This song is timeless, and nearly 20 years after its creation, still possesses the mystique it did the first time i heard it ~1994. To me, at first blush, all those years ago, it had some kind of homo-erotic allure. The line "so that the others may do" tells of something which must be done for others to follow suit. It felt like like some kind of roxy-glam-pop invitation to sexual liberation.
Upon further introspection I think the song may not have an intrinsic meaning, but simply represents a sort of "holding open the door" for people who otherwise might be affronted by this song/band's unusual style. I know, as a sort of armchair rock-historian, that there have been few bands so daring and so true to the sound that wanted to emerge from within, whether the creator wanted it or not. This band handled it with elegance and grace seldom, if ever, seen.
Once it's life's fortunate
Isn't this so
The unreflected feeling
Of a shortened final soul
The life that cuts the cold
Now is in your past
In our memories
We don't have much to say
We don't have much to say
We don't have much
Follow anybody
Is that what you do
Maybe it transfits
Done something else with you
Now we know what we'll be in the past
Another story
Another life that's left
Another life that's left
Isn't this so
The unreflected feeling
Of a shortened final soul
The life that cuts the cold
Now is in your past
In our memories
We don't have much to say
We don't have much to say
We don't have much
Follow anybody
Is that what you do
Maybe it transfits
Done something else with you
Now we know what we'll be in the past
Another story
Another life that's left
Another life that's left
Lyrics submitted by numb, edited by smallwonderrobot
Unreflected Lyrics as written by Hope Sandoval David Roback
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Love your interpretation! I actually thought very much the same thing!
The laugh that cuts cold / Now is in the past
.....
Maybe it's transfixed
On something else to do
Analysis / interpretation
1. Hope Sandoval either isn't keen on grammar or she doesn't care about it ("Among My Swan" is one example. Among is plural; swan is singular. "Unreflected" is also strange because reflect is a verb, but she uses it as an adjective - the adjective form would be reflective or reflecting. Poetic license, I suppose.)
2. For whatever reason this song makes me think of fame, perhaps influenced by a comment a friend of hers once said: some audience members had thrown tomatoes at the band when they first started to play gigs. (The laugh that cuts cold now is in the past; in our memories, we don't have much to say.)
2a. Now that the band has achieved a modicum of fame, she has probably experienced a few hanger-ons (Follow anybody / Is that what you do? / Maybe it transfixed on something else to do) Perhaps the person in question is a follower or maybe he or she just wants to engage in activity, meaningless or otherwise.
2b. But at bottom, the band (and fame) isn't significant. Everyone eventually becomes a speck in the dustbin of history. (Now we know what we'll be in the past / Another story / Another life that's left) Perhaps the last phrase is an incorrect way of stating: another life that HAS left)
2c. Unreflected is anyone's guess, but it could mean that the feeling in question is a realization that one won't shine. Perhaps it's another way of expressing that dull feeling you get when you think of mortality (the unreflected feeling / Of a shortened final soul).
2. Another interpretation is that it involves a death of a friend.