| Whitney – Dave's Song Lyrics | 14 days ago |
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Dave’s Song is a love song about an unhealthy longing. It was said in Paste Magazine that Dave was an eccentric neighbour the band had. The band, writing this song as a joke, projects a love story onto their relationship with Dave. |
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| Whitney – Golden Days Lyrics | 14 days ago |
| Golden Days is about reminiscing on a breakup. The singer remarks the imperceptible changes a relationship can experience, and by the time it was over the ‘good days’ seemed so far away. | |
| Camera Obscura – Lloyd, I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken Lyrics | 27 days ago |
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Lloyd, I’m Ready to Be Heartbroken is the answer song to Lloyd Cole’s 1984 “Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?”. Lloyd, I’m Ready to Be Heartbroken is a loving, bittersweet tribute between two Scottish artists who are mutual fans. Through interacting with Lloyd Cole’s song, Camera Obscura superimposes the unfortunate ‘didn’t-happen’ concert viewing (thank you Finster_17 for providing that context) onto this fictional ‘doomed youth romance’ narrative within the lyrics of the song. Lloyd Cole is both the loved artist who the band is paying tribute to and a fictional love interest/figure in the song. I will be referring to the artist as Lloyd Cole and the love interest as Lloyd. Camera Obscura takes the youthful cynicism of Lloyd Cole in “Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?” and juxtaposes it with an opposite but equally angsty perspective, still about being rash and in love, but instead able to see that staying stagnant and naïve hurts more than being “heartbroken”. Its as if Lloyd Cole was asking ‘are you ready to face the world?’ as a way to delay the inevitable pain, and Camera Obscura is responding ‘I want it now, because waiting for the day Lloyd doesn’t show up hurts more…’ The song revolves around expectations and anticipating an inevitable change that will happen to the relationship between the singer’s character and Lloyd. There are many allusions to the interaction between Lloyd Cole and Camera Obscura in the way the relationship between Lloyd and the singer is written about (mostly in emotion). In the booklet that accompanies the CD, it is written that the contested line in verse two reads “you can stay a girl by holding a boy’s hand”, this is about the singer’s conflicted self-reflections for wanting to stay ‘blind’ to the fact that change is inevitable between two people. Lastly, in the music video, I think it’s referencing Lloyd Cole’s era through the neon and pastel visuals, while the two dancers are supposed to represent the blissful lovers (Lloyd and the Singer). As for Tracyenne Campbell’s performance in the video I think it’s more pensive than disinterested, like she is perhaps anxious or disappointed. This is by no means a line-by-line dissection of every theme and reference I’ve presented here, but I’m sure this is enough to show the layers within the two songs, two artists and many stories attached to it. |
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| Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Are you ready to be heartbroken? Lyrics | 1 month ago |
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Are you ready to be heartbroken is a coming-of-age song about crossing the threshold into the “real world”. The song is full of references to ‘pop’ culture surrounding an idealised young adult life, with the main conceit being this ‘warning’ about how the subject will face heartbreak over something soon. The entire album is full of rhetorical questions, literary references and foreboding narratives/conversations. On account of Lloyd Cole being 23 when the song came out, this seems quite fitting. I think this song is about a young person worrying about how long their naive and carefree life will go on for, posing as a cynical voice to warn/prepare themselves for the real world. |
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| Alvvays – After the Earthquake Lyrics | 1 month ago |
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After the Earthquake, like songs like Next Of Kin and Already Gone, follow relationships through traumatic experiences. After the Earthquake is about change and regret. The song presents the motions of a car accident with moments of current feelings of the singer layered in, stemming from an argument or disagreement that was ongoing before the accident happened. The title comes from the Murakami short story collection (with Earth omitted) about vaguely the same ideas. I love that book and recommend you read it. Just like the song the book is about longing and travel, there are a lot of unspoken intimacies and undefined relationships in that collection of stories, a lot like what Alvvays songs are about. This song’s final bridge is so, so good, notice the quality of the vocals as everything else disappears. True poetry. |
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| Ivy – Never Do That Again Lyrics | 1 month ago |
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Never Do That Again is about trying to sacrifice/do something for your partner and finding out that neither of you wanted it. There is also a suggestion of miscommunication or the lack thereof that worsens the situation, the line “it gets so complicated ‘til I can’t pretend” is just so beautiful. |
