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"
It's the way you're nervous when you speak
The way I know just what you mean
It's the kind of thing that's bitter sweet
It's the funny feeling deep inside
So many different sides but still so easy to define
Cause you know it every time and not just in your mind
But you can feel the butterflies
Sendin' chills down your spine
What is love?
But a kiss on a rainy day
A smile that won't go away
A safe place to run
What is love?
But a complicated simple truth
A bond between me and you
The number one
Uh that's love
And the things that never cross your mind
You're doin' all of the time
It's with someone special, it's alright
It's like dancing when you walk
And singing when you talk
Your happy just to be alive
But in the mornin',
Don't pretend,
Let it go and take it in
You don't have to understand
The how, why, and when's
What is love?
But a kiss on a rainy day
A smile that won't go away
A safe place to run
What is love?
But a complicated simple truth
A bond between me and you
The number one
So take off your hat and stay for a minute
Love is a precious thing if you let it
In you'll never know what you'll find till you give it,
Sometime, sometime
What is love? (what is love? Yeah)
But a kiss on a rainy day (a kiss on a rainy day)
A smile that won't go away (a smile that won't go away)
A safe place to run
What is love? (what is love?)
But a complicated simple truth (a simple truth)
A bond between me and you (between me and you)
The number one
What is love? (what is love?)
But a kiss on a rainy day (a kiss on a raining day)
A smile that won't go away (a smile that won't go away)
A safe place to run (a safe place to run)
What is love? (what is love?)
But a complicated simple truth (a simple truth)
A bond between me and you (between me and you)
The number one (the number one)
All that's love (all that's love)
What is love
Wat is love?
It's a kiss on a rainy day
Oh that's love
Ohh oh ohhh
The way I know just what you mean
It's the kind of thing that's bitter sweet
It's the funny feeling deep inside
So many different sides but still so easy to define
Cause you know it every time and not just in your mind
But you can feel the butterflies
Sendin' chills down your spine
What is love?
But a kiss on a rainy day
A smile that won't go away
A safe place to run
What is love?
But a complicated simple truth
A bond between me and you
The number one
Uh that's love
And the things that never cross your mind
You're doin' all of the time
It's with someone special, it's alright
It's like dancing when you walk
And singing when you talk
Your happy just to be alive
But in the mornin',
Don't pretend,
Let it go and take it in
You don't have to understand
The how, why, and when's
What is love?
But a kiss on a rainy day
A smile that won't go away
A safe place to run
What is love?
But a complicated simple truth
A bond between me and you
The number one
So take off your hat and stay for a minute
Love is a precious thing if you let it
In you'll never know what you'll find till you give it,
Sometime, sometime
What is love? (what is love? Yeah)
But a kiss on a rainy day (a kiss on a rainy day)
A smile that won't go away (a smile that won't go away)
A safe place to run
What is love? (what is love?)
But a complicated simple truth (a simple truth)
A bond between me and you (between me and you)
The number one
What is love? (what is love?)
But a kiss on a rainy day (a kiss on a raining day)
A smile that won't go away (a smile that won't go away)
A safe place to run (a safe place to run)
What is love? (what is love?)
But a complicated simple truth (a simple truth)
A bond between me and you (between me and you)
The number one (the number one)
All that's love (all that's love)
What is love
Wat is love?
It's a kiss on a rainy day
Oh that's love
Ohh oh ohhh
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The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
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I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
No Surprises
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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.
This lyric means that the songwriter, was trying to answer a complicated, probably unanswerable, question. This reminds me of a long ago song written by Terry Evans and performed by Pops Staples called Love Is A Precious Thing.