5 Meanings
Add Yours
Follow
Share
Q&A

Cardiff Afterlife Lyrics

If the love between us has faded away
Left in the rain, scratching at the stains
The paralyzed future
The past sideways crawl
I must give up on this
It makes no sense at all
Makes no sense at all

In the Cardiff afterlife
In the Cardiff afterlife
We sense the breaking of our lives
In the Cardiff afterlife
In the Cardiff afterlife

And yet I kept my silence
Your memory is still mine
No I will not share them
Acquaintance through denial

For I witnessed splendour
And evil that no-one saw
And I felt kindness
And vanity for sure
And vanity for sure

In the Cardiff afterlife
In the Cardiff afterlife
We sensed the breaking of our lives
In the Cardiff afterlife
In the Cardiff afterlife

In the Cardiff afterlife
In the Cardiff afterlife
We sensed the making of our lives
In the Cardiff afterlife
In the Cardiff
5 Meanings

Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.

Add your thoughts...
Cover art for Cardiff Afterlife lyrics by Manic Street Preachers

This song is more or less a direct attempt to find some closure on Richey's still-unresolved disappearance. "It makes no sense at all", indeed.

(Cardiff is where Richey was living before his disappearance, and the location of the bridge where he left his car)

Cover art for Cardiff Afterlife lyrics by Manic Street Preachers

(Not strictly true - the bridge where he left his car is actually a fair distance from Cardiff)

But I would agree.

'We sensed the breaking of our lives' ^Brilliant line.

Cover art for Cardiff Afterlife lyrics by Manic Street Preachers

'The past sideways crawl' = This line is really poignant to me because it reminds me directly of Richey's line in Die in the Summertime: 'I have crawled so far sideways / I recognize dim traces of creation'. I wonder if they're both homaging a famous line of some poet or someone or just both shared a similar metaphorical image... Like peas in a pod, Nicky & Richey. :)

It always reminded me of "I should have been a pair of ragged claws / Scuttling across the floors of silent seas" from TS Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." Crabs move sideways, and the desire to hibernate/retreat into a shell was strong in both Richey and Nicky

Cover art for Cardiff Afterlife lyrics by Manic Street Preachers

Yes... Richey's disappearance. 'It makes no sense at all' but Nicky will still never forget him.

Cover art for Cardiff Afterlife lyrics by Manic Street Preachers

There was (and still is) a magazine in Cardiff called Cardiff Life, I wonder if this inspired the song title.

 
Questions and Answers

Ask specific questions and get answers to unlock more indepth meanings & facts.

Ask a question...