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"
I open up my eye and I, I open as my eye
I stare and let it read my mind, eye open as am I
Scanning through that tangled maze I lose myself again
Who am I whose eye defines the thoughts run through my head
And soon I find there's no way out, my eye is my guide again
Showing me around, these pathways so profound
Shining like the sun, I pretend it's just for fun
As he forces me to run again
Asking would you like to be my friend
Eye look into eye and I try to draw the line
Fight that lie and hide my fright, keep it out of mind
Far away I hear a voice that shouts and demands
Syllables and letters forming words of command
Closer now, then from inside, I think that I understand
Showing you around, these pathways so profound
Shining like the sun, I pretend it's just for fun
As I force you with a gun - run, run
Asking would you like to be my friend
I look into your eye, I pretend it's all fine
I keep living the lie, I look into your eye
(This fragile surface may hold the weight of all that's locked inside
But will it help you clean your slate, or do you just run and hide
You can run...)
This fragile surface white and blue if studied will reveal
There's something in the depths below that I cannot conceal
Through years and years of acting and the practice of my stare
Has made it easy to escape if you didn't already know it was there
This fragile mirror of the soul reflects both fake and real
But before you see too much of me I'll turn or keep it sealed
So I face the ground and hurry on, I run from how I feel
To tell you 'bout my self-inflicted wounds that will never heal
I stare and let it read my mind, eye open as am I
Scanning through that tangled maze I lose myself again
Who am I whose eye defines the thoughts run through my head
And soon I find there's no way out, my eye is my guide again
Showing me around, these pathways so profound
Shining like the sun, I pretend it's just for fun
As he forces me to run again
Asking would you like to be my friend
Eye look into eye and I try to draw the line
Fight that lie and hide my fright, keep it out of mind
Far away I hear a voice that shouts and demands
Syllables and letters forming words of command
Closer now, then from inside, I think that I understand
Showing you around, these pathways so profound
Shining like the sun, I pretend it's just for fun
As I force you with a gun - run, run
Asking would you like to be my friend
I look into your eye, I pretend it's all fine
I keep living the lie, I look into your eye
(This fragile surface may hold the weight of all that's locked inside
But will it help you clean your slate, or do you just run and hide
You can run...)
This fragile surface white and blue if studied will reveal
There's something in the depths below that I cannot conceal
Through years and years of acting and the practice of my stare
Has made it easy to escape if you didn't already know it was there
This fragile mirror of the soul reflects both fake and real
But before you see too much of me I'll turn or keep it sealed
So I face the ground and hurry on, I run from how I feel
To tell you 'bout my self-inflicted wounds that will never heal
Lyrics submitted by ricoetc
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The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
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.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
Final part of the trilogy from the end of the album.
The main character gets his image right and learns to control himself, but knows that the equilibrium is fragile (as the title of the song suggests) and peace of mind is never full.