| Brooke Fraser – Scarlet Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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Not being religious myself, I don't interpret Brooke Fraser's songs that way, so I just insert my own meaning. This song was comforting to me when I moved far away to a new city by myself, and I echo Caroo's great interpretation! Here's another: Basically I'd been really looking forward to the fresh start, but was slow and hesitant in introducing myself to people, kind of relishing the newfound anonymity. (Finally you can breathe / Nobody knows your name / It's easier). My expectations of myself were unrealistically high, and I was afraid to make mistakes, while also fighting loneliness and fear ("Shut your eyes tightly / Clench your fists 'til they almost bleed"). Slowly, I began talking to people and letting them know select details about me ("Cautiously, lightly / Gently expose what's underneath"). "So there you go, you're gone for good," reminds me of every root I'd put down in this new place, and the realization of where I was when I'd wake up after dreaming of home. What really gets me is: "Your mind is swollen / From months of thought without release / They've taken their toll on you." The feeling of not having anything in common with the locals and thus no one to *really* talk to, so many thoughts and feelings building up, and the unanticipated loneliness was more than I'd bargained for; I began to hate this place and regret moving. "This very moment / Of timid and fragile honesty / Is precious and rare and fleeting" reminds me of those few-and-far-between authentic conversations I got to have once in awhile. "And all you feel now / Is the scarlet in the day / Even if it's real / You can't stay" speaks to that point at dusk when the sky would turn red/violet, and it would signify the end of another day where I'd just existed and not truly lived. This was the time of day where reflection came uninvited, and my emotions were the most powerful. I knew I couldn't stay in this city, but I also knew I couldn't stay in this state of mind, no matter how real the feelings were. |
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| Amel Larrieux – Earn My Affections Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| The woman wants the man to make an effort to romance her, but he isn't really playing the game- he is half-assing it and not really making her feel special, but more like an afterthought. She rightly expects him to "earn her affections" before she will go to bed with him ("get this show on the road"). For self-respecting women, there are certain hoops a man must jump through in order to make her feel like he's worth it, and and that is done by making her feel that SHE is worth it. | |
| alt-J – Taro Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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Alt-J identify this song as mostly about Capa stepping on a land mine. *sad face* I admit I couldn't really understand it until I read the lyrics, like a lot of their songs. The music video for this track is absolutely breathtaking. |
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| Fallulah – Graveyard of Love Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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This song speaks to me as a situation where the love the singer once felt has died and the relationship has withered past the state of rescue. The love she once felt has wound up hurting all the time, and she calls it a "strange kind of love" in a tongue-in-cheek way, since that is not love at all. However, she is aware of this and sort of chastises herself for suggesting that love even exists there at all. She speaks of the void where the other's affections should be ("There’s a hole in your chest / Falling down from Everest") but this person is hanging on to the relationship because they can't let go ("You hold on to everything you can but what is really left?"). The singer's eye is even wandering, looking for someone who can give them what their partner can't ("Every day I hope to find someone who holds eternal light"). The partner has clearly broken the singer's heart and scarred her, but she doesn't want to feel lonely and is delaying the feeling with drinking and distractions, but the situation is casting a darkness over everything and the bitterness is setting in. However, the lines "You are the first thing I ever saw / And you are the reason why I carry scars" suggests that it could be directed at a parent who mistreated the singer to the point where she can no longer bring herself to love them. |
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| Rihanna – Sledgehammer Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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This songs speaks to me because it reminds me of when I found out my first serious boyfriend was on his way to my place to break up with me. I was distraught over what was about to happen and was expecting to be completely crushed, because I had never experienced a painful breakup ("Oh I was sure, your words would leave me unconscious / And on the floor I'd be lying cold, lifeless"). It was a very rough feeling for awhile ("Yeah I hit a wall, I prayed that I would make it through"), but what I braced myself for was worse than what I'd felt in actuality. To get past it, I focused on how miserable he had been making me for quite some time, what a jerk he turned out to be, and how unattractive and disappointing he really was. I then transformed the sadness, rejection, and loneliness into clarity, power, and strength. I felt confident, beautiful, and free; my life only went up from there- I have achieved a great deal compared to him, and used the experience as a lesson in how to choose someone better. My next serious relationship turned into what is now a great marriage! I now see my ex as "just another brick," meaning another brick in the wall (something that toughened me up), and a brittle object that would smash easily if he could only see me now ("and I'm a sledgehammer"). |
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| Anna Leddra-Chapman – Wine Glass Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| It's about loving someone and all the quirky things they do that just add to their charm, even the more subtle things like the way they hold a wine glass. The singer also likes the way the person ribs them...in the UK if a guy pokes fun at you it generally means he really likes you and is a "manly" way of showing affection which can be endearing to women. The singer is ready to invest all they have into the relationship and is blind to everyone else in a romantic sense. | |
| Brandy – Have You Ever? Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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This is a classic song about unrequited love. The lyrics speak for themselves. I listened to this endlessly in adolescence as I became seriously infatuated with different people over the years; people who were either unattainable or just didn't know my feelings (and thus couldn't return them), yet I would have given them the moon. This pattern was the purest form of torture for my highly sensitive heart. It was wistful, miserable, yet somehow safe and even delicious in a way. The infatuations were a welcome distraction from a tragic home life. A lot of songs were catharsis for me, and this was the one of the more "raw" ones and I would listen to it in bed at night, crying! lol |
