So this has been.my favorite song of OTEP's since it came out in 2004, and I always thought it was a song about a child's narrative of suffering in an abusive Christian home. But now that I am revisiting the lyrics, I am seeing something totally new.
This song could be gospel of John but from the perspective of Jesus.
Jesus was NOT having a good time up to and during the crucifixion. Everyone in the known world at the time looked to him with fear, admiration or disgust and he was constantly being asked questions. He spoke in "verses, prophesies and curses". He had made an enemy of the state, and believed the world was increasingly wicked and fallen from grace, or that he was in the "mouth of madness".
The spine of atlas is the structure that allows the titan to hold the world up. Jesus challenged the state and in doing so became a celebrated resistance figure. It also made him public enemy #1.
All of this happened simply because he was doing his thing, not because of any agenda he had or strategy.
And then he gets scourged (storm of thorns)
There are some plot holes here but I think it's an interesting interpretation.
What a beautiful world, so fragile and fertile
Pain feel the void, when boy met girl
He's a puppet to nature, one year later now
So deeply and sickly in love, it makes him hate her
The average romanticized American relationship, sinks capsize
When either side becomes a slave to it
Conditioned, dependent, afraid to be alone
He needs that feeling that he can't create, (alone?)his own(home?)
He despises the fact she has a life outside of them
It drives him crazy to think she's not insanely consumed with him
Give her the guilt trip
And maybe she'll quit livin' to stay behind these prison walls
And lose all individualism
Well this is happiness, masochistic torture, plagued by the decadent, craved for affection
The needle digs deep to push contentment through his blood stream, it drowned now hollow
The pothole of a junkie
If he could only hear her sing he wouldn't want to break her wings
But emptiness has such a warm subtle sting
She makes up for what he lacks - trapped
He can't imagine life without someone like that
[Chorus]
If we'd discover the long lost art dying
Only the lonely resent angels for flying
Twisted, living off each other's sickness, like parasites
This is paradise
If we'd discover the long lost art dying
Only the lonely resent angels for flying
Addicted, afraid to take control of my own life
This is paradise
What a beautiful world, emotionally destroyed
(Her?) became girl(?), when girl met boy
Between several breakups and plenty relapses
Routine read comfort led to serious attachment
Now every once in a while she forgets to breathe
Terrified of losing 'em, paradise is misery
Too much faith in the lifesaving knight in shining armor
Now what knight's noticing - the scar she can't hide any longer
But they were her story way before he was
It's grows hope to think that he would feel such deep cuts
At first it felt so right but after one too many fights
He turned out that hallway light and all the wonder turned to spite
So they sleep in the same bed with guns to each other's heads
Dead the romance, boiling the blood that painted roses red
Suffering from post-honeymoon's disease, leeched to his whole existence
To die if he decides to live (?)
Addicted to the way she feels when they spend time together
Detouring the now in a childish attempt to find forever
Despite the fact they hold each other heart to heart
You can't be that close to somebody without being so far afar
[Chorus]
Sigh, this is the most obscure sound I've ever heard
Those lonely giant spaces in between your every word
And maybe I'm totally crazy for holdin' on
But just cause I'm insane don't mean that I'm wrong
Now that shit gone I can't sleep at night, I barely even function right
My memories on overdrive, too hungry and too cold to cry
Miss the companionship I once took for granted
The way you helped me manage, the partnership that vanished
But I don't expect you to stay chained by the ankle
There's so much world to see, so, fly free my angel
I'm dying without you but it's teaching me to live
Heaven ain't something someone else can give it's all inside of me
[Chorus]
There's so much world to see, what's stopping me from flying free?
There's so much world to see, that's stopping you from flying free?
Pain feel the void, when boy met girl
He's a puppet to nature, one year later now
So deeply and sickly in love, it makes him hate her
The average romanticized American relationship, sinks capsize
When either side becomes a slave to it
Conditioned, dependent, afraid to be alone
He needs that feeling that he can't create, (alone?)his own(home?)
