our actions and their consequences. All I know is that the aftermath of high school is when I became painfully aware of myself and started reflecting and rethinking my approach to interpersonal relationships, old and new. | |
| Coldplay – Yellow Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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I think of the word "yellow" as an ineffable emotional state in the context of this song. Chris Martin associates "yellow" with love and devotion the same way someone with synesthesia might associate sound with color. We all subconsciously attach different emotions to the people in our lives as well as our life experience and memory. It can be hard to express these feelings in words since they seem so ingrained, and sometimes something more abstract, like a color, seems like a better way to try and describe the indescribable. Like a color, this feeling is something big, obvious, and undeniable, but it somehow remains intangible. It's like trying to define a word without using the word in your definition. The fact that Martin picked the word "yellow" when he could not think of the word he wanted goes to show that sometimes a feeling is bigger than the words we use to express them. The feeling transcends language, and there's something about the simplicity and universality of the word "yellow" and our associations with it that gets at something deeply embedded in our collective subconscious. Martin's selection of the word "yellow" may seem random at first, but his subconscious mind probably sees it as no accident. It's fitting that a seemingly irrational song does an amazing job at capturing some of our more irrational impulses and desires. And Martin seems to relish the sound of the word "yellow" when he sings it, suggesting he sees both the truth and humor in knowingly using a word that could be viewed as both meaningless and profound (depending on who you ask - and that is the fun of it). |
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| The National – I Need My Girl Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| @[gatinha:27038] It's pretty rare that an interpretation on this website gives me potential insight into the songwriting process! I like the idea of Matt being on the road and taking down snippets of thoughts and observations only to compile them later on into this song. | |
| The National – I Need My Girl Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| @[Whirling10:27037] Thank you for laying out your interpretation so clearly and effectively! It's cool to see how this song could be applied to someone younger. Although Matt may have written this song about missing his wife and daughter while on the road touring, obviously any piece of art can provide different meanings to different people. | |
| West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band – I Won't Hurt You Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| Isle of Dogs | |
| Elliott Smith – Wouldn't Mama Be Proud? Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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I feel like those last two verses are referring to the songwriting process in general: If I send you postcards From the side of the road Photographs of moving Parts about to implode If I crawl to keep it together Like you say you know I can do To transmit a moment From me to you |
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| Ezra Furman and the Harpoons – Weak Knees Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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when a body catch a body - Catcher In The Rye It's about feeling like outsiders, "refugees," wandering, looking for truth. Open your eyes and realize the things no one seems to pay attention to. Eventually you do fall prey to the capitalist way of the world ("your face is a permanent brand"), but we can always come back to those places where we feel the weight of uncertainty and the lightness of existence. |
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| Islands – Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| "Sugar, dumpling, muffin, baby" are all pet names. It's as if the speaker of the song is bemoaning the state of the world to his/her beloved ("this world is going crazy"). In the next line ("I think I'm through listening to you"), it would seem the beloved responds dismissively, or that the speaker gets a reply to his/her initial complaint that he/she doesn't like and wants to cut off early. | |
| Squeeze – Tempted Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| @[NotTheTruth:6875] so why is there an airport? did they move on account of the store that offered better deals? | |
| Squeeze – Tempted Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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The way I see it, the singer has an affair that he later regrets or at least questions. He is at first tempted by the fruit of a forbidden love, but later on he finds himself pining for the love he left behind. Despite his early claim that he'll forget it all once he's gone, it seems that memories of his old love and old life linger. I would think that this would confuse and upset him, but the song maintains a celebratory tone that seems to embrace a crossroads such as this as one of life's big, painfully beautiful struggles. I think the song captures the feeling of homesickness and nostalgia that follows the initial excitement and hopefulness of leaving behind your current life in order to chase after a new life and find freedom. It's the dichotomy between starting all over again and holding on to what's familiar. You leave behind your old life only to miss it when it's gone. |
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| Titus Andronicus – Albert Camus Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| @[koh2:6292] you could still give them a hug, so to speak | |
