Civeta Dei

It's been said that the whole album is a concept album about the serial killer/cannibal Albert Fish. Whether that's true for this song, I'm not sure.

I think this song is about self-mutilation and blood, personally.

-"pick up this doll and watch the girl dream. cups spill what holds, what holds, what holds tommorrow."

--The song seems to be about a little girl and the obvious troubles she's going through. The "cups spill what holds tomorrow" lyric makes me think of blood; blood definitely holds tomorrow, the future, because it's what's keeping us all alive to make it to tomorrow.

-"clenching the fist, raising the brow. as glass enters the vein."

--Glass entering the vein, spilling blood.

-"justice shines in her dark eyes. as an amber sky drips a tear upon a sunset."

--some people cut themselves as self-punishment, because they feel they have done something wrong and deserve retribution for it...so "justice shines in her dark eyes" could be about the justice she thinks she's bringing to herself as she cuts. The "amber sky drops a tear upon a sunset" line could just be a random cool-sounding line to throw in there, or it could be talking about spilling blood once again (the dripping tear being blood).

-"this is seraplis dream. ten crowns drop. parchment paper crumbles, when the curtain falls."

--"seraplis" is a typo. Yes, even in the album booklet. The real lyric is "This is Seraph's dream." As it has already been said, Seraph is an angel often represented as a child...bringing us back to "pick up this doll and watch the girl dream."

-"shade this tribulation in pastels silk feelings hurt the river holds the color you describe as love."

--"Shade this tribulation in pastels" is basically saying the album title in a different way; "Put on your rosy red glasses." A tribulation is an instance or event of grief and trouble, and "shading it in pastels" would be ignoring it or making it seem less grievous than it really is...i.e. the phrase, "wearing rosy colored glasses." And again, the color red (blood) is brought up. "Silk feelings hurt" also seems to be about the same thing...even when you're trying to wear rosy-red glasses and keep a view of optimism, those "silk feelings" still hurt. "The river holds the color you describe as love." The color of love is red. I believe that "the red river" they're talking about here is the stream of blood pouring out of the young girl, once again.

So overall, blood and the color red (although neither are directly referenced) seem to be what this song is about. Particularly a young girl's blood. This could either be about the young girl's self-mutilation/suicide or once again it could be talking about the young girl that Albert Fish killed and ate. An example to support the second theory would be that "cups" are what's spilling blood...i.e. Albert Fish filled cups with her blood to drink, since he was a cannibal. But either way, self-mutilation or murder, blood would certainly be shed in either case. One thing I think this song is NOT, however, is meaningless and random, as With_Teeth suggested.

And xcalifornicationx; "But I mean, if you're just screaming as hard and loud as possible do the lyrics really matter?" Yes, they do matter. The entire point of screaming rather than singing is to convey an entirely different level of emotion about something, and if the screams are just random words that have no meaning, the music is essentially pointless. And while there are plenty of bands that scream about nothing particular/important/meaningful, I'm positive that #12 is not one of them.

This song is like 3 songs in one. If it was the only song on the CD it would still be worth buying. This song is both brutal and beautiful and the same time.

I agree, really good song. the meaning to it is a total mystery to me though....

damn i love this song.

wow, this song is so good. yeah, i'm posting again, but i can't help it. i love this song. and the chuckle in there, damn, so awesome.

maybe it's about a past relationship and him coping with it? like in the part "cups spill what holds, what holds, what holds tommorrow." maybe that means that their relationship is over and there won't be a tomorrow of them. not too sure though.

this is a complicated song..i never could even start to think what it is about

The reason nobody knows what #12 songs are about is because of the lyrics are total BS or just bad [If Bullets Could Talk is a good example of awful cliched lyrics]. And a lot of times they just toss in random words that sound right. Still an amazing band, but honestly don't think that the lyrics are genius or complicated when they are just bad.

PS Still amazing band, and Texas Dolly is about Poker.

No the lyrics mostly DO have meaning...its just really hard to tell where they are comming from. I would say this song is about someones hopes dying after somthing tragic happened.

I don't think this song is coming so much from a man's point of view, but rather than a girl's. Obviously something's happened to make her depressed, but they're is definately something coming from the bible. "this is seraplis dream. ten crowns drop." But I don't really know what.