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| Jejune – The Early Stars Lyrics | 1 month ago |
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Trigger warning: Themes of s*icide. Early Stars is about double assisted s******? “when you sink into the ground/ you’ll fly” “We’ll go quietly together” “when they open up their/ papers they’ll know” There are hints all throughout this song about a plan or carrying out a double assisted s* or two s* in parallel. There are hints towards life/breathing in the phrases found in verse 1, “restless heart”, “breathing lessons” and “collapsing air”. Meanwhile verse 2, “slow eyes” (extremely morbid interpretation) might be referring to the partner’s last moments with their eyes open as life leaves their body. It gets slightly more complicated with the latter two lines in the verse however, as “separation” and “alone” suggest that only the partner carried out the s*, leaving the singer…? I believe its more likely that the partner went first, giving the singer a moment of ‘silence’ where this song could hypothetically come into existence on this fictional timeline. However haunting and beautiful this song is, its subject matter is serious, if you need help with your mental health, it is right at your fingertips. And to ohboyitisntmic!, I’m here aren’t I? |
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| Kind of Like Spitting – Birds Of A Feather Lyrics | 1 month ago |
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Birds Of A Feather refers to the proverb “Birds of a feather flock together”, meaning people of similar qualities tend to stick together. Here KOLS applies that phrase to a strained relationship. I don’t know how this will be perceived by fans of this genre of music, but if you are after a more accessible/alternative interpretation of that proverb in music, Billie Eilish’s song of the same title does a pretty good job. The beginning lines of both verses allude to a kind of unequal power dynamic, “by the name of my neck…” referring to the singer being handled like an animal, “sometimes I believe in god,,,” referring to fear as a factor in loyalty/faith. Though empty words are exchanged in this relationship, there is a kind of substance between the two characters, shown in the outro verse. The two are bound by their insecurities, but inevitably time will separate them. Audio systems are wasted on people who aren’t listening to this song… |
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| Brittle Stars – Souvenir Lyrics | 1 month ago |
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Souvenir by Brittle Stars is about a one-sided effort in a relationship. The singer wants very much to move towards a “destination” with somebody that is complacent. There is a moment of doubt in the line “My intention ask my opinion”, where the motives of the singer come into question, however the feelings that drive that motive are too persistent for the singer not to make the move. Though the lyrics are quite straightforward, the title is a different question. It could be about how souvenirs are signifiers of places in time, and that taking them away from their place of origin is defying a form of complacency, though this seems like a stretch. |
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| The Softies – Sleep Away Your Troubles Lyrics | 1 month ago |
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Sleep Away Your Troubles is about an unrequited love and the stalemate that distance can cause. It is unclear to us whether the singer is close to the subject of the song, though one can assume that they are in each other’s lives as per the line “I hope you never leave me’. Much of the song is about how despite bearing the pain of a one-sided love the singer continues to wish well for the subject, almost blessing them in hopes nothing changes for the worse. An unhappy stalemate is more comfortable than defeat. |
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| The Cat's Miaow – The Phoebe I Know Lyrics | 1 month ago |
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The Phoebe I know is about two people ‘making it’ somewhere, and one party anticipating the other’s anxiety about it. Here the band likens it to travelling. Noting the gap between spontaneously ‘wanting’ to go somewhere (“let’s go where it lands”) and the troubles somebody who dislikes travelling faces. The motif of “Well that’s the Phoebe I know” is the thematic backbone to the conflict between the singer and “Phoebe”, it sounds both familiar and foreboding, like the singer knew the ‘trip’ was never going to happen. The lines “And you never wanted to go back there again” suggests potentially that Phoebe’s history prevents them from going “there” again, whether that be a time and place or a state in a relationship. The singer knows it’s not going to work. The final verse especially is about the anticipating and eventual reminiscing of Phoebe’s reluctance to travel despite wanting to. Really, nothing happens or changes in this song. Though be it a trip or a ‘next stage’ in a relationship not happening can perhaps be one of the most revealing experiences one can have with somebody. |
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