Quicksand

I think this is about a gay woman having an affair with a girl who's got a boyfriend.

"It seems you have forgotten About your man" are the obvious lyrics but there are other clues as well.

"My bed's a different land" - referring to the woman who's only slept with men before.

"All you do is push me back in the dark" - the other girl's in the closet still, and being with her feels like being back in the closet as she's having to pretend nothing's going on.

"What's my position? I don't understand" - She's unsure whether the affair is simply an experiment for the other girl, or if she wants something more.

There are obvious gay hints in "In For the Kill" as well. I'm thinking she's a lesbian. Or just likes singing about lesbian relationships...? Who knows.

This song is an illuminous piece of music. It makes me feel like I want to drink it, and I'm sure it's the best song that I have ever heard, in my opinion. I read about La Roux in loads of newspapers, magazines, internet... but didn't pay much attention to all this raving on and then just like that I looked her up on Myspace and I was simply amazed at how perfect this song is. It's purely... good, I suppose.

And as for the lyrics, I'm not exactly sure. It seems to be about having an affair with someone(a woman, I gather from the video, and a pretty seductive one, at that) who is with somebody else but seems to really want her anyway "you seem to have forgotten about your man". So she's confused as to what everything means, I think. Well that's what the lyrics are like on reading, but then with this song you have to pay attention to the beat and the chords, which seems to change the meaning and it sounds like being at the center of an exotic, beautiful and intensely sexual relationship which is a weirdly wonderful amalgam of pain, wonder and highness.

Seeing as it's sung by a woman, I can only assume it's about her being in love with a girl with a boyfriend, like everyone's saying. But it definitely can go both ways. To get the obvious out of the way, as she is the one who "knows" that she's in love, she's the obsessor and her counterpart is the upsettor:

"Stroking my hand"- as to provide comfort to the obsessor, even though she (upsettor) doesn't know what she wants...kind of just going along with what the obsessor needs at the at moment while they're "holding hands"

"What's my position?/I don't understand"-Not really sure as to where she is in the other woman's life

"Am I your possession?/Am I in demand?/Oh when you turn to me/I'm in the quicksand"- She's unsure whether or not she is needed or even if she is seen as a person or as only a means to experimentation. But either way, the obsessor can't turn down the other woman because she's trapped by her love/seduction/whatever you want to call it.

i love this song! "am i your possession?/am i in demand?" - best two lines! i agree with most people here; elly is the "obsessor" who feels like she's in the quicksand whenever this other person is around. the first verse describes the tension between them, the second verse describes how elly's unsure of what her place is in the relationship ("what's my position?/i don't understand/am i your possession? am i demand?") and then finally, the bridge is when she realizes that this other person is no good for her, no matter how much he/she gives elly this "quicksand" feeling ("all you do is push me back in the dark"). as for whether the "upsettor" is a man or woman... i'm unsure. it seems like a woman from some of the lyrics ("it seems you have forgotten/about your man") but i'm not sure, because in interviews elly said that the entire album was about one person, and other songs make me think it's about a guy. hm. also, for all those debating whether she's gay, straight, etc. she said in an interview (copied & pasted directly from http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/fabulous/celebs/710159/la-roux.html): "I don't have a sexuality. I don't feel like I'm female or male. I don't belong to the gay or straight society, if there is such a thing. I feel like I'm capable of falling in love with other people. I'm not saying I'm bisexual, I'm just sexual!"

I think La roux is a duo. and it definitely has been influenced by Prince. I really enjoy this song, very 80's (Synths and Vocals) and melancholy.

This might sound a little gloomy:

To me the song is about is knowing that you love someone and that they do not love you/cannot love you back, and the slow painful realisation that as much as you want to be with them they do not feel the same [in this case it is an affair]. Quicksand is the doomed relationship, being stuck, knowing that it is sinking but not being able to escape, as the more you try, the more you sink. It is saying that we cannot control who we fall in love with even when our head says differently.

The three verses are three stages.

The first is the love, blinding obsession, intimate moments, we still see this acknowledgment that there is another person, yet slight hope but realisation the other person is in a relationship.

The second verse, the cracks appear, the "lover" is the upsetter and is consoling by "stroking." We see there is further realisation that the relationship is not going to go anywhere and is shown through the questioning of the obsessors value to the other person. However the obsessor is still in love "Oh when you turn to me" is like they still melt and are under the spell.

The third verse is the realisation that they still love and think about the person (freely moving in their mind (thoughts) however the person realiases "oh, oh when will I learn" as in they know it is not good for them (head versus their heart) and that it is doomed "broken ground AGAIN."

Ah, your typical gay girl falls in love with a straight girl story! It breaks my heart...

I heard a track-by-track breakdown for this album, and her description of what this song was about totally stuck in my mind. Elly said it was about that one person, and your relationship with them is utterly intense and there's massive amounts of sexual tension and you're totally in the 'quicksand', so to speak. She said this one bit, about being in a room full of people and THE person and then everyone sort of leaves and you sit there in silence with that one person for hours and hours and hours with neither of you saying anything.

So I don't know... this resonates massively with me. Like, there's that one person and every time you talk to them it keeps coming back to this massive elephant in the room, that is, the unspoken desires between the two of you and then its just weird and wonderful at the same time.

Absolute tune. Heard it on the kitsune maison compilation, and it really stands out.

I can now see what some people mean by "it's an electro version of 'when doves cry'". But disagree on the grounds that it's much more full-on and emotional. Plus more refined and golden. Not that Prince isn't a fucking legend.

La Roux isn't a her, it's a duo. :P