| Dispatch – Fallin' Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| 200 pieces of gold for the silver cup or no deal. | |
| Dispatch – Bullet Holes Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Giffdud, that's what I hear, too. Seems to make more sense that way. | |
| Dispatch – Steeples Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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tidd42- A lot of lyricists seem to incorporate Christian themes into their music, but it's often pretty disguised. From what I've seen, several different artists use the same words to symbolize the same concepts. I assume they do this so listeners are free to interpret them in their own way without being influenced by overtly religious words. Once the music is out in the ether the meaning of some particular set of lyrics belongs to the individual listener. I think the song could be about individuality, too. But only purely about individuality to yourself and/or anyone else who felt that way. Long as you dig the music, it serves its purpose |
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| Band of Horses – The Funeral Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Quote: "such a pretty song" you say? well, it should be, since they ripped off a beach boys riff. listen to the gorgeous vocal harmony at the end of "surf's up". it's the main melody of this song. l.a.m.e.----- It's similar but I wouldn't say they "ripped off" the riff, people have influences, bands they loved when they were kids, and whether or not it was intentional it's hard not to see it as a tribute to the band who originally penned down the notes. Still a great song (as was Surf's Up) |
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| Nick Drake – One Of These Things First Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Yeah dante23 I had always thought that too when I heard this song. He seems to have a few references to reincarnation or at least hints that he thought about it in his other songs. | |
| Nick Drake – Which Will Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| One of my absolute favorite Drake songs. Very beautiful song. | |
| Elliott Smith – Ballad of Big Nothing Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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"Watching the parade with pinpoint eyes" Maybe he wasn't addicted, but that's definitely talking about heroin/opiates. Just because he talked about drugs alot doesn't mean the music doesn't rule. I know you want to defend him but don't make him into something he wasn't |
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| The Shins – Sea Legs Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Awesome song, I love delicious beat of guitar chords and, what's that a little clangy tambourine? Well regardless... Reminds me of being off in the tropics with a salty breeze blowing in my face. Let that crazy boat go where it goes... Set that salty night horizon alight. Happy sailing man. *salute* |
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| The Shins – Young Pilgrims Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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The song really speaks to me because I was at a point in my life where I was really getting close to that point where I wanted to just crash the whole mess into the sea when I really started to listen to the Shins. Songs like this and Sleeping Lessons, Saint Simon, and others always strike the chords so deeply my eyes tear up when I hear them... Like finally seeing that glimpse of light for the first time through endless years of wandering in the dark |
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| The Shins – Young Pilgrims Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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To me this is one of the Shins songs that points toward the philosophy that makes them such a bright and flowing quirky band in the face of our increasingly empty generation. It's that call to live your life like an artist and, when you could get lost in endless trains of thought about how empty and meaningless life is.... "There's no design, no flaws to find" You've got an empty canvas, paint, live... there's sadness, pain, and apathy, but there's also limitless moments of joy and creation. Don't get stuck in the negative, paint the whole canvas. Use all the colors. Throw them at the canvas if and when you have to... Draw outside the lines, but don't just throw the canvas on the ground and wait for it to decompose |
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| The Shins – Phantom Limb Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I love this song. I've never had a band where every song was more than *just* palatable until now. They've got this versatility where you can like/love something about one of their songs song that's exclusive to just that song. | |
| The Shins – Pressed In A Book Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Nope think it was just me, that wasn't a freudian slip or anything about what I thought about the song or anything. Maybe the image of someone rolling their eyes at it, though. | |
| The Shins – Girl Inform Me Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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"cause you know as soon as breathe we scrutinize the paint away." Ironically, I started doing that to their lyrics for a bit, after stumbling across this site especially... It definitely strips the paint away. It grew tiring after an hour or so, and the music was music again! Mercer's got such a bright side to his professed dark side and it's nice to see it when he shows it. |
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| The Shins – A Call To Apathy Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| God...... I don't know what to say about how much I truly love this band. This is one of my more favorite songs because of the way he bounces the lyrics through the melody, and that raise in pitch of his voice starting with "I find a fatal flaw". | |
| The Shins – Pressed In A Book Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Is it just me or does it say "And you'll just roll your eyes and say: That is trite" ? Not "Nice Try" ? | |
| The Shins – Black Wave Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| whoah nevermind I guess they dont update lyrics from comments :| | |
| The Shins – Black Wave Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| whoah nevermind I guess they dont update lyrics from comments :| | |
| The Shins – Black Wave Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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"Can you hear the subtle, aching tone? Through the water, through the earth, chill your bone." (?) Anyone, anyone, Bueller, Bueller? |
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| The Shins – Sleeping Lessons Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I know it doesn't placate those of you who love to find the little Nietzsche and existentialism tidbits hiding in Shins songs when I say that "Everyone's interpretation is right". But I think you really miss a lot if you put the lyrics in a box... or worse, try to *make* them fit into a box. I love the fact the Shins set themselves apart from mainstream bands, but existentialist philosophy and the ability to read beyond an 8th grade level aren't the only things that set them apart, they have actual musical talent... a *lot* of talent. I think the Shins' struggle to incorporate modern philosophy and abstract thought into their music without detracting from the ability of fans to still view their music as art. You miss a lot if you try to intellectualize something that requires you to let go of your conceptual abstractions and linguistic contraptions to really touch it. Poetry and lyrics aren't a math problem, they're a magic eye poster, you have to cross your eyes and step back a little before you really see it, cause the way you normally see jumbles it all into a complete mess. |
