| Malcolm Middleton – A Brighter Beat Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Is about the depression felt by so many people, for whatever reason. All these people up and down the country feeling isolated and they could meet up and get out of the house, but the sense of intertia is so great that they can't move and just stay back at home still. The first verse being a personal situation, the second applying it to the millions of people who are in the same situation and might not even know they're not alone. | |
| At the Drive-In – Metronome Arthritis Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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"strike this match and let loose the oven's breath up the volume that flirts with the UHF" Lighting the fire and causing causing the event - the screams of the people inside are high pitched and "flirt" with high frequencies. "swipe the magnet on the audio tape these arsons of grand larceny keep running...keep running in place achilles tendon severed from the race" Attempting to destroy or hide the evidence, and trying to escape but being paralyzed by fear and guilt. Running in place because no matter how hard the perpetrator tries, they can't make a getaway, the achilles tendon failing would prevent anyone from being able to move. "quick to the throat in this ink cartridge funeral marble caps lock zip code affiliate you got a run on your pharmaceuticals you better change it before the night grows old" As Infectedmethod mentioned, the ink cartridge funerals are the newspaper coverage or obituaries of the victims, I see "marble caps lock" as the font on tombstones of the dead... "zip code affiliate" would be the perpetrator sharing the same area as the victims, increasing the fear of getting caught. "Quick to the throat" could be the panicked strangulation feeling of seeing these reminders and information about the crime, the pharmaceuticals to try to sleep/kill pain/cope and going through them quickly. "set the temperature on delete keep running...keep running in place let's hit the neighborhood today" Mixing the event, the aftermath and the planning all together, in a jumbled mess of thoughts? The last line could be either making the decision to carry out the crime, or it could be trying to reintegrate into the local area. "prescriptions filled now cut your suit and tie cuticals you cut your fingernails way too short" The fingernails are "cut" short through nervous biting, to the quick. Cutting the "suit and tie cuticles" could refer to trying to remove or hide identifying marks, like you would take off clothes. "what if forensics finds the answers what if they stole my fingerprints? where did i leave my book of matches? we'll find you... we'll find you... " A repeated mantra of persecution, self-doubt, fear and paranoia. These are just my thoughts on the song of course, but the more I listen to it, the more you read into it. |
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| Q Lazzarus – Goodbye Horses Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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As has been mentioned on here, it sounds like the aftermath of an emotional event (ie: a bad breakup). Someone's trying to console them with the old classic "plenty more fish in the sea" speech, but being cynical and saying that all relationships fail. The subject then disagrees: there is someone out there who is perfect, a special person, there's always hope. As for the chorus - I read somewhere that it can also be interpreted as the fact that horses are beautiful animals but they can't fly. If you're flying over a distinctly land-based creature you're on a higher plane, emotionally and in terms of a "moral high ground". So it's like refusing to let yourself lose hope and be tethered to the ground by listening to cynicism. |
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| The Smashing Pumpkins – Stumbleine Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I think the title is almost certainly a pun on "Cymbeline", a Shakespearean play that was adapted as "The Injur'd Princess". Lots of intrigue, fakers attempting seduction, borderline rape etc (so standard Shakespearean fare). Cymbeline is actually the king and father of the princess who is 'beshmirched', it comes from his inflexibility as a parent and denial of his daughter's affections to someone he thinks is of low breeding. So perhaps a reference to an offspring growing up and getting into trouble, and the friction between them and an overbearing parent who represents the 'unfairness' of the adult world and making a 'them vs us' situation between the grown-ups and the young. A little too highbrow? ;) |
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| Bloodhound Gang – I Hope You Die Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| This is like the pop-punk flipside to those humorous country songs about how all this bad stuff happens to the singer but he's a nice guy really. This is the person jinxing them with all that crap... got to love JP's lyrical imagination and dexterity - "Just remember 'fist' can be a verb", and how it all goes full circle at the end. | |
