The song 'Fortnight' by Taylor Swift and Post Malone tells a story about strong feelings, complicated relationships, and secret wishes. It talks about love, betrayal, and wanting someone who doesn't feel the same. The word 'fortnight' shows short-lived happiness and guilty pleasures, leading to sadness. It shows how messy relationships can be and the results of hiding emotions. “I was supposed to be sent away / But they forgot to come and get me,” she kickstarts the song in the first verse with lines suggesting an admission to a hospital for people with mental illnesses. She goes in the verse admitting her lover is the reason why she is like this. In the chorus, she sings about their time in love and reflects on how he has now settled with someone else. “I took the miracle move-on drug, the effects were temporary / And I love you, it’s ruining my life,” on the second verse she details her struggles to forget about him and the negative effects of her failure. “Thought of callin’ ya, but you won’t pick up / ‘Nother fortnight lost in America,” Post Malone sings in the outro.
Well I have known you
For just a little while
But I feel I've known you
I feel I've seen you
When the Earth was split in fives
And in your words, I
Should let it out, I
Would see you die
But I'm a watcher
I see it watch her
It's in your afterlife
This is the Age of Adz
Eternal living
Oh keep from trying
Oh keep from caring
You are the light
We see you trying to
Be something else that
You're not, we think you're nice
The circumstances
Of what I thought, I
Could see it now
I wouldn't be so
I wouldn't feel so
But it's a running wild
This is the Age of Adz
Eternal lving
When it dies, when it dies
It rots
And when it lives, when it lives
It gives it all it gots
This is the Age of Adz
Eternal living
It rots
It gives it all it gots
This is the Age of Adz
Eternal living
In all reflections
I see your method
I see it all
And what about you?
And what about me?
Are we the lost of lost
Don't speak too soon, don't
be fruit of loom, don't
Excite yourself
For what you see is
Not fantasy, it's
Not what it gets, but gives
This is the Age of Adz
Eternal living
In all reflections
I see it mentioned
I see it all
The gorgeous mess of
Your face impressed us
Imposed of all its art
This is the Age of Adz
Eternal living
When it dies, when it dies
It rots
And when it lives, when it lives
It gives it all it gots
This is the Age of Adz
Eternal living
It rots
It gives it all it gots
This is the Age of Adz
Eternal living
When I die, when I die
I'll rot
But when I live, when I live
I'll give it all I've got
When I die, when I die
I'll rot
But when I live, when I live
I'll give it all I've got
Gloria, Gloria
Victoria, Victoria
It lives in all of us
Gloria, Gloria
Victoria, Victoria
It lives in all of us
I've lost the will to fight
I was not made for life
I've lost the will to fight
I was not made for life
Now I have known you
For just a little while
I feel I must be wearing my welcome
I must be moving on
For my intentions were good intentions
I could have loved you
I could have changed you
I wouldn't be so
I wouldn't feel so
Consumed by selfish thoughts
I'm sorry if I seem self-effacing
Consumed by selfish thoughts
It's only that I still love you deeply
It's all the love I've got
For just a little while
But I feel I've known you
I feel I've seen you
When the Earth was split in fives
And in your words, I
Should let it out, I
Would see you die
But I'm a watcher
I see it watch her
It's in your afterlife
This is the Age of Adz
Eternal living
Oh keep from trying
Oh keep from caring
You are the light
We see you trying to
Be something else that
You're not, we think you're nice
The circumstances
Of what I thought, I
Could see it now
I wouldn't be so
I wouldn't feel so
But it's a running wild
This is the Age of Adz
Eternal lving
When it dies, when it dies
It rots
And when it lives, when it lives
It gives it all it gots
This is the Age of Adz
Eternal living
It rots
It gives it all it gots
This is the Age of Adz
Eternal living
In all reflections
I see your method
I see it all
And what about you?
And what about me?
