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.
2 AM and she calls me 'cause I'm still awake
"Can you help me unravel my latest mistake?
I don't love him, Winter just wasn't my season"
Yeah, we walk through the doors, so accusing, their eyes
Like they have any right at all to criticize
Hypocrites, you're all here for the very same reason
'Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable
And life's like an hourglass glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button, girl
So cradle your head in your hands
And breathe, just breathe
Oh, breathe, just breathe
May, he turn twenty-one on the base at Fort Bliss
"Just a day," he said down to the flask in his fist
Ain't been sober since maybe October of last year
Here in town, you can tell he's been down for a while
But, my God, it's so beautiful when the boy smiles
Wanna hold him, maybe I'll just sing about it
'Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable
And life's like an hourglass glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button, boys
So cradle your head in your hands
And breathe, just breathe
Oh, breathe, just breathe
"There's a light at each end of this tunnel" you shout
"'Cause you're just as far in as you'll ever be out
And these mistakes you've made, you'll just make them again"
If you only try turning around
2 AM and I'm still awake, writing a song
If I get it all down on paper, it's no longer inside of me
Threatening the life it belongs to
And I feel like I'm naked in front of the crowd
'Cause these words are my diary screaming out loud
And I know that you'll use them however you want to
But you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable
And life's like an hourglass glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button now
Sing it if you understand
And breathe, just breathe
Oh, breathe, just breathe
Oh, breathe, just breathe
Oh, breathe, just breathe
Oh-oh, oh-oh
Oh-oh, oh-oh
Oh-oh, oh, oh
"Can you help me unravel my latest mistake?
I don't love him, Winter just wasn't my season"
Yeah, we walk through the doors, so accusing, their eyes
Like they have any right at all to criticize
Hypocrites, you're all here for the very same reason
'Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable
And life's like an hourglass glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button, girl
So cradle your head in your hands
And breathe, just breathe
Oh, breathe, just breathe
May, he turn twenty-one on the base at Fort Bliss
"Just a day," he said down to the flask in his fist
Ain't been sober since maybe October of last year
Here in town, you can tell he's been down for a while
But, my God, it's so beautiful when the boy smiles
Wanna hold him, maybe I'll just sing about it
'Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable
And life's like an hourglass glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button, boys
So cradle your head in your hands
And breathe, just breathe
Oh, breathe, just breathe
"There's a light at each end of this tunnel" you shout
"'Cause you're just as far in as you'll ever be out
And these mistakes you've made, you'll just make them again"
If you only try turning around
2 AM and I'm still awake, writing a song
If I get it all down on paper, it's no longer inside of me
Threatening the life it belongs to
And I feel like I'm naked in front of the crowd
'Cause these words are my diary screaming out loud
And I know that you'll use them however you want to
But you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable
And life's like an hourglass glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button now
Sing it if you understand
And breathe, just breathe
Oh, breathe, just breathe
Oh, breathe, just breathe
Oh, breathe, just breathe
Oh-oh, oh-oh
Oh-oh, oh-oh
Oh-oh, oh, oh
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More Featured Meanings
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
American Town
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Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
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.
Zombie
Cranberries, The
Cranberries, The
"Zombie" is about the ethno-political conflict in Ireland. This is obvious if you know anything of the singer (Dolores O'Riordan)'s Irish heritage and understood the "1916" Easter Rising reference.
"Another head hangs lowly
Child is slowly taken
And the violence caused such silence
Who are we mistaken
-
Another mother's breaking
Heart is taking over"
Laments the Warrington bomb attacks in which two children were fatally injured on March 23rd, 1993. Twelve year old Tim Parry was taken off life support with permission from his mother after five days in the hospital, virtually braindead.
"But you see it's not me
It's not my family"
References how people who are not directly involved with the violence feel about it. They are "zombies" without sympathy who refuse to take action while others suffer.
