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"
We wrote these plans
Took the order the architecture
And followed them to the end
Until the gears ground cold and relentless
There was no remorse
We had none
We kept on
With no trace of a regret
I never saw any blood
No soul for the body
Watch them turn her scab covered skin into stone
Like a coal in the sky
Searching for the dawn for the last time
Bloated with white eyes wide
We've come to an understanding
You lose, I profit
High noon and there ain't
No secrets, no more excuses
Now our number's up
Let them lead us by the throat
Now just smile
While the rope pulls tighter
Guilty is an understatement
The hourglass is never right side up
And all the time
We try to tear the script up
Forgetting all the sour for the sweet
The paragraph has never been so empty
The mother dies with infant in arms
The lifeless test tube,
Look what she's done
Evolution gave us a clock
That's always winding down
Took the order the architecture
And followed them to the end
Until the gears ground cold and relentless
There was no remorse
We had none
We kept on
With no trace of a regret
I never saw any blood
No soul for the body
Watch them turn her scab covered skin into stone
Like a coal in the sky
Searching for the dawn for the last time
Bloated with white eyes wide
We've come to an understanding
You lose, I profit
High noon and there ain't
No secrets, no more excuses
Now our number's up
Let them lead us by the throat
Now just smile
While the rope pulls tighter
Guilty is an understatement
The hourglass is never right side up
And all the time
We try to tear the script up
Forgetting all the sour for the sweet
The paragraph has never been so empty
The mother dies with infant in arms
The lifeless test tube,
Look what she's done
Evolution gave us a clock
That's always winding down
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The Night We Met
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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.
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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,
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Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
Amazing
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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.
I think that it might have to do with Capitalism gone wrong (its current state). The plans being the constitution and the following of the government's rules until the Constitution became something that it was never intended to be. But I may be way off.
fucking awesome song. sweet band. i saddly admit i heard about this band through my social studies teacher. but man does have he good taste. i live in a wigger town and alllll my friends listen to rap its almost impoisble to escape rap. thats a huge ass problem these days
"Anyone else think the title has anything to do with Sonic Youth?"
Good point, I never noticed that.
"and all the time we try to tear the script up"
Greg sounds exactly like Mike Patton on this line.
what a great start to the new album!
You have no idea how cool this song is live...its like the whole fucking venue exploded!
I think the final lines of the song make it clear what the songs about. As far as we have evolved,.. we have degenerated so far as a socity, and science, government and buisness/consumption are our biggest downfalls
this band is amazin live, so intense and great. this song i think for some reason is about abortion, but i also agree wit the rich the leech about degeneration as a society...
i believe this song's about abortion specifically, and the evolution[s] of science generally. The speaker was involved in an abortion procedure, and now feals great guilt. perhaps at the beginning he [an his partner?] haven't realized what they have done, feeling no remorse. By the end of the song, they feel pain in realizing their choice, and part of this is blamed on the evolution of science, providing options to kill with no remorse.
The song is about the machine the metaphorical machine its about how no one really owns there soul anymore everything is systamatic we just follow the orders given to us and never question it the more we progress as a society the more we kill ourselves