Are we the lost of lost
Don't speak too soon, don't
be fruit of loom, don't
Excite yourself
For what you see is
Not fantasy, it's
Not what it gets, but gives
This is the Age of Adz
Eternal living
In all reflections
I see it mentioned
I see it all
The gorgeous mess of
Your face impressed us
Imposed of all its art
This is the Age of Adz
Eternal living
When it dies, when it dies
It rots
And when it lives, when it lives
It gives it all it gots
This is the Age of Adz
Eternal living
It rots
It gives it all it gots
This is the Age of Adz
Eternal living
When I die, when I die
I'll rot
But when I live, when I live
I'll give it all I've got
When I die, when I die
I'll rot
But when I live, when I live
I'll give it all I've got
Gloria, Gloria
Victoria, Victoria
It lives in all of us
Gloria, Gloria
Victoria, Victoria
It lives in all of us
I've lost the will to fight
I was not made for life
I've lost the will to fight
I was not made for life
Now I have known you
For just a little while
I feel I must be wearing my welcome
I must be moving on
For my intentions were good intentions
I could have loved you
I could have changed you
I wouldn't be so
I wouldn't feel so
Consumed by selfish thoughts
I'm sorry if I seem self-effacing
Consumed by selfish thoughts
It's only that I still love you deeply
It's all the love I've got
Lyrics submitted by browncrayon, edited by Mellow_Harsher
Age Of Adz Lyrics as written by Sufjan Stevens
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I can't believe how good this song is
Agreed.
As explained by Sufjan himself: Adz is a misspelling of "odds."
Why did you call the album The Age of Adz?
[Laughs] I don’t know! I don’t know… I mean the [word] "Adz" is really a misspelling of "Odds." That’s taken from Royal Robertson, he has all kinds of text in his work, and his visions are all written out in this messy script. He was a sign painter for a living before he was an artist, and his signs became double entendres, messages that had dual meanings, because of all the misspellings and grammatical mistakes. The Age of Adz is reflecting the subconscious, free association way of thinking that happens when you’re not censoring yourself. Royal’s work is very much about impulsive free association, and the lyrics on The Age of Adz also follow that [impulse].
eyeweekly.com/music/interview/article/103905
I feel like this song could be a reflection from the perspective of a small worker who is a relatively insignificant cog within a larger industrial society that values the community over the individual. He is reflecting upon the age at hand, and its (sarcastic?) utopian promise of “eternal living” and the merits of hard work and duty, and he is also pondering his individual mortality within that society’s framework (acknowledging he will eventually rot into nothingness, but finding some sort of purpose in a mantra of giving maximum effort in life). It somewhat reminds me of the world described by the book “Brave New World,” or of any society that is more focused on productivity, stability and the “greater good” than upon the value and purpose of individual lives. The line about the world being “split in fives” reminds me of Brave New World’s storyline where the population is divided up into five distinct castes, but the line could very well represent any sort of cold, broad statistical categorizing of a population by governments, corporations, etc. — yet another way of dehumanizing individuals and lessening their value while propping up large entities and the greater community. “Victoria” may be a reference to the Victorian Era and Industrial Revolutions in Europe and North America, as they seem an appropriate setting for the narrator of the song within this interpretation. As an Adze is a woodworking tool, it is possible that the “Age of Adz” could refer to an age that values hard work and industry above all else (serving as a symbol not unlike the sickle and hammer are to communism), though the spelling difference makes me question this. I’m also wondering if “Adz” could mean, “odds,” “ads” (as in “advertisements,” consumerism), or “adds” (as in adding small value at different stages along an assembly line). I still don't have a firm grasp on this song (or album), and I'd like to look into the Royal Robertson connection people are referencing.
This new album has blown my mind. I was so in love with his song, You Are the Blood, that it was kinda sad that it was the only one that sounded so grotesque and powerful. But now there's a whole album that's like it! Great lyrics, too. Sufjan, always the spiritual enigma.
I saw Sufjan this week and he said this song is about love and the apocalypse. How loosing a love can feel like the end of the world and be so dramatic... 'When it dies, when it dies It rots And when it lives, and when it lives It gives it all it gots This is the Age of Adz Eternal living' I think this is about the struggle in your mind when a relationship is ending, do you give it all you got, or let it rot. still not sure what the lyrics 'Age of Adz' means, and adz is a tool used for shaping wood, maybe because you feel like one has been taken to your chest after a heartbreak. Seems like a lot of the songs on this album concern heartbreak.
After reading more about Royal Robertson, it seems like Sufjan is telling Royal's story. Wiki said this about Royal <br /> 'Numerous hallucinatory visions of space travel where aliens predicted the End of Days through complex numerological formulas and warned him about the dangers of adultery and fornication led Robertson to believe that he was a victim of a global female conspiracy.He believed that his ex-wife's betrayal would be the cause of the cataclysmic destruction of humanity, and that his art was divinely sanctioned.'<br /> Sufjan is interested in Royal because he walks the line of genius and mad man. If your know anything about schizophrenia, it commonly occurs in people who are in the highest realms of intelligence. This is what makes it so frightening. Someone could be at the top of their class, brilliant and creative one day, and then unable to tell truth from hallucination the next. <br /> I
first of all, i don't think sufjan is addressing royal in this song, as a previous commenter said. i was at his concert last night and after he played this song he said that it was his apocalypse love song, and how a relationship ending is the same thing as the end of the world. he said it kind of jokingly but i think he was partly serious. the song that he said was about royal robertson was "get real, get right."