| Modest Mouse – Medication Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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(Note: In my interpretation, I refer to the song's "speaker" as "the singer.") The song opens on the singer struggling to find meaning in life. We get a peak into his internal monologue, and it seems that no matter how much he tries to focus on the things he cares about (e.g. faith, friends, family), he falls into the pattern of overanalyzing everything to the point of meaninglessness. For the singer, this is "the part of [him] that needs medication." One could view the first part of this song as a list of pros and cons when it comes to trying to fit into society. Lyrically, this first verse is composed of individual thoughts, concrete statements that reveal the singer's idea of society as well as his own self-worth within it. The final statement, "This is the part of me that means nothing," suggests that the singer has realized the meaninglessness of his life in the grand scheme of things. The sparse music of the first verse is listless and repetitive in tone, suggesting that the singer's life is painfully monotonous and on the verge of deteriorating. Brock's vocals possess a melancholic bitterness, hinting at the singer's apathy and volatility. We can only imagine how the singer's mental state may be affecting him emotionally. His existential ennui could be any combination of overwhelming, debilitating, infuriating, frustrating, anxiety-inducing, depressing, etc. The second part of the song is musically more upbeat, but it also conveys restlessness and uncertainty, musically and lyrically. The singer appears to be addressing someone else, but I would like to think he is talking to himself. Whatever led to his change in mood (the titular "medication") has allowed the singer to step outside himself, or at least treat himself as a separate entity. This mood boost provides the singer with a power of judgment he didn't have before; however, he is disoriented and doesn't know where to begin ("and I don't know / where I could go away, and you could wish / that I had stayed or just stayed gone"). He urges himself to think back on why he took the medication in the first place and reassures himself that he had well-informed intentions ("so out of the context and into what you meant / and you know your reasons"). He recalls wanting to be someone he doesn't think he is, someone perhaps with more self-esteem and less self-doubt ("you don't know who you are / but you know who you want to be"). The problem now is that he does not know how to go about making changing himself. His mood may be different, but he doesn't know how to make himself different. He looks to an outside source for help (just as he did when he turned to the medication) and goes to the library, but he is either unable to find anything helpful or simply cannot focus. He remains as uncertain as he was, if not more so (first line of verse 2: "and I don't know;" last line of verse 2: "and I don't know at all"). In the third verse, he has returned to his initial reality, and the drug-induced feeling of hope has worn off. He reflects on the kinder, less critical parts of his personality that he abandoned ("left all my kinder parts rusting and peeling"), which may have been the parts he was trying to recover in the last verse. However, it seems his effort was unsuccessful, and he takes the opportunity to analyze the efficacy and true purpose behind his so-called medication. The person he observed when he was on the medication is not his true self, and he doesn't believe the things that person thought or said ("that guy was complaining as he looked at the ceiling / my nose isn't that big, it looks nothing like me"). The singer concludes, "We're all doctors trading sadness for numbness." We are all acting as our own doctors, treating ourselves and our sadness by numbing ourselves. We are so desperate to feel better that we compromise who we are in the process. We won't let things just be what they are. We are so quick to treat ourselves that we stall and prevent our lives from taking their natural course. The singer's experience teaches him that complete and utter happiness is an illusion, especially within society's framework. The grass may look much greener on the other side, but that grass isn't even real grass. We won't let dirt just be dirt, and so we are incapable of appreciating it for what it is. We don't want to be honest with ourselves, because it's hard, and therefore we do not embrace ourselves for who we are. We're ashamed of our faults, and so we strive for idealized, untruthful versions of ourselves. We hide the shame we feel for not being the people we wish we were. No one wants to feel like they don't matter, or that they only mean as much as dirt. However, if we just let dirt be dirt, then maybe we'll be able to change the way we see ourselves and accept ourselves for who we are. Only then can we actually take any lasting steps toward positive change. To make a change, you need to know what it is you're dealing with. Instead of denying ourselves the ugly truth, we need to see that the truth isn't so ugly. Our inherent meaninglessness as well as our flaws can serve us instead of crippling us. To allude to another Modest Mouse song, there's "so much beauty in dirt." |
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| Tune-Yards – FIYA Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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contrast with "Real Thing" self-deprecation vs. self-acceptance that's all I have for now |
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| Ezra Furman and the Harpoons – The Worm In The Apple Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| Ezra chooses the life of an artist as opposed to the cold, shallow lifestyles that most city dwellers adopt ("moving round and around the dark center of town;" "while all the world makes money so stoically"). The kids of Atlantis are the lost souls he feels he must reach through his poetry and music. He's not sure how he will achieve this, but he's hopeful for the urban floodgates, the "cold water tap," to open up and rain down on him with some kind of clarity and guidance. | |
| The Mountain Goats – Song for Mark and Joel Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| *paralyzing | |
| The Mountain Goats – Song for Mark and Joel Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| the moments before it all breaks loose. the hairs on the back of your neck stand up as a sign of caution | |
| The Mountain Goats – Song for Mark and Joel Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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ominous signals paralyzingly premonitions |
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| Ezra Furman and the Harpoons – We Should Fight Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| There is a fear of disappearing into anonymity present throughout this song. It seems to be related to coming of age and entering into the working class. Ezra yearns to transcend this kind of life via the preservation of his humanity, which he taps into through music and community. Ultimately, he seeks meaningful interpersonal relationships. He doesn't think that these come easy, nor should they. Instead Ezra encourages conflict. He believes that this will make him real again. By fighting for true connection to others, he is able to put his vitality into sharp focus and escape a society that would otherwise see him drown in a lifeless sea of dead-end jobs. Ezra chooses to rally against the monotony and listlessness of adulthood. Even though we tend toward isolation, Ezra issues a battle cry for shared experience. He refuses to give up on his radical dreams in which artistic expression and everyday life collide. If we can just rediscover the magic we once knew as children, then we will surely be all right. | |
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