Sunglasses at Night
Corey Hart
Corey Hart
In the 1980s, sunglasses were a common fashion for people who wanted to adopt a "tough guy" persona (note all the cop shows from that era -- Simon & Simon, Miami Vice, etc. -- where the lead characters wore shades). So I think this song is about a guy who wears shades as a way of hiding his insecurity after learning that his girlfriend is cheating on him. He's trying to pretend that he's a "tough guy" to hide the fact that his girlfriend's affair is disturbing him.
this is what i believe this song means:
2 Am and she calls me cause I'm still awake Can you help me unravel my latest mistake I don't love him, winter just wasn't my season. Yeah we walk through the doors so accusing their eyes Like they have any right at all to criticize Hypocrites you're all here for the very same reason.
her friend calls her and tells her that she is pregnant but she doesnt love the father and so they go to an abortion clinic and the other people there are mentally judging her
May he turned 21 on the base of Fort Bliss Just today he sat down to the flask in his fist Ain't been sober since maybe October of last year Here in town you can tell he's been down for while But my God it's so beautiful when the boy smiles Wanna hold him but maybe I'll just sing about him
another friend just turned 21 and he is already an alcoholic and he is depressed but when he was happy he was a beautiful person and she wants to comfort him but she cant
There's a light at each end of this tunnel you shout cause you're just as far in as you'll ever be out And these mistakes you've made You'll just make them again if you'll only try turnin' around
2Am and I'm still awake writing this song If i get it all down on paper it's no longer inside of me threaten' the life it belongs to. And I feel like I'm naked in front of the crowd Cause these words are my diary screamin' out aloud And I know that you'll use them however you want to.
youll never get better if you dont accept the past and move on dont let the past eat at you or it will ruin your future
her words are to be interpreted to fit into anyone's personal experience and to help them be free
does anybody think the first verse is about abortion? typical i know but that is what i visualize.
Yeah, that's definitely what I thought it was about too. Part of what the character in the song is dealing with. Reading these comments, though, visiting a psychiatrist also seems possible... I'm still stuck on the abortion idea though.
I have been pondering this for days and it hit me minutes before i read your comment ..... i think thats exactly what its about!
i think the first verse is about abortion. the first time i heard this song i put it on repeat and just stared at the wall for like an hour. it really just kind of makes you value your life and have sympathy for people you don't even know. but i think that it's about a group of people she meets and that she eventually helps. i mean, a lot of amazing and life-long friendships start with one person helping the other one through a tough time. i know my very best friend and i kind of got to know each other during one of mine. she sat next to me in math for a semester, and i asked her if i could borrow a pencil, when i went to take it out of her had my sleeve came up and showed my cuts. i was a slicer, and she helped me through it. i stopped over a year ago, and it's still tempting. i still beleive she helped me stop. this first verse of this song makes me think that's how she felt when she came with me to the cutting clinic. i just wanted to throw that idea out there too. that might be somewhat what it's about. i love you so much, spencer. Thanks.
Yeah I think the first verse is about abortion. I like the line "Hypocrites you're all here for the very same reason". Kinda sums it all up.
I think it might be about abortion, but it seemed more like"help me break-up with my boyfriend" and then the hypocrites, I thought that was where they were like either in walmart at 2 am or at a psychologist. But i guess abortion does make a lot more sense. RealityxYeahxright, that's what i did afetr i found this song. you just can't listen to it enough. Makes you really think about the meaning of life.
I always thought it was about a couple getting an abortion.<br /> The first verse is about the girl.<br /> "2 Am and she calls me cause I'm still awake <br /> Can you help me unravel my latest mistake <br /> I don't love him, winter just wasn't my season.<br /> Yeah we walk through the doors so accusing their eyes<br /> Like they have any right at all to criticize<br /> Hypocrites you're all here for the very same reason."<br /> The way she says "latest" mistake makes me think its a girl that gets herself into a lot of trouble and the singer constantly has to help her out. Then I thought the next part was about the singer taking her to the clinic to get an abortion because she was feeling lousy and had low self esteem (winter just wasn't my season) and made a mistake with a guy she wasn't in love with.<br /> <br /> Then the second verse is about the guy. This website has the lyrics a little wrong, so I'll make the changes.<br /> "May he turned 21 on the base of Fort Bliss <br /> 'Just a day' he said down to the flask in his fist<br /> 'Ain't been sober since maybe October of last year'<br /> Here in town you can tell he's been down for while <br /> But my God it's so beautiful when the boy smiles<br /> Wanna hold him but maybe I'll just sing about it"<br /> Since it says he is turning 21, he is a young guy. Also, "on the base of fort bliss" implies he is in the army. He is an alcoholic but the line "Here in town you can tell he's been down for a while" shows he was not always this way at all. But now that he drinks so much, he is usually down in the dumps but when he smiles you are reminded of the way he used to be.<br /> <br /> So I think the girl with the low self esteem and the down in the dumps alcoholic got together and regret it now that the girl is pregnant. But basically the whole song is about how we all make mistakes and there is no going back, so you have to learn to deal with it.
