| Midlake – Bring Down Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| This song expresses exactly how it feels to be suffering from major depression, and feeling suicidal. | |
| Paul Simon – She Moves On Lyrics | 8 years ago |
|
Absolutely awesome lyricism, and incredibly creative bass playing on this track! I think this is about a very unhealthy, unequal love affair - a woman who simultaneously enjoys/appreciates the authenticity of the deep love the singer feels for her, but is incapable of committing to really loving or opening up to anyone. She knows how destructive she can be, and tries to warn him he will get hurt but he cannot deny his feelings for her. My favourite lines are these: "She says, 'Maybe these emotions are As near to love as love will ever be...' So I agree Then the moon breaks She takes the corner and that's all she takes She moves on" ... "Then I fall to my knees I grow weak, I go slack As if she'd captured the breath of my Voice in a bottle And I can't catch it back" |
|
| Midlake – Small Mountain Lyrics | 8 years ago |
|
"The rise and the fall upon small mountain Was fair not for all in need And I with my life have gone Away from this land of gold" ->This short but intense relationship failed to meet either of our needs, and my entire reason for living (love) has been exposed as a shallow myth. "Formed from the seed aligned for all that fortune brings And all that certain men lay upon it when anger is seen" ->I entered this relationship in good faith, with a determination to weather any storms we might encounter/ disagreements we would inevitably have... "And it reigns like the others Giving what all it can" ->...and however briefly we'd been together compared with others, and regardless of how much we still had to learn about each other, I was so happy to be part of your life. "While the days count for nothing Nothing that one understands" ->But all the time it meant nothing whatsoever to you. "Upon that road I had struggled to find A way of life that was common for all And all that runs on the mountain was mine A way of life that will surely be gone" -> I tried my very best to understand you, to gain your trust and respect, to let you know how much I loved you so that we could become closer and have more common ground. But I was doing all the work, all the love was coming from me and that could never be sustained. "Poor lands will grow Among the weeds among the roads And all are anxious for song and dance That will sometimes get old" -> your lack of interest and love for me inevitably made the relationship deteriorate into mistrust, insecurity and boredom. And it reigns like the others Giving what all it can While the days count for nothing Nothing that one understands Upon that road I had struggled to find A way of life that was common for all And all that runs on the mountain was mine A way of life that will surely be gone |
|
| Midlake – Rulers, Ruling All Things Lyrics | 8 years ago |
|
Such a beautiful and sad song. The first verse speaks to me very deeply about how someone broke my heart. "I have been cruel and kind without knowing" -> However much I tried and believed my actions and words were loving, it seems I did something wrong, but I will never know what because she was unable to express emotion openly or honestly. "I fell in the silence overwhelmed by these days" -> I was going crazy for a month before we split, trying to work out what I had done to make her contact me less and less straight after we had been on a very expensive holiday that she suggested we go on. I finally straight out asked her when she telephoned me "are we ok?" and my heart felt like it ripped in two during the silence before she replied, "I'm not sure". "For I have been shown dear rulers, ruling all things" -> This was probably the biggest, and certainly the most painful event/lesson of my life - I am not religious but in that state of anguish, I did beg any higher power that might be out there to stop the pain, acknowledge that I had heard their lesson, that I had been shown how wrong I was about love. "Thinking the world was mine to lay hold on I breathed in the promise of maiden and man But each have their own illusions to hold onto" -> Describes how naively optimistic I was about the love I gave her. I never dreamed she could become so cold and indifferent to me so quickly. I had no idea feeling such a positive emotion for someone could leave such a deep, lasting scar in me. "I only want to be left to my own ways The rulers of one leaving all things undone" -> I entered a major depression for about two years - just wanting to hibernate or die. My whole understanding of love, which I regarded as the most significant thing in life until that point, had been totally shattered. "I stood in the awe of the whole creation Gathered among them was the morning Giving all its rays" -> The sense of being completely out of my depth in life, its meaning for me destroyed - and how the sun pointlessly carried on shining on me and whoever she went on with. |
|
| Midlake – Winter Dies Lyrics | 8 years ago |
|
Absolutely beautiful song! It is obviously full of seasonal imagery and could be taken as a simple description of how we have historically had to appreciate and make the most of practical opportunities when they came round (spring). Part of the beauty of it is that the seasonal metaphor is so open to interpretation. Anything that goes through cycles of plenty and scarcity can fit. I always think of a very intense but short-lived relationship I had. Welcome to Dumpsville - population: me! The chorus and emphasis seems to be from the perspective of someone in winter, looking back at how aware and grateful they were of everything the year gave them, particularly how far he was able to travel (swim). The fact that the singer starts with, "I used to..." suggests that winter has now made him incapable of such appreciation. The verses consist of the singer acknowledging that WHEN winter dies, life returns, things can happen. However, the repeated line, "With one more year for a man to change his ways" indicates that the singer is unhappy with his previous ways, that he feels perhaps somehow to blame for how harsh winter comes again and again. At the end of the song, there is a reversal - the singer states that he was "grateful for all [he] received [even] through WINTER cold and spring". Maybe he has had to experience enough winters to appreciate their value and not unduly fear their return... |
|
| Kings of Convenience – Love Is No Big Truth Lyrics | 8 years ago |
|
This amazing song speaks to me as follows: The singer has broken up from a relationship that was very significant for him. In the first verse he describes working through a painful realization: that the promise of security the relationship offered to both parties was an illusion. "Love is no big truth Driven by our genes We are simple selfish beings" This seems fairly self-explanatory - he's reiterating that whatever he believed love to be is clearly falsified by their break up. I think he's trying to comfort himself, and guard himself from ever regarding it as having any deep spiritual meaning and getting so hurt in the future. "A symphony that's you Joyously awaking The ignorant and sleeping" To me, this is the singer still feeling love for his ex-partner and feeling the pain of jealousy towards the next person she starts a relationship with (the ignorant and sleeping). He equates the whole concept/ emotion/ experience of "love" with "you" (the ex-partner) because for him, all aspects of that special person represent what he understands love to mean (hence the "symphony of you" - not necessarily just certain qualities). The instrumental interlude reflects time passing. "Passion and its brother hate, they come and go Could easily be made to stay for longer, though" For me, the singer, rather than is making the observation that emotions are fleeting, is actually describing how he is flipping between the extremes of love and hate for his estranged love, and that he is in real danger of ruminating on them and becoming stuck or psychologically blocked from ever moving on. "Many people play this game so willingly Do I have to be like them, or be lonely? " The singer is struggling to understand how lightly other people seem to enter into, and cope with the failure of relationships. The implication of the question he asks is extremely poignant: "Am I destined to be alone if I continue to be my authentic self?" "Another view, of what there is to it. Getting me through it." As in verse one, he's recognizing that he takes comfort in balancing the magical/romantic beliefs he held about the nature of love with purely biological ones. It hurts less if it means less. The repetition of, "I'll never need it again, again, again..." is almost like a child-like mantra he is trying to force into his unconscious in order to protect himself in the future. It highlights the tragic truth that no matter how logically we can diminish the significance of love, we can't escape our biology. |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.