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"
The ladies in my dream are so obliging.
They come on down to do the things I need.
Whether skies are calm or cut apart by lightning,
They're always there to minister to me.
And at break of dawn
They're sweetly shining,
And at quiet of midnight, cold and dim,
They say "don't harm him."
And when I wake
Just as their eyes are crying,
I see that bed
And I just want to climb back in.
But let's gather up your friends
And drive up to that country inn.
We can stay there, feeling water
Warmly wash across our skin,
Giving back all of our tears
So that we can cry them again.
You want to tell your dad you can't believe he's dying,
But let's just walk on down the hall and shut our mouths.
The AM radio is broken down and crying
As on this hour drive we're silent to ourselves.
Let's go back up to your house,
And take our clothes off,
And just push and pull ourselves
Until we're deep inside of sleep.
And with your body next to me,
Its sleepy sighing
Sounds like waves upon a sea
Too far to reach.
But I'll gather up my men
And try to sail on it again,
And we'll walk and quietly talk
All through the country of your skin,
Made up of pieces of the places
That you've dreamed
And that you've been.
We will sleep outside in tents
Upon this unfamiliar land,
And in the morning
We'll awake,
As a foreign dawning breaks,
My men and I
We will awake
Let's try again.
They come on down to do the things I need.
Whether skies are calm or cut apart by lightning,
They're always there to minister to me.
And at break of dawn
They're sweetly shining,
And at quiet of midnight, cold and dim,
They say "don't harm him."
And when I wake
Just as their eyes are crying,
I see that bed
And I just want to climb back in.
But let's gather up your friends
And drive up to that country inn.
We can stay there, feeling water
Warmly wash across our skin,
Giving back all of our tears
So that we can cry them again.
You want to tell your dad you can't believe he's dying,
But let's just walk on down the hall and shut our mouths.
The AM radio is broken down and crying
As on this hour drive we're silent to ourselves.
Let's go back up to your house,
And take our clothes off,
And just push and pull ourselves
Until we're deep inside of sleep.
And with your body next to me,
Its sleepy sighing
Sounds like waves upon a sea
Too far to reach.
But I'll gather up my men
And try to sail on it again,
And we'll walk and quietly talk
All through the country of your skin,
Made up of pieces of the places
That you've dreamed
And that you've been.
We will sleep outside in tents
Upon this unfamiliar land,
And in the morning
We'll awake,
As a foreign dawning breaks,
My men and I
We will awake
Let's try again.
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The Night We Met
Lord Huron
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Little Feat
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Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
No Surprises
Radiohead
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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.
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.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
You're all right, but the last verse clearly is a man trying to get a girl to fuck him. He uses like, explorer and sailor, metaphors. SHE is the undiscovered country.