Tonight

This is missing a few key words: Falling deeper by the hour...don't let me fall deeper now.

My interpretation of this song is the exact opposite of Leonard's. It is the protagonist of the song who is at fault. I think that the protagonist suffers from some sort of instability (bipolar disorder?) in her life and needs the person behind her to support her, to keep her up, to hold her life up. He was and will always be there, yesterday, the night before, tomorrow. But no matter how steadfast and loyal his love, she doubts that he will always be there, and asks him for that reassurance.

She must dry her eyes because she cries from those worries, looking to the future, thinking that he will no longer be there, instead on being grateful on what he has done and on what he is doing.

The high heels and high horses is the happiness of love, that keep her happy, ecstatic, enthralled, and the best person she can be... she is safe until the night... depression, doubts, fear.

and so she falls deeper and deeper into an unstable life... she wants him to save her but at the same time she does not want him to save her. It is such an inner turmoil for her. Does she deserve him? Does he deserve better? Why does he love her? and so she asks him to let her go... without knowing that he will always love her.

Beautiful song! To me this song seems to be about a friendship on the edge of becoming a relationship, but none of them takes the step. Thus also dealing with the lack of communication in their friend/relationship.

Sometimes we hurt the ones we love the most by saying something thoughtless, and sometimes by saying nothing at all.

The verses deals with her unability to open up about her insecurities and feelings. And the chorus seems to be her pleading for (him) to hold her put for tonight. Which in other words would make him take a stance.

We always want the other part to take the first step. But sometimes we have to be able to show ourselves fragile and swallow our pride.

Conclusion: nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I think this song is about a very paranoid person in a relationship eg; "watch my back so I make sure, you're right behind me as before" -just making sure the partner is still there- Then "dry me eyes so you won't know", they're stressed and as franciscodanconia said, bipolar? "I know you're right behind me" It seems to me that they're very very worried about being left alone.

ok. this is the song that got me to register so I could write a comment. Love this song especially the video filmed by Christian Haag. If you haven't seen it check it out vimeo.com/2993894.

What I love about this song is how Lykke Li captures that turmoil between not wanting to be let go and wanting to be let go of. "don't you let me go, let me go tonight." That point of internal struggle between two simultaneous but conflicting desires.

Lykke Li also does something interesting in the first verse. She creates this spatial and temporal confusion with alternating directions and double meanings. I'll explain what I mean. In the second line "you're right behind me as before" 'behind' and 'before' are locations like 'behind' and 'in front of', but 'before' is also a time word, so 'behind' becomes imbued with its temporal meaning. This sense of temporal slipperiness is further greased with the next line "yesterday the night before tomorrow." It takes you a moment to figure out what she is trying to say about time. When you do, the narrator is sandwiched between yesterday and tomorrow; just like the narrator is snuggled between 'behind and 'before', spatially and temporally. It almost gives the sense the narrator is blind, feeling behind and in front of herself. And the following line "dry my eyes so you won't know/dry my eyes so I won't show" reveals the narrator is crying and blinded with her tears, wanting those who might see her to be blind to her crying as well. The final line "I know you're right behind me" is a repeat of the second line, but with the alternating opposites in space and time created by the previous 4 lines, the effect is less than the certainty expressed in the first lines "watch my back so I make sure/you're right behind me as before." You're not really sure any more whether that person who has been entrusted with watching her back is really there. Line two reads "you're right behind me as before," but the last line of the first verse drops the 'as before' and the effect seems like something has been lost. A certainty replaced now with blind hope.

So when Lykke Li sings the line "don't you let me go, let me go tonight" the listener feels the narrator's confusion and conflict. With that somber, almost funeral tune, the temporal slipperiness tells a story of confusion, sadness, and pain. Something so lonely; a litany, "he loves me, he loves me not," rocking back and forth to calm. Within that echo ". . .let me go, let me go tonight" there is the opposite desire for freedom and the cessation of pain. In Lykke Li's voice is the intensest longing of wanting to be held. The accompanying piano notes like a child left alone in a house.

By the third verse, the barest sketch of a love affair. Something seemingly long ago with too much pain to hold on to for very long. A sense of love lifting the narrator "above the ground", higher than high heels and higher still, onto high horses, "keeping us safe into the night." A sense of security, "we know them all" and hubris "i know it all." and a game like tag, "now i got you, got you."

two more things of note. "falling deeper by the hour" both falling in love and falling into melancholy. Love how Lykke Li's voice expresses this falling with her descending note. and then a brief struggle as the music and her voice swell for the fourth line "dry my eye, dry my eye." like drying eyes to stop crying.

I'll write more later. got to go for now.

how does this song not have any comments? has anyone else seen her live yet?

this song is beautiful i have to listen on repeat

don't you let me go, let me go tonight

it's about loving someone more than you love yourself, needing them more than you need anyone; then at the end realising you need to be alone, because he'll never ever love you the way that you love him. : (

it's about loving someone more than you love yourself, needing them more than you need anyone; then at the end realising you need to be alone, because he'll never ever love you the way that you love him. : (

i think this song is about knowing that that special person is there but scared they wont be there forever. Like when she says...push my back so i make sure you're right behind me as before. yesterday the night before tomorrow... Shes trying to see if he's still there behind her making sure she doesn't fall. Also the part where she says shes drying her eyes might symbolize that she doesn't want her lover to know that shes doubting him being there for her forever.