We Are Broken

This is one of my favourite songs by Paramore. I love the inclusive language in this song ('we are broken'). It's as if Paramore is telling us we aren't alone when we feel broken, lost and afraid. There's always someone who is going through something similar to you, even if you feel totally isolated. This song is probably aimed at teenagers, however I think it can be a message for anyone who is having a rough time. You can relate this song to a specific situation or time in your life when you felt broken.

I can really understand the line: 'my mouth is dry with words I cannot verbalise'. For me personally, these lines describe the feelings I get with anxiety. A dry mouth and words that don't come out right are things that too often occur for me. The words stay locked up inside because when I'm having a bad moment, I'll be too worried or too overcome with anxiety to just be myself. Then I end up asking myself why the heck I live like that, and why I let anxiety take over ('tell me why we live like this').

'Keep me safe inside your arms like towers, tower over me' - I love these lines too. It's the longing you get when you just want someone to be there for you. You're desperate for someone strong and brave to hold you and protect you with strength. But at the end of each day, it's all the same, and nobody's ever there. You have to rely on yourself again. You dust yourself off and keep going, and somehow you find the strength within yourself. Your inner voice. And moments like that make you feel a little braver, and you feel like you have found yourself again ('lock the doors, cause I'd like to capture this voice that came to me tonight').

'We are broken, what must we do to restore our innocence' - again, the 'we' here I think is Paramore singing out to us, reminding us we aren't alone. We may feel lost and broken, and like we have changed so much over the years thanks to the pain. We want to restore our youth, happiness and ignorance, just to feel whole again ('give us life again, cause we just wanna be whole'). All we want is to go back to the people we were before, but in reality we cannot. After feeling so much pain for whatever reason, we are forever changed ('with my wide eyes, I've seen worlds that don't belong).

Even if we try to pretend like it hasn't changed us, we can never restore our innocence completely. And so life goes on, and you learn to accept it ('and I'll take the truth at any cost').