He despises the fact she has a life outside of them
It drives him crazy to think she's not insanely consumed with him
Give her the guilt trip
And maybe she'll quit livin' to stay behind these prison walls
And lose all individualism
Well this is happiness, masochistic torture, plagued by the decadent, craved for affection
The needle digs deep to push contentment through his blood stream, it drowned now hollow
The pothole of a junkie
If he could only hear her sing he wouldn't want to break her wings
But emptiness has such a warm subtle sting
She makes up for what he lacks - trapped
He can't imagine life without someone like that
[Chorus]
If we'd discover the long lost art dying
Only the lonely resent angels for flying
Twisted, living off each other's sickness, like parasites
This is paradise
If we'd discover the long lost art dying
Only the lonely resent angels for flying
Addicted, afraid to take control of my own life
This is paradise
What a beautiful world, emotionally destroyed
(Her?) became girl(?), when girl met boy
Between several breakups and plenty relapses
Routine read comfort led to serious attachment
Now every once in a while she forgets to breathe
Terrified of losing 'em, paradise is misery
Too much faith in the lifesaving knight in shining armor
Now what knight's noticing - the scar she can't hide any longer
But they were her story way before he was
It's grows hope to think that he would feel such deep cuts
At first it felt so right but after one too many fights
He turned out that hallway light and all the wonder turned to spite
So they sleep in the same bed with guns to each other's heads
Dead the romance, boiling the blood that painted roses red
Suffering from post-honeymoon's disease, leeched to his whole existence
To die if he decides to live (?)
Addicted to the way she feels when they spend time together
Detouring the now in a childish attempt to find forever
Despite the fact they hold each other heart to heart
You can't be that close to somebody without being so far afar
[Chorus]
Sigh, this is the most obscure sound I've ever heard
Those lonely giant spaces in between your every word
And maybe I'm totally crazy for holdin' on
But just cause I'm insane don't mean that I'm wrong
Now that shit gone I can't sleep at night, I barely even function right
My memories on overdrive, too hungry and too cold to cry
Miss the companionship I once took for granted
The way you helped me manage, the partnership that vanished
But I don't expect you to stay chained by the ankle
There's so much world to see, so, fly free my angel
I'm dying without you but it's teaching me to live
Heaven ain't something someone else can give it's all inside of me
[Chorus]
There's so much world to see, what's stopping me from flying free?
There's so much world to see, that's stopping you from flying free?
Lyrics submitted by xheartbreakerx
Paradise Lyrics as written by Sigidi Bashir Abdullah Paul Rose
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Royalty Network
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Love in a Vacuum
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Well, in my opinion this song is about being a young & maybe a little naive &/or introverted girl and finding yourself loving a man who is at first very charming, carefree & outgoing, and seems at first to be without limits, as in
"There was a time
you opened up every doorway
you didn't mind if everything
wasn't your way"
then that man starts to gradually become more introverted & shows their more possessive/obsessive side to you as the relationship progresses, even while they keep up the appearance of being carefree & outgoing to everyone else,
"Don't pull away
that goes against what you told me
I look in your eyes
I realize what you've sold me
is love in a vacuum"
so you confront them about the way they're acting and of course they deny it,
"I think you've changed
but you insist that
that's not true"
quite possibly they are an addict of some sort, my guess would be cocaine, &/or showing very obsessive behavior towards you (early on in the video for this song we see the man hanging a picture up, it is a very large portrait of Aimee & it is prominently displayed in his/their apartment for the duration of the song), thus their "love in a vacuum",
"You look so strange, so distant
that you're hardly you
Now I can see
how you have been acting different
You say it's me
but I know
that it isn't
it's love in a vacuum"
but still you are in love with them and don't want to leave them and you know that they are truly in love with you and they don't want you to leave them either, maybe they are convinced you can save them from themself, maybe they are so broken that the possibility of an overdose &/or suicide attempt is very real and you want to get through to them that their behavior not only dangerous but it is also just pissing you off and if they don't wise up they run the risk of loosing you, as in the lines
"You will be lonely
if you leave me alone", so you want to save them but can't get through to them due to the addiction &/or emotional problems they have,
"Love in a vacuum
and that's not enough
love in a vacuum
You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
You will be lonely
if you leave me alone
You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
it's just not enough"
you want them to understand that the love they are giving you is not enough when it is filtered through the vacuum of their drug addiction &/or emotional impairment,
"You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
it's just not enough
and just wait
you will be lonely
Love in a vacuum
Love in a vacuum
and that's not enough
Love in a vacuum".
'Love In A Vacuum' for me is a hauntingly truthful acute argument on the loneliness of obsession and almost inevitable loss of love that follows people who are broken in some way or another; the obsessives, the coke heads, the drunks, addicts or the just-plain-old emotionally broken; a razor sharp, lyrically driven, deceptively poppy, yet ultimately-depressing-in-the-best-way song.
Quintessential Aimee Mann.
Show Me a Little Shame
Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals
Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals
He certainly did earn that reputation.
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
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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"
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
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.
Many young and modern relationships resemble the type he speaks of. It seems that so many relationships are fucked up over jealousy and insecurities. "I’m dying without you, but it’s teaching me to live Heaven ain’t something someone else can give – it’s all inside of me" this verse is so incredible. i don't know what type of religion i am perhaps universal but that really grasps one of the concepts i believe in.