| James Blake – I Need a Forest Fire Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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Beautiful song, the harmonies between blake and vernon are incredible. This song to me sounds like a call to God. In the Bible "Cedar" wood is often used to describe a strong and flourishing nation or a mighty fortress (i.e. The cedars of Lebanon) this ties into the lyrics "stop before I build a wall around me" and "I need a forest fire". Basically it sounds like they are saying that they have are very content with their wealth/materials/lives and that scares them. In their wealth and abundance they fear that they are losing their need/desire for God amd they want God to burn their cedars down and to stop them before they get to comfortable in their earthly lives. They want something to happen in their lives that brings them back to needing/wanting God. The lyric "Im saved by nature but it always forgets what I need" seems to be an almlst sarcastic line that shows how people who replace God with nature dont have anyone to care for them. Nature doesnt really care about what you need, God does. I am not sure how the line "youre thicker than you think" fits into my narrative, but the line "you know that money bought your name" could easily be referencing Judas selling Jesus' priceless name for "money". The line "Can I repay you with some blame" seems to be indicative of what we all do to God. When things are going good we feel self reliant, as if we didnt need him, and then when things go bad we "repay" the good thing that he gave us before with "blame". We dont awknolwedge God for the good in our lives but we blame him for the bad. TL;DR The writer's lives are going really well, almost too well, and they are fearful that their pride and self-reliance will take-over if God doesnt "stop" them and bring them a "forest fire" (a humbling trial of some sort) |
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| Sufjan Stevens – The Seer's Tower Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| This song is so beautiful, very religious and apocalyptic in nature. The begining speaks of a tower and I am not sure if it is the tower of babel because I dont see its relevence in this apocalyptic song. "Seer" is someone with very good foresight, almost prophetic in essence. I believe the pun with the sears tower here is that Sufjan can see the fire/the end as if he were on a tower that overlooks the universe. He knows it is coming. The stanza where it talks about Emmanuel with his robe and sword is a clear picture of Jesus and his second coming where He will divide man between the good and the evil (despite any family connections). The next stanza gets more confusing. "In the powers of the earth we wait until it rips and rips" could be saying that we are all waiting for apocalyptic events and signs of the end times to begin. We are waiting for the earth to "rip" into natural disasters and war because it means Emmanuel is soon to come back. I believe that Sufjan could be alluding to his own family situation when he says "oh my mother she betrayed us but my father loved and bathed us" that could be taken two ways in that Carrie, Sufjan's mother did in fact "betray" his family when she left them and Sufjan was cared for by his father. Or mother could mean "mother earth" and that the earth betrayed mankind with its false promises and pleasures but God the Father loved and took care of mankind. The last two lines are hauntingly beautiful and Sufjan is basically saying that he knows Jesus is coming back to save him and this current evil world will end in fire, but until then he is suffering in his loneliness and depression. At least thats all the insight I can offer. | |
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