Thilloilogy

I’m not exactly sure what Fanning is pointing to in this song but from some symbolism and the key of the song it’s clearly a negative connotation.

a reoccurring theme seems to be the ‘shooting star’. Usually when we see a shooting star we are supposed to make a wish. From this I feel that the shooting star is a symbol for hopes and dreams. Before I delve deeper into the lyrics I’d like to highlight that the verse is in a minor key, and chorus, in major. So first up ima look at the first verse, I’m not sure about the first two lines “with every story gone untold, there’s a secret that dissolves” but I’d assume this is hinting to someone with depression that no one else knows about- no one will know that you have depression and no one will know why if you don’t tell stories, hence the secret is never solved. As said in the line “so many pieces still unsolved”. After seeing this line I’m thinking fanning is trying to work out why someone is sad or if fanning himself is depressed. He then says “I’m hosing down ur shooting star” i see this as Fanning crushing someone’s dreams or getting them out of fantasy land, as I feel that someone with depression forgets to empathise with anyone else, or he’s getting someone else out of the fantasy land as they’d turn to to escape reality.

The next verse starts off saying, “sometimes we wish for far away, but something always makes me stay”. This sounds a lot like fanning dreaming to get away from where he is, either physically or emotionally. Maybe he’s being forced to stay by a toxic lover, or something that could be keeping him back metaphorically would be something like alcohol, drugs or another unhealthy habit that makes him happy yet worse, like an alcohol addiction. A similar reference is in Silverchairs, ‘Ana’s Song’ where Daniel Johns struggles to fight anorexia, Ana’s song is also written with a minor key in the verse and a major key key in the chorus. I’m specifically talking about when Johns says “but I need u now somehow” stating how he somehow needs ana, short for anorexia, although it’s bad for him. I believe it’s a similar concept in this song. Fanning also says “far too strong a bond to break” either his bond to a person or a addiction. And “the shooting star is hardly seen, outshined by every other beam” this could mean he is the shooting star and he feels as if his emotions aren’t noticed, or he doesn’t see his dreams because he is to busy getting by the challenges he already has.

Now I’ll touch on the chorus, the key of the chorus really stood out to me, like in Ana’s song where the major keyed chorus is about how he’ll beat anorexia. I once again feel as if this is the same situation, Fanning wants to beat whatever’s making him depressed, he wants to escape a relationship, an addiction or maybe multiple reasons hence the double edged lyrics. The primary line is, “if you wait, I’m gonna drive it home” drive it home like beat it and win it or complete it. Like ‘drive it home’ as an idiom. Then the lines between that say “carry all of this away from here” and the other lines sound like a call and response like saying he’s carrying all of depression away with a distraction, from the next line “kiss you every time the rains appear” I assume it’s a lover, he kisses his lover every time he feels depressed as that what rain typically represents, then the kiss represents her care. Maybe this is why he can’t escape as shes the reason he’s depressed yet she also distracts him from it. But even still the kiss could still represent taking another drink or consuming more drugs.

Finally the outro/interlude. I believe it’s about fanning losing his fight and slowly fading away into a worse abyss, with the music becoming slower and darker sounding fanning sings “ you’d sleep through heaven, jus to get to hell”, I think this means he tries to sleep off the depression as that’s we’re he feels relaxed and comfortable, but he’s only sleeping himself to hell as he sleeps through the good parts of life and doesn’t do the things that make him happy because he’s depressed and ends up making himself more depressed. “Now you drop away slowly, like the autumn leaves, but you lose your colour, when you hit the street” these are the most obvious lines in the song, he’s fading into a worse state of depression, and only loses his colour completely when he gets out of the house and out of his comfort zone.

Anyway that’s all I have to say would love some feedback and thank you for reading.