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"
It's hard to argue when
you won't stop making sense
But my tongue still misbehaves and it
keeps digging my own grave with my
Hands open, and my eyes open
I just keep hoping
That your heart opens
Why would I sabotage
The best thing that I have
Well, it makes it easier to know
Exactly what I want with my
Hands open and my eyes open
I just keep hoping
that your heart opens
It's not as easy as willing it all to be right
Gotta be more than hoping it's right
I wanna hear you laugh like you really mean it
Collapse into me, tired with joy
It's not as easy as willing it all to be right
Gotta be more than hoping it's right
I wanna hear you laugh like you really mean it
Collapse into me, tired with joy
Put Sufjan Stevens on
and we'll play your favorite song
"Chicago" bursts to life and your
sweet smile remembers you, my
Hands open, and my eyes open
I just keep hoping
That your heart opens
It's not as easy as willing it all to be right
Gotta be more than hoping it's right
I wanna hear you laugh like you really mean it
Collapse into me, tired with joy
It's not as easy as willing it all to be right
Gotta be more than hoping it's right
I wanna hear you laugh like you really mean it
Collapse into me, tired with joy
It's not as easy as willing it all to be right
Gotta be more than hoping it's right
I wanna hear you laugh like you really mean it
Collapse into me, tired with joy
It's not as easy as willing it all to be right
Gotta be more than hoping it's right
I wanna hear you laugh like you really mean it
Collapse into me, tired with joy
you won't stop making sense
But my tongue still misbehaves and it
keeps digging my own grave with my
Hands open, and my eyes open
I just keep hoping
That your heart opens
Why would I sabotage
The best thing that I have
Well, it makes it easier to know
Exactly what I want with my
Hands open and my eyes open
I just keep hoping
that your heart opens
It's not as easy as willing it all to be right
Gotta be more than hoping it's right
I wanna hear you laugh like you really mean it
Collapse into me, tired with joy
It's not as easy as willing it all to be right
Gotta be more than hoping it's right
I wanna hear you laugh like you really mean it
Collapse into me, tired with joy
Put Sufjan Stevens on
and we'll play your favorite song
"Chicago" bursts to life and your
sweet smile remembers you, my
Hands open, and my eyes open
I just keep hoping
That your heart opens
It's not as easy as willing it all to be right
Gotta be more than hoping it's right
I wanna hear you laugh like you really mean it
Collapse into me, tired with joy
It's not as easy as willing it all to be right
Gotta be more than hoping it's right
I wanna hear you laugh like you really mean it
Collapse into me, tired with joy
It's not as easy as willing it all to be right
Gotta be more than hoping it's right
I wanna hear you laugh like you really mean it
Collapse into me, tired with joy
It's not as easy as willing it all to be right
Gotta be more than hoping it's right
I wanna hear you laugh like you really mean it
Collapse into me, tired with joy
Lyrics submitted by paulyboy82
Hands Open Lyrics as written by Gary Lightbody Nathan Connolly
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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How does the writer have "no right" to mention Sufjan. Just because it will make more people like him, and thus he'll lose indie cred, and you won't be able to drop his name to try to impress people. "Chicago" is an amazing song, and Sufjan is a great writer. It is highly possible that "Chicago" had such an impact on him, or the situation that Snow Patrol felt like they had to include it. In a situation like the song describes the music playing has a huge impact on the actions of the characters in the story. Hearing a peticular song at the right moment can inspire someone to act in ways the normally might not. I think in this story, as I described in my first post, this is the moment the object of his affection hears the song and it leads her to going along with him, where she had been fighting the feelings before. These lines are the central turning point in the story and in the song, where the woman can go either way, since the ending is so ambiguous. So in the story at this moment is the climax of the plot. How specific he is with the song name and artist makes the song so much more personal than if he had written, "Put some music on, we'll play your favorite song/ It bursts to life in your sweet smile..." They are still well written lyrics, but lacks the sense of a first person narrative the rest of the song contains. When I am listening I feel like am actually seeing the story progress, and without these personal touches, it seems very fabricated.