| Florence + the Machine – Never Let Me Go Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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"Looking up from underneath Fractured moonlight on the sea Reflections still look the same to me As before I went under" Having surrendered to her feelings for someone and embarked upon a relationship with them, they still look and are the same person, but now she sees them in a different light. "And it's peaceful in the deep Cathedral where way you cannot breathe No need to pray, no need to speak Now I am under" This person's love has put her at peace. She is finally content because she is no longer fighting her feelings for them. His/her love is all enveloping and overwhelming, to the extent that it leaves her breathless and speechless. She is now immersed in that love and it's like a religious experience. "Oh, and it's breaking over me A thousand miles out to the sea bed Found the place to rest my head" This person's love is overcoming her, rushing over her, enveloping her and sweeping her away. This is where she feels at peace. "(Never let me go, never let me go Never let me go, never let me go)" Self explanatory. And the arms of the ocean are carrying me And all this devotion was rushing over me And the crashes ahead ("of heaven"??) for a sinner like me But the arms of the ocean deliver me" Being supported, swept away, thoroughly consumed by this person's love. Perhaps their relationship is wrong for some reason, perhaps she feels she's a bad person, but it's meaningless in the face of love. This person's love is her repentance, her saviour. "Though the pressure's hard to take It's the only way I can escape It seems a heavy choice to make But now I am under, oh" She's fighting her feelings and terrified of their intensity, of giving herself to someone, but finally she surrenders and is glad she has done so. "And it's over and I'm going under But I'm not giving up I'm just giving in" Her old life (aka her life without this person) is over. She's still strong, but she's enjoying her sweet surrender to this person's advances. "Oh, slipping underneath So cold and so sweet" Pretty self explanatory. The cold might represent the death of her old life. "In the arms of the ocean, so sweet and so cold And all this devotion, well, I never knew at all And the questions I have for a sinner released In the arms of the ocean deliver me" Her old life is dying and now she is being released from her sins, effectively reborn into a world that she could have never imagined. This is her first true experience of love. |
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| Florence + the Machine – Never Let Me Go Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I love how this song is so open to interpretation. My personal take on it is that the ocean is not in fact the literal ocean, but a person. It could be a lover or a friend but I'd lean towards the former. The story is non linear and flits back and forth, but the general gist is that she is fighting her feelings for someone, maybe because their relationship is seen as wrong for whatever reason or she feels she's a bad person somehow. Ultimately however she's surrending to her feelings for that person and is overwhelmed by the devotion she recieves from them. She can't breathe, she feels like she's suffocating, drowning, and it terrifies her, but then she lets herself surrender ("it's over") and just allows the feelings to envelop and carry her like the currents of the ocean would. After which, she is at peace because she knows she and this person feel the same about each other, and literally 'going with the flow' of their love. The religious alegories ("cathedral where you cannot speak / no need to pray/ a sinner like me/ deliver me") represent not only the near divinity of the way she feels about this person - the way love can feel like a religious, spiritual experience - but at the same time, how everything, faith included, would not be enough to save her from the strength of the 'ocean's' currents; aka the intense, overwhelming emotion she is feeling for this person. Thus, praying would be futile in the face of her love for them. Such a beautiful, poignant, heartfelt song, without being fluffy or sentimental. Just pure, raw emotion. This and Cosmic Love must be two of the greatest love songs of all time. A line by line interpretation will follow in an upcoming post. |
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| White Lies – To Lose My Life Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I detect an irony in the chorus; "let's grow old together and die at the same time". This is a dark song, not a hopeful one. The chorus is lamenting or even mocking the idealistic notion that you and your lover will be together forever through thick and thin. To me, the song is about love being incompatible with life. To love someone you have to be willing to compromise - in effect, lose a part of your 'life' (i.e. stop sleeping around, tame your behavior, not be so selfish and 'careless as a child' etc) - and if you can't do that then you will lose your 'love'. The immature part of you - aka the child, or the soul - wants to be free, want to fly 'above the trees' and not be tied to anything or any one love, be it a person or a profession or a hobby. Note the clever use of opposites: ABOVE the trees, BENEATH the mud. In order for you to be clean and selfish and carefree ('soul will soar above the trees') you have to sever your ties ('I said I have no time, I've got to go') and sacrifice your love ('our dead love's buried beneath the mud'), probably in a very messy way that will end in pain and heartbreak ('crying on the chapel steps'). And of course, this is emotional baggage that you'll be lugging around for the rest of your life ('well mine's regret'). Another interpretation of the second verse could be that the person whose heart - aka love - has 'faded' is another negligent lover; again reinforcing the notion of incomopatibility between two people. He can't be bothered to keep the flame of love alive, and his lover (I think the chapel is an allegory, basically saying the couple split up at the 11th hour) regrets that (s)he is equally incapable, so they go their separate way. -OR- yet another interpretation could be that it's two sides of the same person, trying to figure out and rationalize why they cannot commit. I only discovered White Lies recently and I absolutely love them. The lyrics seem to have real substance and depth rather than simply being obtuse for obtuse's sake, but you do have to dig deep to figure them out. Makes you ponder the nature of humanity, really. |
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