11 Meanings
Add Yours
Follow
Share
Q&A
Just the Same But Brand New Lyrics
The people in the street had overtaken you
By the time you rounded Second Avenue
So I walked away
All perfumed
Felt just the same
But brand new
And anything you wrote I checked for codes and clues
The letters stopped unceremoniously in June
So I changed my I's and A's to yours
I'm just the same but brand new
And I do my best impression of weightlessness, now too
And I might be wrong, I might be wrong, I might be wrong
But honey I believed I could
Float away, dangling
I'm just the same but brand new
To you.
By the time you rounded Second Avenue
All perfumed
But brand new
The letters stopped unceremoniously in June
I'm just the same but brand new
And I might be wrong, I might be wrong, I might be wrong
But honey I believed I could
Float away, dangling
I'm just the same but brand new
To you.
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
I love the ephemeral nature of this song. I used to think this song was about moving on from something and probably in away it still is. But from 'checking for codes and clues' to 'I'm just the same but brand new to you' I feel like its about a friendship that slowly blossomed into something more, and the lightness you feel once that happened.
One of my favorites! I just saw St. Vincent live and she told a story about how she came to write this song: Her friend is an interior designer in NYC and one of her client's was a woman in her 90s and her house hadn't been redone since the 50s so all of the furniture and stuff in her home was all 1950s style. And the woman wanted exact replicas of the furniture and interior, and, as she put it, she wanted it "just the same but brand new".
I love this song. It should be the closer, because it has a brilliant climax and then a very long instrumental tone-down. The I feel like "The Sequel" just ruins it.
I feel the same way about "The Sequel" ruining the ending of the album. I just bought a copy of the album on vinyl and the tracklist actually has "The Sequel" right in between "Black Rainbow" and "Laughing With a Mouth of Blood" which actually works out so much better than "The Sequel" being at the end. It sounds great and fits in perfectly at the middle of the album. So if you happen to have a record player, I suggest you buy the vinyl. It's a much more satisfying experience having "Just the Same But Brand New" being the...
I feel the same way about "The Sequel" ruining the ending of the album. I just bought a copy of the album on vinyl and the tracklist actually has "The Sequel" right in between "Black Rainbow" and "Laughing With a Mouth of Blood" which actually works out so much better than "The Sequel" being at the end. It sounds great and fits in perfectly at the middle of the album. So if you happen to have a record player, I suggest you buy the vinyl. It's a much more satisfying experience having "Just the Same But Brand New" being the album's closer.
My favourite St. Vincent song...why aren't there more comments?
Just wanted to add that it seems to be about some sort of break-up or dissolution of a friendship because of the line about the letters stopping "unceremoniously in June." Like maybe there was some interest or flirtation, a connection via the letters (checking for codes and clues), but then it just didn't work out for some reason.
I think this is about an attraction to a woman (based on the perfumed line) that either gave mixed signals or it was unrequited. When they no longer spoke she tried to get over her but never could. And maybe the next time she saw her, the other woman didn't acknowledge their past together, pretending to just be an old friend.
To me this song is about an unrequited love, the narrator is being ignored by their love interest, maybe they’re more famous or successful hence getting overtaken by the crowd like their fans, so the narrator walks away and tries to float out of existence to lessen the pain. Obviously they go way back, so while they’re still the same ppl, they see each other differently ( actually the love interest sees the narrator differently now that they’re a big shot)
I think it's "Float away, dangling"
aaaaah I dig ya, girlfran
Definately should have been last song. great album