| Fiona Apple – Jonathan Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| Emotional repression. | |
| Depeche Mode – Everything Counts Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| Capitalism is both horrifying in nature and our only option; it is a groove worn in our brains by millennia of behavioural patterns that we cannot dispel no matter our misgivings. Gluttony and greed are our primary motivators in life, and a society based on the idealistic notion of human integrity and altruism is doomed to fail, or at best devolve back into the savage chaos whose grasp we cannot escape. We hate it, we try to feign decency, but in our coldest of hearts, we know that we care for no one but ourselves. Capitalism does not force us to turn against one another; it allows us to. I despise humanity with a passion. | |
| Elliott Smith – Son of Sam Lyrics | 6 years ago |
|
I'm pretty sure he said specifically that this song is not in reference to the actual serial killer, so I'm not going to try and prove that. From a completely subjective and non-evidence-based standpoint, this song has always seemed to me like this thoroughly amoral celebration of freedom and the giving up of conventions and social norms in favour of personal liberty. It's almost like this maniacal high of realising you just don't care. I suppose a similar narrative could apply, or at least relate, to the concept of creativity. Even though, as with almost all Elliott Smith songs, there are darker undertones, I find this song empowering. |
|
| Sufjan Stevens – Vesuvius Lyrics | 6 years ago |
|
At first when I heard this song I thought he was saying EMINENT death, which made me think of the death of Christ.. that would've made sense considering the religious overtones of his music, but the lyric definitely works either way. I think this song is about a conflict between the easy path and the right path. For example, when he says "Sufjan, follow the path / It leads to an article of imminent death," he is instructing himself to the do the thing he considers right while simultaneously acknowledging that the result could be painful. ("Why does it have to be so hard?") He is referring to the same thing when he says, "follow the flame." It seems like what he deems the right path is the one of his own faith--"Follow me now as I favour the ghost" could refer to the holy ghost, or God, and favouring the ghost would mean following what he perceives to be the righteous path. However, it could also refer to the ghost he mentioned before, when he says, "Sufjan, the panic inside / The murdering ghost that you cannot ignore." That in and of itself is a striking image, and perhaps one of my favourite lines from this song. There is an undeniable part of him that wants him to do the thing that he thinks is wrong, and as mca72 has said, he discusses that in John Wayne Gacy Jr as well when he says "And in my best behaviour / I am really just like him / Look beneath the floorboards / For the secrets I have hid." If THAT is the ghost he is referring to when he says that he has chosen to favour the ghost, then maybe when he says "Oracle, I've fallen at last," he is talking about THE fall, the Fall--the fall from heaven that followed the original sin. So perhaps this is his way of saying that he has lost his innocence, and a sin has been committed--in other words, he has favoured the murdering ghost, not the holy one. |
|
| Sufjan Stevens – Death With Dignity Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| I adore this song--I only wish it had been at the end of the album instead of the beginning. While other songs definitely don't express anger or contempt for his mother, having a song in which he explicitly forgives her at the end would've brought some closure to the album's whole narrative, at least in my mind. | |
| Elliott Smith – Speed Trials Lyrics | 6 years ago |
|
First of all, I think it is only fair to acknowledge that many of his songs, particularly in Either/Or, were about drug use, and this one is no exception. (“It’s just a brief smile crossing your face” seems to refer to the brief thrill of a high.) However, he was obviously very intelligent, and his lyrics addressed broader themes than just drugs, or can at very least be interpreted as such. Regardless of Elliott Smith’s intentions with the song, I find that this speaks quite poignantly to my own anxieties and fear of judgement. The very tempo of this song feels like a racing heart, implying panic; I see ‘speed trials’ as a way of describing the snap judgements people are constantly making about you, and how nerve-racking an awareness of that can be. Likewise, there are a couple of sections that feel like the self deprecation that can occur when one holds themself under the same critical eye they believe other people see them through. (“You little child...,” “You’re such a pinball...”) That’s just my take on it, though—it’s very possible that I’m just projecting my own internal insecurities onto this song. |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.