I absolutely love the mood of this song, just the way she belts it out at "Cause these words are my diary screamin' out aloud".
I personally get a sense of a woman (her friend) who's broken down and needs help that she can't provide herself. It almost feels like they're sitting in a waiting room for a hospital or maybe a counseling clinic when she says "Yeah we walk through the doors so accusing their eyes Like they have any right at all to criticize Hypocrites you're all here for the very same reason."
It's like a whole bunch of broken people (including herself) who are all looking back on their lives and the decisions they've made, wondering where they're headed. Like for instance, a man who's an alcoholic with a son that he can't hold because of restraining orders, or even just he doesn't want to touch him because he might hurt him.
She passes the feeling that we all need to lean on each other to make it through. There's no way to live this life if you don't have other people around you to hold you together when you're falling apart.
I fell in love with this song the first time i heard it...just anna's outlook on the way life is and how we try to fix things that we can't...we can't go back to the past, we can only go forward...she's saying you just have to keep living no matter what it's your way because life's going to go on anyway...
my favorite line is: "There's a light at each end of this tunnel, you shout cause you're just as far in as you'll ever be out and these mistakes you've made you'll just make them again if you'll only try turning around" it's saying that you're stuck and you really don't know how you got in or how to get out. If you try to fix the past you'll just keep making the same mistakes!
ok rapunzel you are way off. I AM THE BOY WHO TURNED 21 ON THE BASE OF FORT BLISS and I am not an alchoholic but I started drinking before iturned 21, I am in the army i was stationed at ft bliss when i turned 21 but i was deployed to kuwait, I am also in Iraq right now . I've known anna for 5 years. she knows alot about me I've had alot of problems in the past, and she likes my smile thats what that verse means ok?? thank you very much
i LOVE the line "life's like an hourglass glued to the table" its so powerful when you think about it. it's talking about the passing of time and how you can't speed up or slow down time or events that are happening.
the fact that the hourglass is glued to the table shows that you can try whatever you want but its staying put, so theres nothing you can do to stop it. you can't flip over the hourglass to go back in time. because its glue down
I think that this song is about different people and all their conflicts and problems in life. You can't go back and correct your problems, and you just sort of have to sit down and breathe, let it all sort of unfold, becxause there's nothing you can do. But it's okay, just breathe
When I hear this song it makes me think of AA, or similar meetings, the lyrics work.
"2am and she calls me cuz I'm still awake" kinda common when fixing addiction "Yeah we walk through the doors so accusing their eyes Like they have any right at all to criticize Hypocrites you're all here for the very same reason" Sounds like a meeting to me
"No one can find the rewind button boys so cradle your head in your hands And breathe, just breathe, whoa breath just breathe" Sounds like what happens during a meeting.
Maybe I'm crazy, but that's what I think of every time I hear this song.
That is exactly what I got from the lyrics too.
@shakey3825er
@shakey3825er
@shakey3825er I thought the same thing. AA. When I read the comments above about the first verse that one does sound like an<br /> abortion clinic as well. 2nd verse definitely AA.
yeah i agree with you, i think youve pretty much got it down.
I really love this song. The lyrics are powerful and the tune is pretty catchy too. I really like the line "But my God it's so beautiful when the boy smiles..."