This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
I was in a sleeping dream
When a policeman brought my mother home
By the window I didn't scream
I was too old for that
I was in a drunken dream
The pubs were closed, it was three o'clock
At the bottom of the street it seemed
There was a policeman lost in the fog
I understand but I don't see it
I understand but I don't see it
I understand but I don't read it
Futures and pasts
You can cry for your lost childhood
We can cry for our lost childhoods
But remember how you hated it
And worse 'cause you couldn't state it?
I understand but I don't see it
I understand but I don't see it
I understand but I don't read it
Futures and pasts
Look at the woman of thirty-nine
Look at the man of forty-nine
You can read their lousy lives
You can see their ugly face lines
They understand but they don't see it
They understand but they don't see it
I understand but I don't read it
Futures and pasts
I understand but I don't see it
I understand but I don't see it
I understand but I don't read it
Futures and pasts
When a policeman brought my mother home
By the window I didn't scream
I was too old for that
I was in a drunken dream
The pubs were closed, it was three o'clock
At the bottom of the street it seemed
There was a policeman lost in the fog
I understand but I don't see it
I understand but I don't see it
I understand but I don't read it
Futures and pasts
You can cry for your lost childhood
We can cry for our lost childhoods
But remember how you hated it
And worse 'cause you couldn't state it?
I understand but I don't see it
I understand but I don't see it
I understand but I don't read it
Futures and pasts
Look at the woman of thirty-nine
Look at the man of forty-nine
You can read their lousy lives
You can see their ugly face lines
They understand but they don't see it
They understand but they don't see it
I understand but I don't read it
Futures and pasts
I understand but I don't see it
I understand but I don't see it
I understand but I don't read it
Futures and pasts
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The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.