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"
There was a time I call before
When all I knew was what I saw
The keeper of a major key
I lived in a town called Liberty
I worked hard
To give you all the things that you need
And almost anything that you see
I spent a lifetime working on you
And you won't even talk to me
Can't you see
Why don't you look at me
It's not your right to be
So much my enemy
I knew that I could never give
You knew that you could not forgive
No price or pride would fall before
A ten foot wall without a door
But you know
I watch every step that you make
To find some other fool you can take
And I don't know why I even try
Because it all comes down to this
Can't you see
Why don't you look at me
It's not your right to be
So much my enemy
Can't you see
Why don't you look at me
It's not your right to be
So much my enemy
I worked hard
To give you all the things that you need
And almost anything that you see
I spent a lifetime working on you
And you won't even talk to me
When all I knew was what I saw
The keeper of a major key
I lived in a town called Liberty
I worked hard
To give you all the things that you need
And almost anything that you see
I spent a lifetime working on you
And you won't even talk to me
Can't you see
Why don't you look at me
It's not your right to be
So much my enemy
I knew that I could never give
You knew that you could not forgive
No price or pride would fall before
A ten foot wall without a door
But you know
I watch every step that you make
To find some other fool you can take
And I don't know why I even try
Because it all comes down to this
Can't you see
Why don't you look at me
It's not your right to be
So much my enemy
Can't you see
Why don't you look at me
It's not your right to be
So much my enemy
I worked hard
To give you all the things that you need
And almost anything that you see
I spent a lifetime working on you
And you won't even talk to me
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The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
Love Less has this wonderful plangent quality perfectly complementing Sumner's mystified voice/lyrics. His eyes are downcast, a man confounded by the distant cold behavior of someone he thought he knew. The first lines reflect his earlier naivete "There was a time I call before/When all I knew was what I saw" . This is a revelation so obvious in hindsight that he calls the time he was unaware "before" assuming an 'after'. "The keeper of a major key/I lived is a town called Liberty". He lived in a time of freedom, in a utopia called "Liberty" i.e. his surface perception. A major key is the key to the city. Ignorance is bliss here and he's equating a sense of freedom with his illusioned state.
The singer has worked really hard (musical emphasis on hard) to give his partner "anything that you see". He's exalted this person, yet they "won't even talk to" him now. "Can't you see/Why don't you look at me/ It's not your right to be/ so much my enemy" are lines conveying his desire to shake this person and ask them where their basic morality/decency is.
"I knew that I could never give/ You knew that you could not forgive/ No price or pride would fall before/ A ten foot wall without a door" --> These lines are one that I'm having a bit of trouble with. But from what I can make out there is a bitter stalemate between the two. (Divorce battle?) The first two lines convey a trench warfare position. And the last two phrases convey how entrenched it is ("no price or pride"). A door-less ten-foot wall, an impossible physical barrier used to convey the complete emotional turning away of the two.
Now hip to this person's ways he, "watches every move step that you make" ("every step" is calculating), "to find some other fool you can take" implying that yes he was a fool who's now more the wiser.
The title is broken Love Less as opposed to Loveless. (Reverse it and it's Less Love) This song sounds more pointed and more directed at someone. Lyrically it's a little below par for NO. It's greatness comes from the plangent quality of the music and especially in the long drawn out lines like "Caaan't you see/ Why don't yoouuuu look at me/" That's where just reading the lyrics will leave you without the grasp of the music and shows why pop music can hold more artistic potential than poetry. This forlorn pop song conveys someone reaching out trying to make sense of life's vexing ways. A moral stance from a moral person who believes in basic decency, basic morality, basic respect, trying to understand how someone could blithely disregard these seemingly common sense values. All halfway moral people got to deal with that.