He reuses the verse melody from the previous album's "Dirty Little Religion", the topics of the verses are all over the place, and he packs too many words into one line (goes to show...) and too few in another (it's pretty hard to find), and rhymes "Henley Regatta" with "Persona non grata", but gets away with it all as only he could.
Love is tragic, love is bold, you will always do what you were told
Love is hard, love is strong, you will never say that you belong
I don't when I got bitter, but love is surely better when it's gone
Cause you wanted more
More than I could give
More than I could handle
And a life that I can't live
You wanted more
More than I could bear
More than I could offer
For a love that isn't there
Love is color, love is loud, love is never saying you're too proud
Love is trusting, love is honest, love is not a hand to hold you down
I don't know when I got bitter, but love is surely better when it's gone
Cause you wanted more
More than I could give
More than I could handle
And a life that I can't live
You wanted more
More than I could bear
More than I could offer
For a love that isn't there
I gotta pick me up when I am down
I gotta get my feet back on the ground
I gotta pick me up when I am down
I don't know when I got bitter, but love is surely better when it's gone
Cause you wanted more
More than I could give
More than I could handle
And a life that I can't live
You wanted more
More than I could bear
More than I could offer
For a love that isn't there
You wanted more
More than I could learn
More than I could offer
And if only you would show
You wanted more
More than I could give
More than I could handle
And a life that I can't live
Love is hard, love is strong, you will never say that you belong
I don't when I got bitter, but love is surely better when it's gone
Cause you wanted more
More than I could give
More than I could handle
And a life that I can't live
You wanted more
More than I could bear
More than I could offer
For a love that isn't there
Love is color, love is loud, love is never saying you're too proud
Love is trusting, love is honest, love is not a hand to hold you down
I don't know when I got bitter, but love is surely better when it's gone
Cause you wanted more
More than I could give
More than I could handle
And a life that I can't live
You wanted more
More than I could bear
More than I could offer
For a love that isn't there
I gotta pick me up when I am down
I gotta get my feet back on the ground
I gotta pick me up when I am down
I don't know when I got bitter, but love is surely better when it's gone
Cause you wanted more
More than I could give
More than I could handle
And a life that I can't live
You wanted more
More than I could bear
More than I could offer
For a love that isn't there
You wanted more
More than I could learn
More than I could offer
And if only you would show
You wanted more
More than I could give
More than I could handle
And a life that I can't live
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More Featured Meanings
Corpse I Fell In Love With
Gadjits, The
Gadjits, The
The Spy
Doors, The
Doors, The
Like a lot of the other comments are saying, I think this mainly about voyeurism. If the song was about his girlfriend, then why would he use the word spy. If you are a spy it means you shouldn't be caught, that is kind of the whole point, and if you are a voyeur, the whole point of the pleasure you get from it, is the fact that the other people don't know you are watching them. See a bit of a connection there?
when rules change
Life in Your Way
Life in Your Way
High life
Battle Royale
Word Alive, The
Word Alive, The
This song is def a twin to "Unfair" (a song she has been quoted as saying is about falling in love with someone who is already in a relationship) so it is presumably about the same person. Given the references to buying an apartment and not being able to see her love interest "after tonight," it's most likely that she's moving away and she'll "wait a day to break the bad news" (i.e. notifying him that she's leaving once she's already gone).
And, of course, the fact that she sees in him a fellow "idealist" and "dreamer" (terms commonly given to people with the INFP personality on the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)) portends that she'll always be left wondering if they would've been perfect together.
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
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"
Maybe he's saying love is a simple thing. People try to hard to define love and compare it to lust and all things associated with that. He just wanted to love a girl and she wanted something complicated?