Red Belt

My Interpretation:

I think kneeling simply means begging.

"when you think nothing could be further from the truth when you're sure nothing could be further from the cold, hard truth" First, people tell Sara that the other person {P} has some really bad habits; however, she is in denial.

"I kneel, to condition all the feelings that I feel" Sara begs {or perhaps just hopes} that P will stop their bad habits and/or that it's just not true.

"slow it down, you have a tendency to rush back into your past slow it down, you transfer all your weight and disappear" Then, P starts to make all these excuses, which eventually leads to her begging Sara not to leave her. In a sense, her bad self vanishes; i.e., 'Think of all the great times we've had together!' She's saying so much stuff that Sara literally has to say, 'Whoa! Slow down, and let me think for a moment.'

"I've got a red belt around my mind my hands tied up around these words" A belt is usually used to hold something together {or to keep pants up, but that's a different story xD}. Sara has to almost force herself to keep up her good mood in the relationship. She doesn't want it to end, and she really wants to look past P's bad habits. Therefore, she's continuously focusing on all the good things P has mentioned.

"I wish you'd call, but I know that you're out tonight my ears fill with the sound of your kneeling my ears fill with the sound of dissent my ears fill with the sound of your arching slow it down, you have a tendency to rush back into your past slow it down, you transfer all your weight and disappear" Just when P's bad habits surface once again {which could include canceling dates unexpectedly, lying, cheating, etc.} and Sara notices, P goes straight back to her 'Think of the good times!' spiel.

"kneel, to condition all the feelings that you feel kneel, to condition all the feelings that you feel kneel, to condition all the feelings that you feel kneel, to condition all the feelings that you feel " It's almost as though Sara now realizes that P will always have these bad habits, and the cycle will continue to occur. However, Sara does not wish to leave P.

SO if they've read 1984... red belt signified like virginity, or keeping yourself 'pure' even though it was all a lie.

so i think it's a lie wrapped around her head to look like something she's not.

and the song could very well be about sex as well as various other things.

I think it may be about a relationship in which she HAD sex, and it was good, and she's remembering, as she's feeling all these things for someone new and good as well.

"when you think nothing could be further from the truth when you're sure nothing could be further from the cold, hard truth" The writer is talking about being further from truth. It makes me think of being broken after a relationship and she is trying to get away from truth that she is hurt. So, what do most do? (Rhetoric) most tend to go out and try to find someone else. Mostly for sex, but some try to find someone else to date. Either way, your trying to find a rebound. "I kneel, to condition all the feelings that I feel" So I think the writer is talking to herself between third and first person. Here it is first person and she is stating she is engaging in sex or a sexual act to try and "condition" or fix the fact the ex is on her mind. "Slow it down, you have a tendency to rush back into your past slow it down, you transfer all your weight and disappear" In third person she is trying to warn herself (like she is someone else giving warning ) that she needs slow down because she tends to go to that place in her mind where the ex consumes her. Hence disappear, she gets stuck there. "You kneel, to condition all the feelings that you feel" In third person she is restating how she engages in something sex related to momentarily fix the fact the ex is still lingering in her mind.

"I've got a red belt around my mind my hands tied up around these words" Like the 1984 reference above I think she is using red belt in the fact that she knows the meaningless sex is a momentary fix and you still end up feeling shitty after. So the red belt is her lying to her self that it is fine even though she knows truth. Hands represents actions and words represents the truth that the red belt is masking. She is doing nothing to stop from engaging into something sexual even though truth is, she is still gonna be broken at the end. "I wish you'd call, but I know that you're out tonight" She wants the ex to call, but her ex is going out. You see this makes me think that it has been some time since the break up, but she was holding on because she possibly loves the ex, can't think of being with someone else, etc. Either way, ex has moved on and she hasn't. "My ears fill with the sound of you kneeling my ears fill with the sound of descent my ears fill with the sound of you arching" In first person she is going to that part of her mind where the ex is at. While she is having meaningless sex and knows the ex is probably out, she is thinking of those times her and her ex had sex. "Slow it down, you have a tendency to rush back into your past slow it down, you transfer all your weight and disappear" Again she is telling herself to slow down before she is consumed. "Kneel, to condition all the feelings that you feel kneel, to condition all the feelings that you feel kneel, to condition all the feelings that you feel kneel, to condition all the feelings that you feel" Here she is in third person telling herself yet again what she is doing. I think when she is in third person at the beginning she is slowly becoming consumed in that part of mind with the ex. By the end of the second Verse, she has been consumed. Now she is just telling herself that she is engaging in something sexual to get away, but obviously it isn't working.. Anyways, im probably far from it but lol I tried and im really thinking this now

I think I did pretty good with this one..just a few parts I'm unsure of but any suggestions are helpful =)

some corrections; one word I can't make out at all. I'll have to listen to this a lot more to figure out what it means.

when you think nothing could be further from the truth when you're sure nothing could be further from the cold, hard truth I kneel to condition all the feelings that I feel slow it down, you have a tendency to rush back into your past slow it down, you transfer all your weight and disappear you kneel to condition all the feelings that you feel

I've got a red belt around my mind my hands tight around these words I wish you'd call, but I know that you're out tonight my ears fill with the sound of the (one word, not two, don't know what it is) my ears fill with the sound of dissent my ears fill with the sound of your arching slow it down, you have a tendency to rush back into your past slow it down, you transfer all your weight and disappear kneel, to condition all the feelings that you feel kneel, to condition all the feelings that you feel kneel, to condition all the feelings that you feel kneel, to condition all the feelings that you feel

Does anybody wish to share what they think this song is about?

The first time I listened to it, I guess I jumped to the obvious dirty-minded answer. At first she says "I kneel to condition all the feelings that I feel" which I interpretated as her giving into sex (or even head jobs, "kneeling") but then she starts talking about the other person involved "you have a tendancy to rush into your past" / "you kneel to condition all the feeling that you feel" / "my ear fill with the sound of you kneeling/ sound of descent/ sound of you arching", feels to me as though when things get bad with the relationship (with the other person) that they resort to their past, which may be sleeping around/with other people.

Someone told me yesterday that Red Belt is actually a movie, released in 2008/9, which the song relates to. Anybody have any thoughts?

Sara has written a sexual song before coughDowntowncough what's to stop her from writing another.

Anyway...whatever she is doing when she kneels it is to express her feelings to the person..condition has a lot of definitions among others it means to specify something so...yeah. that's all I got.

And are you sure its dissent? And not DESCENT?

just a small correction: my ears fill with the sound of YOU kneeling my ears fill with the sound of DESCENT my ears fill with the sound of YOU arching

it actually is descent, according to the booklet. it could make sense in the context of kneeling, descending, arching...

and, TeeRQEssKQ, i wouldn't characterize "downtown" as a sexual song. but... that's just me.

to me this song is about being afraid someone will repeat their mistakes I think it's about everything that's going on in her mind when she's alone and she's imagining what might be happening while she's not there. The 'red belt', i think, is a form of self protection - like in martial arts - trying to protect herself from the thoughts that keep creeping in. That's just my take on it.

its about sex guyzzz dur