Burned Is the House

To me this song i about a relationship that has gone sour and realizing that you would have been better off just as friends.

the first verse being about meeting someone new and hitting it off. How things were before the problems started, before you really knew the person very well.

the 2nd verse is talking about the beginning of the relationship and where things may have started to go wrong. i think the words are actually "walked through a cemetary archway into a wood that hummed so happily along, but the words were all wrong" like when someone will sing along to a song and they think it means one thing but it's because they have the words wrong. it's talking about how it might have been good in the beginning but they weren't meant to be together, something isn't right

"Burned is the house, gone is the street, here lies the same disappointing retreat" is referring to the positive outlook you had when you first met the person, thinking that things would work out really well between you two but then when they don't, those dreams are destroyed.

"but we can never go back there again, we can only hope to forget" "and i need it like hell if i lie to myself to think i could live that life over again" - these lines mean that you remember the good times with the person and wish things could be that way again, but you know it would never work out that way so it's better to just forget and move on.

"where the cuts were like guilt and the taste for you eyes, i'd say we're up when i couldn't just say goodnight" - is talking about how you wish you could have just left it at being friends and that's it despite any feelings of attraction you had for the person be it emotional (the guilt=emotions) or superficial (taste for your eyes=beauty) "i'd say we're up when i couldn't just say goodnight" means that if you could do it over again, you would have just stayed friends, you would have just said goodnight and left rather than spending the night and sleeping together, becoming something more.

"if you cry me a river you could baptize me in i'd say i guess that's it now i've fucking seen everything now" - suggests that the person you are with played the crying card a lot. going back the to "where the cuts were like guilt" this person probably had a lot of sob stories to tell from her past, uses them to make people feel sorry for her. he probably fell for it and felt like he had to take care of her. whenever they had a fight she would probably try to cry to get her way.

the 3rd verse is talking about how the other person always makes things hard for themselves. they are the type of person who is usually the cause of their own problems and then complains when things go badly. "jumped overboard... when the sun shines on the sea" this line is referring to the old saying about how the grass is always greener on the other side. this person will throw everything away (jump overboard) just to get something that they think is better but then later the realize that it isn't but by then it's too late. this is supported by the line "you traded all my inaffections for direction to a party across town" she probably left the relationship because she thought she had found something better but it turned out that it wasn't and now she has screwed herself over. "it's just as deep as you can make it, you tread water when you COULD stand on your knees" is talking about how the person makes problems for herself and then instead of dealing with the problems she makes them worse. a good example of this would be a person who has gambling dept to pay off but keeps gambling and losing more money or a person who owes a lot of credit debt but then wastes all their money on manicures and shoes and gets deeper and deeper in dept or someone with a drug or alcohol addiction ruining their life (maybe having health problems because of it) and just drowning their sorrows and letting the addiction continue rather than trying to quit. "but don't pray to me" means don't ask me for help "because when the lamp rays taken all it can it will bleed you dead" is referring to how the person has gotten themselves in too deep and are a hopeless case, whatever problem that it is they have, they just let it get worse and worse.

"you were the 1st real choice i would make, but we all make mistakes" - is probably talking about the sacrifices he had to make to be the with person and now realizes that it was a mistake.

The first three lines could be saying that they were in love, for the first time, and they had their whole futures ahead of them. After that I'll have to figure out the rest

It's about finding someone and thinking they're perfect for you, and you have a great relationship...then they turn out to be an asshole and use you for shit.

it's about being on the losing end of a relationship where there is no clarity as to whether it is plutonic or not. It's about building a dream around a love interest and finding that person is not interested in love but friendship. "burned is the house. Gone is the street. Here is the same dissapinting retreat." Dream house on dream lane with dream wife is now destroyed in the narrator's mind and he is of course embarassed for surrendering himself in this manner. "Happily in love but the words were all wrong" regards the narrator's misinterpretation of the subject's words. This song is about being led on and falling into the trap of romantic daydreaming and being vengeful in spite of the person of interest's miscommunication.

Besides that, this may be my favorite trio song ever, I am dumb founded as to why they didn't put it on Agony and Irony. It and maybe two other songs could have really carried that album...

I agree 100% with you bathosdrift. Well said

I don't think it says this: "Walked through a cemetery archway into a wood that I'm so happily in love but the words were all wrong."

I think it says this:

"Walked through a cemetery archway into a wood that hung so happily alone but the words were all wrong."