Gloria, Gloria It rots Victoria, Victoria It lives in all of us
to me his use of names here is rooted in the concept of one's motivations in love and life. ..fighting for Glory loses while fighting for the Victory of one's cause brings out the best in us. perhaps Sufjan is relating this to a love interest [being Gloria] but he wants to let it rot and keep looking for Victoria.
Having now heard I Walked, Impossible Soul, Too Much Love and Age of Adz, I think it might take some time for me to get used to Suf's new sound. I guess I just need to go through a grieving period over what seems to be the end of his old style, but I understand that he needs to grow as a musician and evolve in whatever direction interests him. We could see this change coming based on the interviews he's given over the last few years, but it will still be hard to accept the change.
Whatever, man.. Accepting the change isn't hard when the music is still as good as ever. If I want to hear his old stuff, I'll listen to it. But I'm totally glad he isn't just releasing more albums of the same old shit. He's still amazing. And 'The Age of Adz' is a fantastic album.
sorry @sufstuff but this is not a new Sufjan... cf. Enjoy Your Rabbit or A Sun Came. this is the album that Sufjan always wanted to do.
I agre with andgtome. Enjoy Your Rabbit came out a two full years before Michigan, and a lot of Sufjan fans have been waiting for something that sounds like this for quite a while now.
For real @Nimbus, Andgtome, indiewinrar. And Christ! the instrumental arrangements on this album are breathtaking. Reminds me of a little bit of the BQE. Frankly, this song is BAD ASS AS BALLS. I love this album and it doesn't detract from my love of Illinois at at all.
Go listen to Enjoy Your Rabbit again. It's not the same thing. And how is it wrong to have different tastes than someone else? I'm not saying other people shouldn't like his new stuff as much. I just said that I still prefer his earlier stuff better. Relax, folks. We don't all have to have the exact same tastes. Sufjan was right - some of his fans take themselves and him too seriously.
It's official: I love this album. I'm sure my journey mirrors many other Sufjan fans (many of whom probably wouldn't be willing to admit it for fear of backlash from extremists like you see above) who were very wary of this album after reading all of Suf's interviews. But after listening to the album many times in preparation of attending one of his shows, especially in this last week, I am once again in awe of his genius. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that he is able to turn one of my least favorite genre into something I love. While I still do like his earlier stuff the most, I appreciate this album as an artistic journey that I am taking with Sufjan as he leads me into musical territory in which I never intended to venture.
Sorry @Andgtome, I agree with sufstuff. You definitely need to go back and listen to Enjoy Your Rabbit and A Sun Came (more so to Enjoy Your Rabbit because I don't think it sounds ANYTHING like Age of Adz but I do see similarities between it and A Sun Came). Yeah, he went back to a more electronic sound that is prevalent in those two albums, but a lot of the things that made the 50 States albums so great are mixed in with that electronic sound. It's something new.
I agree with sufstuff's second post. When I first listened to Age of Adz I missed his old stuff, but once I got past the fact that it was different and listened a few more times I fell in love with it. Its still Sufjan so its still genius.
This site is supposed to be about interpreting the lyrics...there's about a zillion other sites where people can complain about how Sufjan's "changed." Personally, I love it.
Anyhow, the lyrics: most are correct above (there's a few spots it's off) except the entire ending is missing:
When I die, when I die I'll rot but when I live, when I live I'll give it all I've got
(repeats)
Gloria, Gloria Victoria, Victoria It lives in all of us
(repeats)
I've lost the will to fight ?
I have known you for just a little while I feel I must be wearing my welcome I must be moving on
For my intentions, were good intentions I could have loved you I could have changed you
I wouldn't be so I wouldn't feel so Consumed by selfish thoughts
I'm sorry if I seem self-effacing Consumed by selfish thoughts It's only that I Still love you deeply It's all the love I've got
I think the line you couldn't get is...<br /> <br /> "I was not made for life"
What a beautiful song.