This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
I want to be with you
I want to be clear
But each time I try
It's the voice I hear
I hear that voice again
I'm listening to the conversation:
Judge and jury in my head
It's coloring everything
All we did and said
And still I head that sharp tongue talking
Talking tangled words
I can sense the danger
Just listen to the wind
I want you close I want you near
I can't help but listen
But I don't want to hear
Hear that voice again
I want to be with you
I want to be clear
But each time I try
It's the voice I hear
I hear that voice again
I'm hearing right and wrong so clearly
There must be more than this
It's only in uncertainty
That we're naked and alive
I hear it through the rattle of a streetcar
Hear it through the things you said
I can get so scared
Listen to the wind
I want you close I want you near
I can't help but listen
But I don't want to hear
Hear that voice again
What I carry in my heart
Brings us so close or so far apart
Only love can make love
I want you close I want you near
I can't help but listen
But I don't want to hear
I hear that voice again
I want to be with you
I want to be clear
But each time I try
It's the voice I hear
I hear that voice again
I want to be clear
But each time I try
It's the voice I hear
I hear that voice again
I'm listening to the conversation:
Judge and jury in my head
It's coloring everything
All we did and said
And still I head that sharp tongue talking
Talking tangled words
I can sense the danger
Just listen to the wind
I want you close I want you near
I can't help but listen
But I don't want to hear
Hear that voice again
I want to be with you
I want to be clear
But each time I try
It's the voice I hear
I hear that voice again
I'm hearing right and wrong so clearly
There must be more than this
It's only in uncertainty
That we're naked and alive
I hear it through the rattle of a streetcar
Hear it through the things you said
I can get so scared
Listen to the wind
I want you close I want you near
I can't help but listen
But I don't want to hear
Hear that voice again
What I carry in my heart
Brings us so close or so far apart
Only love can make love
I want you close I want you near
I can't help but listen
But I don't want to hear
I hear that voice again
I want to be with you
I want to be clear
But each time I try
It's the voice I hear
I hear that voice again
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I enjoy the previous interpretations of this song and agree with them in part. There's a few things I wanted to point out. The first is that I read that this song is a reflection of Gabriel's upbringing and having judgmental parents. The other point is that a person can have 2 different viewpoints of a situation at the same time. It's not necessarily one is the head and one is the heart (emotion). Being in the legal profession for over 20 years, there isn't much emotion but the same set of facts can take on 2 different, 3, 4 or more different viewpoints relating to the same situation. Gabriel is getting at the conflict in 2 key parts of the song: "And still I head that sharp tongue talking / Talking tangled words" & "I can sense the danger", "I'm hearing right and wrong so clearly". It's alluded to in other parts of the song, obviously.
It's speaks/sings to the confused, conflicted mind or the depressed, sad mind just trying to figure out what would have been the right way to handle a difficult situation.