Skeletons

My InterpretationI heard this song for the first time today and it made me cry. The lyrics are simple yet they invoke so much emotion. I think this song is definitely about the end of a relationship.


"Fall asleep Spin the sky" makes me think that the singer was always on the go and waking up in different cities or countries. The distance and constant leaving made the love lose its idealistic glow. Even though they might have been together (in a relationship) she still felt hollow and empty like a skeleton because she was always physically away from her lover. The coldness of feeling alone became more consuming then the flame of their love, and the lover in the song eventually left because he/she couldn't watch the singer go on as a "skeleton" of herself. Maybe, they loved each other just as much as was humanly possible, but for reasons it was just to hard for both sides to bare.

Anyway, that is my long interpretation.

This song seems to almost have a haunting quality to it. Regardless of how you may choose to interpret it I think it is one of the best songs I've heard all year.

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My InterpretationI think that the singer has lost a loved one and this is their way of dealing with their loss. They cope with the loss by thinking this is what the loved one would tell them if they were to see them as a ghost..

(Love my name)- Don't forget me
(Love left dry)- He/she is gone and there is no hope of him/her coming back.
(Frost or flame skeleton me)- Even if one of the world's most disastrous things happens rather it be a blizzard or a fire he/she is still a skeleton and once becoming a skeleton will never change from the root meaning of being dead. So frozen or turned to ash no matter if the skeleton's physical form is changed, he/ she is still dead.
(Love dont cry skeleton me)- He/she is telling the singer to not cry their tears will still not change that he/she is dead.

(Soon comes rain)- the rain is a metaphor for a refreshing start. The rain renews and is responsible for continuing and helping create new life among the earth.
(Dry your eyes)- Now is the time to get over the hump and end the mourning. With the rain bringing in new lives that you need to be involved with and replenishing you with thoughts of being back in reality and getting a hold of what is real.
(Frost or flame skeleton me) He/she is reminding the singer again for the fresh start that nothing is going to bring him/her back.
(Fall asleep spin the sky skeleton me) he/ she is telling the singer even if they fall asleep and have a dream of something impossible like spinning the sky or bringing him/ her back from the dead it may comfort the singer for the length of the dream, but when the singer awakes nothing will be changed he/ she will still be a skeleton.
Love dont cry skeleton me) are just repeated words trying to help the singer cope with his/ her death and not returning.

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General CommentI also thought that "skeleton" was used as a verb here.

I think the relationship has already ended and she's telling him to skeleton her (pretend she's gone forever, strip his emotional connection, etc.)

I think she's telling him to let go, relax, and move on.

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General CommentI agree with ambivalentamanda. The drums bring a military funeral march feel to it. And the background music gives a kind of spacey, unreal but beautiful energy.

To me the lyrics are them talking to each other. I see the first half of the song (before the military drums come in) as her calling out to him in her dreams "Love, come home. I'm just a skeleton without you" and then the second half is him responding and comforting her. When it says "Soon comes rain" it's him saying "This war won't last forever. Soon the rain will come to wash all the pain and blood away". He's saying that he's a skeleton without her, too, but asking her to wait for him.

Maybe I'm reading a little too much into this but I really love this song.

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General CommentI personally feel like the song is about her being in a relationship that she doesn't want to be in anymore and she's telling the other person do what you have to do to get over me whether it be by being by being cold and separated or by getting angry to the point where he won't want to deal with her anymore and ''skeleton me'' is actually referring to her wanting to be considered dead to the other person making the ending of the relationship much easier.

The song has much a funeral feel to it, like the burial of a relationship starting off slow and speeding up with the drums.

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Song MeaningTo me the song is about a relationship that has turned cold and hollow - "love left dry" - and this absence of love or passion has left the singer feeling empty like a skeleton - "skeleton me".

To "spin the sky" is an impossible task - it isn't possible to physically move/spin the sky - which could be referring to the impossibilty of continuing the relationship as it is, or rediscovering the passion/love that was once between them. They have no real choice but to go their seperate ways.

It could also be referring to the way in which the singer's love completely transformed her life and turned the sky of her world around. She has been changed by the relationship and is sad to see it end. It seems that the singer still cares for whoever she's singing about, as is shown by the words, "Love, don't cry". She doesn't want to cause him pain or heartbreak, but feels she can't continue things the way they are.

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General CommentI also think it's about the end of a relationship, specifically about what's left of her after relationships have ended; a fragile skeleton of what she was.

The first few lines seem to suggest that no matter how her relationships end, they always leave her in the same state, "Love left dry / frost or flame / skeleton me". Whether by having a relationship burn out in a passionate blaze or slowly freeze over, she's always left as this skeleton.

Then the next few lines seem to be about why she retreats into this skeleton of herself, and how she deals with it. "Fall asleep / Spin the sky / Skeleton me" - we can collapse and abandon our lives while we try to cope with loss, but time will keep progressing. The Earth will continue rotating around the Sun, and so the sky will keep on spinning for us. We can sleep, cry, dry our eyes, and eventually life will return to our battered skeletons once again.

"Love, don't go / Love, don't cry" could be a lonely refusal to believe what has happened, or maybe it suggests that we don't have to lose all the love once shared when relationships end - maybe friendship can still bloom from the cinders and bones.

I love the clacking drumsticks that're slowly introduced as the song progresses - really evokes the hollow brittleness of a skeleton. What a great song... so sad, but I love it. :)

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General CommentI think "skeleton" is used as a verb here. Meaning, shatter my walls, make me bear, tear me open, leave me vulnerable. Skeleton me.

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General CommentBeautiful. Reminds me of Maps a little.

Maybe it is about a break up, where neither person wants it to end, but the love is starting to go dry.

Either way, I like it a lot.

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General CommentI love how a few of their songs just sound like free word association. Skeleton, me.

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