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| Lily Allen – Friend of Mine Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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Reminds me of a girl I used to be friends with who was a classic "frenemy" Mean Girl. Very "plastic," refused to be seen without a full face of makeup, hair done, outfit showing too much (reminds me of the "Have you got no self respect? Reputation to protect?" line). She was insecure in her body and lost weight through bulimia and stimulant drugs such as coke ("Why don't you have another line, girl?"). Started to get vain and full of herself once she lost weight, but it was a precarious feeling and she needed other ways to build herself up. She'd cheat on her boyfriend with various people (again with the self-respect and reputation lyric, and "people calling you a whore") because she loved the attention. This all falsely inflated her ego to blimp proportions, so she talked all kinds of crap about me ("I can hear you chatting shite/ I hear it every night / And you think you're being really cool"), even to my face, because I had attributes she envied and wanted to position herself above me. The friendship became toxic but I hung on hoping she'd smarten up ("What happened to the good old days/ I was kinda hoping this was all a stupid phase / Who are you anyway?"). Eventually, with her debts piling up, constant drama in her life, losing her friends and afraid of her bf finding out about her antics, ("Soon you'll be a nervous wreck Tell me what did you expect") whining and treating me badly, I realized the friendship was hollow and I didn't know her anymore: "You're no friend of mine, girl / And I've known it for a while, girl")." "Now who looks like a fool" speaks for itself because I have achieved a great deal compared to her. |
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| Banks – Change Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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This song, like some of Banks's other tacks, is about emotional abuse in a relationship. It's being sung to an abusive ex and clearly lays out the Cycle of Abuse (also called the Cycle of Violence, which includes emotional violence). She lists examples of the ways the abuser mistreats her/ his tactics to damage her self-esteem: "Cut me down" (put downs and insults) "Always calling me unstable" (training her not to show emotions that inconvenience him by shaming her for them) "You so easily can make me cry just cause you are in a mood" (when he is in a bad mood and needs to feel better, he pushes her buttons to bring her down so she feels even worse than he does). "You would say I need attention / Just because I put on makeup / To ironically look good for you" (um yeah- trying to get HIS attention, but he suggests that she is trying to get other guys' attention because he is jealous like most abusers). She also includes some of the abuser's excuses for his behavior: "Never guilty/ Say it ain't your fault / Because you had an emotionally abusive daddy/ And cause of this you don't know how to act." ....he is clearly blaming his abuse on the fact that he had a crappy role model (his dad) from whom he learned how to treat women. This is extremely common with abusers: blaming someone else so he doesn't have to take responsibility for the abuse; otherwise he would have to do something about it. We hear more of his appeals to make her feel sorry for him so he can avoid taking responsibility: "Poor poor baby/ Say you can't help the fact that you're so crazy." Then she demonstrates the Cycle of Abuse, where after he is abusive and she is fed up and wants to leave him, he keeps her roped in with what he says during the "Honeymoon Phase," which are empty promises that he will change: "Baby don't go" <---begging her to stay with him "I didn't know" <---lying that he didn't realize what he said/did would hurt her "I'll change I swear" <-- such BS...a false promise that he makes every time "I'll make you wait" is her way of saying that he always takes so long to show signs of changing that- surprise!- it never happens at all. Over time, this cycle just wears her down and she stays. The guy basically uses tactics to guilt trip her at this point every time she gets fed up and tries to assert her right to leave him: "And you're so good at making me feel guilty/ For trying to walk away / Because I'm tired of being mad." <---(she is getting worn down; anger takes too much energy). This is another form of abuse, actually: not respecting a person's right to end the relationship and manipulating them into staying, like he does. Because the song is sung in the present, it suggests to me that the singer is aware of what is going on in the relationship, but is so drained and so stuck, that she just can't get out, and every time she tries he just pulls her back in. |
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| Banks – Goddess Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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I feel that this song is meant for an emotionally abusive ex to hear. The girl, or goddess, was and is a beautiful, talented, loving woman who could have had her choice of any partner ("She coulda done, just anything Or anyone,"). The now-ex either felt threatened by her when he/she was with her, or just didn't realize how lucky he/she was to be with the goddess, and treated her horribly as a result due to his/her own insecurities, issues, and abusive nature. The goddess was highly invested in the relationship, ("She gave it all,") yet the ex took not only couldn't appreciate her, but was cruel to boot ("You gave her shit"..."You put her down, you liked her hopeless, To walk around, feeling unnoticed") and actually enjoyed making her feel bad about herself and living with the light inside her dimmed, feeling depressed and invisible, perhaps lowering any perceived "risk" of losing her to another, better partner. This is a common abuse strategy: to lower her self-esteem so she thinks the abuser is the best she can get and no one else would want her, making her more likely to stay. However, we see that the relationship ended, and now the ex finally understands how incredible the goddess is (maybe because now she has her spark back on account of being free from the abuse?) and is trying to win her back ("And now you're back, trying to claim her"). The ex regrets losing her and is now bitter, and must live with this feeling ("Now you gotta deal with this glitch on your shoulder.") "Fucking with the goddess and you get a little colder" suggests to me that the abuse the ex doled out has killed off some of his/her own soul, so the ex becomes "colder" inside/personality-wise, and may even blame the goddess for leaving and for the problems in the relationship (common with abusive partners). Life is now 'colder' ("it's colder") for the ex due to the goddess's absence, as he/she is lonely, the bed is empty, and the sting of regret is hard to deal with. This song could be extended to other emotionally abusive relationship types, too. |
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