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"
Here I am in Amsterdam
I like it here they speak my language
Even though it's not my own
It's got BBC for comfort zone
But best of all it's got Marks and Spencer
Equality for the masses never felt better
And some of my dreams
They may have come true
But so have my nightmares
Which I can't get through
And now I've lost the power to speak
And now I've lost the power to eat
Idle and out of touch in Europe
Nothing's gone and nothing's changed
All that was before will still remain
It's too late to learn a new currency
And some of my dreams
They may have come true
But so have my nightmares
Which I can't get through
I like it here they speak my language
Even though it's not my own
It's got BBC for comfort zone
But best of all it's got Marks and Spencer
Equality for the masses never felt better
And some of my dreams
They may have come true
But so have my nightmares
Which I can't get through
And now I've lost the power to speak
And now I've lost the power to eat
Idle and out of touch in Europe
Nothing's gone and nothing's changed
All that was before will still remain
It's too late to learn a new currency
And some of my dreams
They may have come true
But so have my nightmares
Which I can't get through
Lyrics submitted by Songmeaningsuser
Valley Boy Lyrics as written by Jones Bradfield
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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The Night We Met
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The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
No Surprises
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Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Blue
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“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
Plastic Bag
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“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
I really like this song.
Anyway I think it's just about the Wire being rather xenophobic (a sheltered boy from the valleys) and ignoring European culture while on tour for the comforts of British cultural imperialism (M&S and the BBC). I'm not sure why the song gets so depressing towards the end- I think it may just be his lament for the fact that although he has become a famous rock star, in global demand, those very things he takes comfort in are evidence that the messages of MSP are falling on deaf ears.
The song is criticising the EU (scum). "It's too late to learn a new currency" obviously refers to the euro. "Idle and out of touch in Europe" could refer to how the EU have lost touch with real perople in europe.
"And some of my dreams They may have come true But so have my nightmares Which I can't get through" This could, but I'm not sure, mean that Nicky's dream of unity among nations (they're socialist) has been achieved, but his nightmares of no democracy / accountability / freedom have also come true.
"Nothing's gone and nothing's changed" also refers to how dictatorships which we fought to eradicate still exist. Everything's the same as it's always been.<br /> <br />
I don\'t think this is anything to do with the EU. It\'s about Nicky himself and how he felt he\'d become disconnected from his Valley Boy roots after years of endless touring. He\'s the one whose idle and out of touch in Europe, watching the BBC and surviving on Marks and Spencer sandwiches, desperate to just go home. All of his dreams of being a massively sucessful rock star have come true, but only after the nightmare of losing Richey. And now he\'s got nothing left to say, and everything is the same, day after day after day. So was any of it worth it?