| Smog – Nineteen Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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I don't think so. Seems like we're jumping into a story part way through, after she's picked up a cut. (As evidence against: 1) that would be kind of weird, 2) how would he know?) |
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| The Delgados – American Trilogy Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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It's interesting to see people with mixed views over whether this song is upbeat or downbeat. It's clear it's about depression. I'd also add that's it's about Alun Woodward's depression rather than someone else's. I think that when the Delgados write about other people they write in the second person. Personally I think the positiveness in the music and lyrics is genuine. I'd say the same about Alun's other songs on the album. They're optimistic in a fragile way. They're not the same as some of the wry, slightly bitter, songs on Hate. The last lines in the choruses make it clear. I'm alright now, I can even take the pain. The worst has passed. Life is still difficult, but I can get through it. |
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| The Delgados – The Weaker Argument Defeats The Stronger Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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This song always puzzled me, but I think it's about being told by people you know that you can't do something (like a relationship or a band), so you go and find some other people who are more intelligent - or possibly just less pessimistic. What the hell the legendary list is, I have no idea. |
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| The Delgados – The Weaker Argument Defeats The Stronger Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| I second all of those. I'm pretty certain it's also "if dreaming's not wrong enough" too, rather than "if dreaming's not wrong in love". | |
| The Delgados – The Light Before We Land Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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I think that's pretty much it. "When things that once were beautiful are bland" references one of the big symptoms of depression (anhedonia). And there's the line "remind us how we used to feel, before when life was real" which questions what is the 'normal' state, whether depression or happiness is a more true feeling. The main thing I'd add is that this song is also partly directed at a partner (and perhaps other friends/family). I think "hold on" also refers to their relationship, trying to get through this bout and fix their problems. |
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| The Delgados – No Danger Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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It's a difficult song to interpret. I think a number of Alun's songs refer quite specifically to things that happened to him, and songs like that can be particularly tricky. There are several parts that seem to refer to heroin use - 'the marks upon their arms', 'find a vein...' These link to themes of addiction in other parts of the album. It's hard to know how just how literally to take this. There seems to be the choice of a self-destructive and hedonistic lifestyle, "embrac[ing] the cowardly and the weak". This coincides with an ambiguous relationship with an old friend ("now you've got the rush/we're not in love"). There's the idea of (emotional/relationship or life?) opportunities coming when you're not properly prepared for them ("we don't know we're strong enough and chances come too soon"). There's a search for alternatives to conventional ways of living - the romantics, the footballs - and the rejection of a comfortable life in order to carry out this search. A rejection which throws the singer down among addicts, criminals and other damaged people. In the end, like other Delgados songs, the story is hard to make out, but the emotion is clear - coming through pain, difficulty and fragility, to a tentative hope. Incidentally, the single version is brutally chopped down, but I do love the children's choir. |
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| Mogwai – Yes! I Am a Long Way from Home Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| I always wondered what that part said, but never made the effort to reverse it and find out. | |
| Mogwai – Katrien Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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The track starts with with: "I've been reading about, looking at pictures of you is..." I can make out a scattered half of the lyrics in the first half of the song, like "sick humour.. death is no festival". A recognisable part is: "many people die too late, a few too early [something] tried to die right on time" which is a rough quote from Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Nietszche. The clearest section is: "I could no longer see or hear or feel anything. I could see and hear and feel everything simultaneously. I awake in the corridor to Frederick smiling, standing over me. 'I didn't tell you,' he says, 'how did you know? How did you know?' He smiled and walked off. From where I was lying I could see the [sandpit exterior and the swings?]" After that the instruments get louder and the lyrics in the final third are completely buried. |
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| Smog – Red Apple Falls Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| Parts of this song are also reminiscent of 'It's Rough' - someone is looking to the singer for help and he is unable to give it/is in the same situation. | |
| Smog – Red Apple Falls Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| The third verse of this song, leading up to "the telephone ring is like a banshee wail" may be my favourite smog lyric. It's such a good evocation of feeling that any little thing out of the ordinary or beyond the bare minimum is too painful or difficult. | |
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