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| The Shins – A Comet Appears Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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It's so beautiful how they create such a bitter sweet tone to this song. You could get lost in wretched apathy for the rest of your life without recovering. Even if you do make it through, sometimes you can still invent things to make you sink again. Funny how you can make all the stones you want but can't make poles for ****. That elusive experience of experiencing truly naked reality is easy to lose touch with. I guess that's as close as you get to wings once you fall the first time |
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| The Shins – Australia Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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With the I think the narrator recognizes the girls waning will to live, at least where she's living now... so he figures maybe his numbness would be a welcome replacement to her impending suicide if she stays. If only as an excuse for what he's going to introduce her to. Let's jump out the window if you keep going with the Himmler reference means escaping from her prison, her town if not society as a whole, before she offs herself. The duotone on the wall thing obvious but referenced again in Phantom Limb, her town is insanely religious and she's an outcast for whatever reason (I think I saw someone say Mercer actually said it was about her being a lesbian) so she needs to get the bleep out and the narrator, recognizing it in her, uses that excuse to avoid the guilt of introducing her to what he's about to. |
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| The Shins – Turn a Square Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I see it the same way as GreenLips. I think "Can't afford to be just one in a flock But that's your lot When you're after such a well made lock" Can also be interpreted as both that he cant afford being one of the many who have tried to be with her (as GreenLips put it) but also saying that she'll be just another one of the many girls he's been with for purely physical reasons. And his friends predict it wont work between them (detractors, and "all my friends know I've tried") because they are familiar with his letcherous proclivities. |
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| The Shins – Turn a Square Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| "And it swims with a pulse just to find the right satellite, and to call on the strength to give up" I'm pretty sure. Not "swim to the poles", or "it'll take all my strength" | |
| The Shins – Your Algebra Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I agree with what ladybug87 said. (Especially about it not being about math...) But yes I agree the song seems as if it's meant to warn against the dark philosophical/existential holes one can encounter when finally confronting impermanence, particularly nihilism. Which is even worse than Christianity in my opinion... at least you can reason your way out of that hole. The children laughing at the end seems like an (intentional or not) callback to "Those to Come" and the way he feels about the mysterious nature of existence/life. That sense of mystery/wonder is hard for an intellectual to understand/concede to but it's necessary to have some sense of it to avoid slipping into some form of apathy/nihilism. If you gloss over Nietzsche's idea of the dionysian experience you miss the only glue that can hold his philosophy together, IMO that's what "lost their eyes on the finer points" is referring to. I'm not trying to place the Shins in a box or anything but their songs are often heavily laden with Nietzschean references. |
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| The Shins – A Comet Appears Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Sometimes after saying "this is a dream, I will dream on" too many times, you would rather just wake up, instead. But after that, even dancing with silly satyr's won't put you back to sleep. And being awake f*cking sucks. | |
| The Alan Parsons Project – Let's Talk About Me Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I believe the artist is singing for a blanketed mass of people. You hear a few tracks of people arguing their point in the beginning of the song, a bit after the singer breaks through the people arguing... Let's talk about me!! Hey, a lot of people want to talk about themselves, even when starting a conversation neutral, they want to talk about them.. And in the process there is a breakdown in communication because each of the people talking... only hear themselves... Debates (particularly privately rather than a "debate team," which would be quite different really), arguments, even plain everyday conversation... In my opinion the artist is portraying the opposite of what he wants you to see, in the process of which, you will see the picture more clearly (from both sides, once you realize the other). I took a lot away from the song, I take a lot away from a lot of their songs... If you really listen, (and even in the process you may only be forming *your* own opinion about what the song means, well I guess I should truly how you interpret the song is your own, and the closer you get to what the artist is trying to portray, or believe that you have done so, the more the song means to you.) you can take a *LOT* away from their songs. |
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| The Alan Parsons Project – Dancing On A High Wire Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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To me this song is narrated by a man conflicted with the way society has degenerated. Through such mediums as television, schools, even stores... the theme nowdays is the common experience. A lot about us despite very very long distances, is the same. ("Towing the same line") "We give in, we call it neutrality"... (complacency?) "We are the same, with no similarity". "The Ivory Madonna is walking through the door" (the narrator is trying to get us to reflect upon what used to be, by showing us how it is now, previously.) "You watch her from a window, it doesn't matter anymore" We look on her now, from a distance, and she doesn't matter anymore. (return to complacency, apathy) That is *my* interpretation, which probably has nothing to do with the song at all. A swing and a miss perhaps, but to me it was a home run. |
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| The Alan Parsons Project – Don't Answer Me Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I think it is about the artist losing touch with mystery. In my own specific context I guess I would describe it as he is losing touch with magic/fantasy/wonder, in exchange for science and logic ("In a moment of madness," mind you).. "If you need to believe in someone, just pretend its me." (In my opinion) It's his own anthropomorphism of science(emperic logic? better?) speaking to him throughout the song, but for the chorus, which kind of seems to me like his subconscious striving to get him back in touch with mystery and wonder. That's what it means to *me* I should say... |
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| Pete Yorn – Just Another Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| I think the way the song flows augments the lyrics. *To me* I think the song means that he's trying to get over her. It sounds like she's having some problems and wants him to quit her, because she'll break him. He loves her, so he's reconciling with himself... his love, and then trying to make himself believe... she's just another girl. I know I've tried to make myself believe that before... to get over someone. | |
| Collective Soul – Better Now Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| Yeah great song, they had us sing "the worlds done shaking, the worlds done shaking, the worlds done shaking me down" to bring them out for their encore :P they wouldnt come out for like 5 minutes finally everyone started singin it and they ran out and played Shine. Was pretty badass | |
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