Interpol – Success Lyrics | 14 years ago |
Totally about temptation. I think this is were the male speaker goes astray. This album is about the death of a relationship -- here's the cheating bit. A nice, unfortunate way to start off a morose and brilliant album. Love it. |
Interpol – Always Malaise (The Man I Am) Lyrics | 14 years ago |
I agree. It's the middle of a concept album, where to people have been struggling, and the partner of the male speaker is leaving, but unable to cut the cord completely. Best. Album. Ever. |
Interpol – The Undoing Lyrics | 14 years ago |
Now I'm just harping, but I can't help it, because I'm an English grad student. What else I am gonna do? Plus, every time I listen to it, I get a new perspective. In this song, the speaker is going to tell his partner they can't speak anymore, that he can't operate in this fabricated world of friendship, while the partner moves on. He is going to tell him/her that their "relationship," in all facets of the word, is "undoing" him as a person. But he doesn't. Sometime stops him. His co-dependency I think. That's why he begs his partner to release him, that's why the song and album ends with him begging, "Please, please... the place we're in now..." He is equating it to Hell. There is no end for him, until his partner finally leaves. The lines: "I always thought you had great style/And style was worthwhile/Because I was I was on my way..." suggests a superficiality when it all started (i.e. the song "Success") that the speaker was headed for "stardom" (if we operate under the notion he is an up-and-coming musician) and how their relationship has derailed him. He can no longer differentiate himself from the relationship. He is clinically co-dependent, despite his desperate attempts to stop. It's heart-breaking. Did anybody else hear "Alone. All alone," layered underneath at 2:49. Sweet God. How depressing. Paul is a genius. I really disliked this album at first, but the more I explore the themes, the more I adore it. |
Interpol – Try It On Lyrics | 14 years ago |
This song is beautiful, but terribly depressing. This is a concept album about the death of a relationship and the male speaker's manner of handling it. "Safe Without" suggests that he has resigned himself to having a platonic relationship with his partner, but it goes wrong. This song is his final plea, begging him/her back. The speaker highlights the partner's unfair inability to completely cut the cord ("On this side, you WANNA see..." versus actuality, "On this side, you're GONNA see...") The "No fucking way," seems to be the partner's response to what is the suggestion of rekindling their love instead of being friends. "There's nowhere to stay" hints they have to choose to be together or separate completely, that there can be no middle ground for them, no grey area to linger in. |
Interpol – All of the Ways Lyrics | 14 years ago |
I don't think this song refers to cheating; I think that "Interpol" is a concept album that explores the death of a relationship and how the male speaker reacts. This song focuses on his inability to deal with his partner's moving on. I get the feeling that the couple tried to have a loose friendship after they broke up ("Safe Without") but it doesn't work. In turn, "Try It On" is thematically the last straw for the partner; it's a plea by the speaker for him or her to come back. The partner refuses, finds someone new in "All of the Ways," and the speaker's reaction is a mix of depression, denial, and anger... though he still a refuses to let go, "Does he know that I'll wait for all time?" I think the overall gist of the song is jealousy and the speaker's desires, however, the subtext of this piece is overwhelmingly self-depreciating. The lyric isn't it, "Make it up TO me," it's "Make it up FOR me," like the partner is having to pay penance to society and his/her self for ever dating the speaker in the first place, as if they needed to atone for some such a sin. This reveals a dark layer of the speaker, a self-hatred and insecurity, which rolls over into "The Undoing" gorgeously. It's guttural and sad. Beautiful. |
Interpol – The Undoing Lyrics | 14 years ago |
I'd also like to add, the line, "I was chasing my damage/because I was chased, thrilled and altered," could also be the courting process the speaker endured with his partner, and lend credence (for him) as to why he pursued something that was so obviously over. He was altered fundamentally as a person by his partner's love, "it raised me" suggesting that their love forced him to mature and become the better person. |
Interpol – The Undoing Lyrics | 14 years ago |
I don't want to knock anyone's interpretations, but as the final track of an album with extreme overtones about a failing relationship... wouldn't it seem more plausible that this song is the speaker's concession to the end? Especially coming on the heels of "All of the Ways," which is a song about the speaker's lover moving on? The album is a concept piece. In that regards, the position of each song is terribly important for the story and can't be taken on its own. The latter half of the album, especially in "Try It On" and "All of the Ways," seems to suggest the couple was trying to maintain some sort of friendly relationship after the fall of their own romantic interlude. "The Undoing" is the speaker's sad admission that he can't pretend to be okay anymore, that he has come "undone" as a person because of this relationship. He was "chasing his damage," (damage being the partner) with the hopes he or she would change their mind. This song makes it clear that they aren't. Being "chased, thrilled and altered," is more a testament to growing process we go through in love, although in this case, it seems for the worse. The Spanish lines are unbelievably poignant, like a detachment -- he can't bring himself to say he's lost everything in his own Native tongue -- as if this will lessen the blow of the actuality. Earlier in the album, the speaker asks his partner to release him, and at 3:04 in this song, you can clearly hear him say, "Please, please, release me." A beautiful song and album. I can only imagine it had to be written from personal experience, which is all the more heartbreaking. |
The Maccabees – First Love Lyrics | 15 years ago |
Lyrics are wrong on this. He says: Do you want to be alone? Do you want to be alone? And are you cool? Symmetrical? Hypocritical? Analytical? So critical-- nothing's perfect-- And I'm hoping I'll do, but I will not do. Cause nothing's perfect, so I'll have to make due. And also: Well, it's my mistake, and no mistake, And I would take it back if I could, So, stay with me tonight. And I'll make my bed, I'll lie in it, And pillow talk into it. I'll make my bed, I'll lie in it, Entice you with its leopard print And matching velvet duvet. |
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