| Manic Street Preachers – Sleepflower Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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This is possibly my favourite of all the Manics songs, although I feel The Holy Bible is the best all-round album. Looking at the imagery it links together sorrow, anxiety and insomnia in a vicious circle. When someone worries about something, they can't sleep, their mind loses focus, they worry more and so on. Sleep deprivation makes it hard to remember things ("a memory fades to a pale landscape"), relationships with other people are relegated to almost subliminal status ("You are an extinction, a desert heat" - both things that are technically there but have no physical substance, just an effect), the brain loses the ability to function properly ("Broken thoughts run through your empty mind"). After a major incident such as bereavement, separation or anxiety disorder there's the impact on life and especially sleep... when "innocence dies" it's not just a clean cut thing, it has major repercussions. And after some time of not sleeping it compounds the problems (lament blossoming) and makes the recipient feel even more wretched... a dog may be beaten and abused but at least it can have the luxury of sleep. Cobwebs on stone are the aftermath of old spiderwebs, serving no function but still there as a reminder, like the fragments of memory and anxiety that still remain in your mind and cause problems, so much so that even sleeping pills have no effect. It's a great song, has a lot of personal relevance to me (having suffering from chronic insomnia for about thirteen years) and has fantastic imagery. |
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| Nine Inch Nails – Me, I'm Not Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I agree with BBQ - the Die-agra and Blisters increase aggression, and can be permanent in their effects. Soldiers are given the pills to turn them into less-than-human killing machines, but aren't told they can never go back to their families until it's too late. I see it as being from the point of view of a soldier who's been given the drugs and is regretting them - he can feel himself change into something he doesn't like and is trying to fight it. "well it's happening never planned on this you've got something I need kind of dangerous" He's becoming consumed by the Blisters, he's got a desire to kill that's almost sexual now. His superiors can give him targets/victims. "and I'm losing control I'm not used to this what you want from me I'm not used to this I can't shut it off this thing I've begun and it's hard to tell just where it's coming from and it's hard to see what I'm capable of and it's hard to believe just, what I've become" Suddenly he's a killing machine, but he's not himself anymore. He's not human but he still has traces of humanity left that he tries to cling to. "hey, can we stop? me, I'm not" The correct lyrics. At this point he sounds pleading, tired, weak, beaten. He just wants to stop the effect these drugs are having on him. "Me, I'm not." is him refuting his identity - he's not himself, not only in the way that he's part of an elite warrior group, but who he used to be is going as well. The subject sounds as if he's considering the concept of "me", then denying it on reflection. "I can swallow it down keep it all inside I define myself by how well I hide I feel it coming apart well, at least I tried I can win this war by knowing not to fight" It's a battle between his identity and his desires. He wants to be a normal person and has to suppress parts of himself that he doesn't want to show. He doesn't want to give in to the effects of the Blisters, so all the times he can keep down the inhumanity he feels he's winning. But ultimately he'll lose. "if I take it all back someway, somehow if I knew back then what I know right now" He's dreaming of reversing the damage done. Maybe this soldier *is* the Angry Sniper and is able to claw back something against his 'enemies', maybe he's just a man doing what he thought was his duty and who was betrayed. It's highly likely he's just doomed to his fate of being a pawn, just like the subject in The Good Soldier. |
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| Nine Inch Nails – The Greater Good Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Check www.imtryingtobelieve.com for information on Parepin. The Administration in Year Zero are trying to control the population by putting the drug in the water supply, claiming it's to prevent bio-terror attacks but really to make them more docile and suggestible. By using the term "breathe us in", it makes the control the Government have over the masses feel as natural as the act of inhaling itself - and just as pervasive. The Greater Good is a term used many places elsewhere to suggest that individuals may have to suffer, but ultimately if it benefits the society/hive/company as a whole then such sacrifices are acceptable. The population may be drugged, controlled and lose their identity, but the alternatives could be worse. The end justifies the means. |
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