Per the FAQ on Keane's website, Keane's drummer Richard Hughes, stated the following:
"We've been asked whether "Somewhere Only We Know" is about a specific place, and Tim has been saying that, for him, or us as individuals, it might be about a geographical space, or a feeling; it can mean something individual to each person, and they can interpret it to a memory of theirs... It's perhaps more of a theme rather than a specific message... Feelings that may be universal, without necessarily being totally specific to us, or a place, or a time..."
With the nostalgic sentiment and the overall tone of the song, I think Keane is attempting to express a Portuguese term known as 'saudade', which does not have a direct English translation but roughly means "that which we remember because it is gone."
[ SPOKEN ] Dr. X: "Kill her. That's all you have to do."
Nikki: "Kill Mary?"
Dr. X: "She's a risk, and get the priest as well."
10 P.M., I feel the rain coming down
My face feels the wet, my mind the storm
Flashing lights as people race to find shelter from the pour
Moving silent, through the streets, they're mine, they're mine
Midnite, she sings praises in the Hall
To saintly faces hallowed be their names she can't recall
Sister Mary, virgin Mary, silent with her sin
[ Mary: "What are you doing out in the rain?" ]
She feels me, I can taste her breath when she speaks
[ Mary: "I've been waiting for you. Come in." ]
Mary, Mary just a whore for the underground
They made you pay in guilt for your salvation
Thought you had them fooled? Now they've sent me for you
You know too much for your own good
Don't offer me faith, I've got all I need here
My faith is growing, growing tight against the seam
What we need is trust, to keep us both alive
Help us make it through the night
[ Mary ]
I've no more want of any faith
Binds my arm and feed my mind
The only peace I've ever known
I'll close my eyes and you shoot
No Mary, listen, you've got to pull your strength from my lips
I pray I feed you well
Your precious cross is gone, it made me wait so long
For what you gave to everyone
The priest is cold and dead on his knees he fed
From my barrel of death, he turned the Holy water red
As he died he said thank you
I just watched him bleed
[ Mary ]
I feel the flow, the blessed stain
Sweating hands like fire, and flames
Burn my thighs, spread in sacrificial rite
The hallowed altar burns my flesh once more tonight
Mary, sweet lady of pain
Always alone
Blind you search for the truth
I see myself in you, parallel lives
Winding at light-speed through time
No time to rest yet
We've got to stop his game
Before madness has the final laugh
Too much bloodshed
We're being used and fed
Like rats in experiments
No final outcome here
Only pain and fear
It's followed us both all our lives
There's one thing left to see
Will it be him or me?
There's one more candle left to light
[ Mary ]
Don't turn your back on my disgrace
The blood of Christ can't heal my wounds...so deep
The sins of man are all I taste
Can't spit the memory from my mind
I can't cry anymore
Mary, my lady of pain, always alone
Blind you search for the truth
I see myself in you, parallel lives
Winding at light-speed through time, you're mine
Nikki: "Kill Mary?"
Dr. X: "She's a risk, and get the priest as well."
10 P.M., I feel the rain coming down
My face feels the wet, my mind the storm
Flashing lights as people race to find shelter from the pour
Moving silent, through the streets, they're mine, they're mine
Midnite, she sings praises in the Hall
To saintly faces hallowed be their names she can't recall
Sister Mary, virgin Mary, silent with her sin
[ Mary: "What are you doing out in the rain?" ]
She feels me, I can taste her breath when she speaks
[ Mary: "I've been waiting for you. Come in." ]
Mary, Mary just a whore for the underground
They made you pay in guilt for your salvation
Thought you had them fooled? Now they've sent me for you
You know too much for your own good
Don't offer me faith, I've got all I need here
My faith is growing, growing tight against the seam
What we need is trust, to keep us both alive
Help us make it through the night
[ Mary ]
I've no more want of any faith
Binds my arm and feed my mind
The only peace I've ever known
I'll close my eyes and you shoot
No Mary, listen, you've got to pull your strength from my lips
I pray I feed you well
Your precious cross is gone, it made me wait so long
For what you gave to everyone
The priest is cold and dead on his knees he fed
From my barrel of death, he turned the Holy water red
As he died he said thank you
I just watched him bleed
[ Mary ]
I feel the flow, the blessed stain
Sweating hands like fire, and flames
Burn my thighs, spread in sacrificial rite
The hallowed altar burns my flesh once more tonight
Mary, sweet lady of pain
Always alone
Blind you search for the truth
I see myself in you, parallel lives
Winding at light-speed through time
No time to rest yet
We've got to stop his game
Before madness has the final laugh
Too much bloodshed
We're being used and fed
Like rats in experiments
No final outcome here
Only pain and fear
It's followed us both all our lives
There's one thing left to see
Will it be him or me?
There's one more candle left to light
[ Mary ]
Don't turn your back on my disgrace
The blood of Christ can't heal my wounds...so deep
The sins of man are all I taste
Can't spit the memory from my mind
I can't cry anymore
Mary, my lady of pain, always alone
Blind you search for the truth
I see myself in you, parallel lives
Winding at light-speed through time, you're mine
Lyrics submitted by Ice
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She ODs or slits her wrists instead:
Don't turn your back on my disgrace
The blood of Christ can't heal my wounds...so deep
The sins of man are all I taste
Can't spit the memory from my mind
I can't cry anymore
Her story comes to an end.
Dr X could have strangled here with the rosery, and he found her before anyone else did. The face of someone who's life ended violantly can be a very disturbing site.