High life
At first there was
There was just no question
Who wouldn't rather be there reflection
When I get here everything was cold and perfect
When I get here everything was cold and perfect
It was clear and bright
Like a mid-winter sunlight
My heart beat counting down a moment precise and quiet
(I love how I sit my own reflection helpless
I love how you saw my over world and helpless
[Chorus]
But I
What have I done what have I done
Oh (oh) what have I done
Oh what have I done
My god what have I done
Oh (oh) what have I done
Oh what have I done
As time went on
You could feel a silence
Solidifying
The sound of my thoughts paralyzing
I tried to come back to and melt the glass and perfect
I tried to come back to and melt the glass and perfect
[Chorus]
Every day is the same
We're praying for rain
When it finally came
Oh when it came
Everyday was the same
Still praying for rain
Every day is the same
We're praying for rain
When it finally came
Oh when it came
Everyday was the same
Still praying for rain
There was just no question
Who wouldn't rather be there reflection
When I get here everything was cold and perfect
When I get here everything was cold and perfect
It was clear and bright
Like a mid-winter sunlight
My heart beat counting down a moment precise and quiet
(I love how I sit my own reflection helpless
I love how you saw my over world and helpless
[Chorus]
But I
What have I done what have I done
Oh (oh) what have I done
Oh what have I done
My god what have I done
Oh (oh) what have I done
Oh what have I done
As time went on
You could feel a silence
Solidifying
The sound of my thoughts paralyzing
I tried to come back to and melt the glass and perfect
I tried to come back to and melt the glass and perfect
[Chorus]
Every day is the same
We're praying for rain
When it finally came
Oh when it came
Everyday was the same
Still praying for rain
Every day is the same
We're praying for rain
When it finally came
Oh when it came
Everyday was the same
Still praying for rain
Lyrics submitted by Christa426, edited by Emzee4life, Coachskau, heskey3331
In the Glass Lyrics as written by Damian Kulash
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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And, of course, the fact that she sees in him a fellow "idealist" and "dreamer" (terms commonly given to people with the INFP personality on the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)) portends that she'll always be left wondering if they would've been perfect together.
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This song is just electrifying.
It seems to be about how we think we would like to trade places with the versions of ourselves we see in the mirror (or in the glass!) who live in an identical world but never feel the trials and tribulations of the real world because they're just illusions of people. Our protagonist gets the chance to swap places for real, but immediately regrets it because in the glass everything is empty, and all the joy is gone as well as the pain.
And it's so often true - people get jealous of mediocrity and are too lazy to live exciting lives because of the risk, opting to live empty lives instead.
I can't pick a favorite from this album, but this is definitely one of the many. Favorite line of the entire album is from this song, "Every day is the same: we're praying for rain" (next to the line about love saving us in "Back From Kathmandu").
I agree with willhirsch's comment, though I'll give a deeper analysis:
“Well at first there was, there was just no question”
“It was clear and bright like midwinter sunlight” -This could mean 3 things; a) the decision, b) his last day in the real world, or c) the reflection’s land (Though I doubt it since bright = warm, but he said the place was cold) “My heartbeat counting down the moments, precise and quiet” -He was extremely nervous beforehand, heart beating heavily, but decided to keep quiet “I looked out and saw my own reflection, helpless” -He looked in the mirror and saw his reflection “I looked out and saw him overwhelmed and helpless”
“What have I done?” -He regrets his decision
“And as time went on, you could feel the silence”
“What have I done?” -Again, regrets his decision “What wicked penance to get what you want”
“Everyday is the same: we’re praying for rain”
Please understand that it is VERY hard to try and explain these things. There are other interpretations of some lines, so I could be wrong. I also realized that the third and last stanza remind me of communist lifestyles, though I could be mistaken because in the chorus he’s talking about “to get what you want”, so it could be about a girl as well, and the singer in-between in his real life and his rock-star life.
I'm going to analyze your analysis.<br /> <br /> "Well at first there was, there was just no question"<br />
Yes, we know. He literally just said that. Also, that statement is figurative.<br />
<br /> “It was clear and bright like midwinter sunlight”<br />
It means that the mirrored sun isn't producing heat. Normally, sunlight warms whatever it touches, but the mirror world isn't our own. The term "mid-winter sunlight" is used as the closest approximation we have to their environment.<br />
<br /> “My heartbeat counting down the moments, precise and quiet”<br />
He's not trying to be quiet. He's saying that the reflected world is so intensely silent that he could hear his own heartbeat.<br />
<br />
No. The song begins with him already in the mirror, having traded places with his reflection. How would he be able to determine the reflected world was cold and perfect in the first stanza without having been there yet?<br />
Also his reflection is freaking out because our own world is just as terrible and alien to him as the reflected world is to the singer. He came from a place where everything was cold, perfect, and utterly silent, thrust into a world full of heat, errors, and noise.<br />
<br /> “What have I done?”<br />
Thanks, glad you're checking in with us about that.<br />
<br /> “And as time went on, you could feel the silence”<br />
No, not yet. You're trying to jump to the last stanza with that.<br />
<br /> “Solidifying the sound of my thoughts was paralyzing”<br /> (“The solidifying sound of my thoughts was paralyzing”)<br />
You actually misheard that line, so I wrote the correct version underneath what you thought he said. There's not an enforced lack of communication, the reflected world is simply much different. He hasn't yet lost hope, this line is instead basically saying that his own thoughts are so unexpected in the mirror world that they provide a much more intense stimulus than anything there.<br />
<br /> “I tried to call out to him but the glass was perfect”<br />
"call out," not "climb out". Can you hear your reflection speaking in unison with you when talking in front of a mirror? This song implies that the reflected world literally produces no noise. Even if it could, the sounds would never get through the glass. How could it? The singer's only looking at a reflection, after all.<br />
<br /> “What have I done?”<br />
Phew, I almost forgot that he just said that.<br />
<br /> “What wicked penance to get what you want”<br /> ("Oh, what we can pay to get what you want")<br />
Misheard the line again. Also, what? What person? He swapped with his reflection because the reflected world is perfect, then he learns it's not what he wanted, which is why he's been saying "What have I done" through the whole damn song. There's no third party here.<br />
<br /> “Everyday is the same: we’re praying for rain”<br />
...m'kay, but he's not in a desert and he's the only person praying. A running theme in this song is that normality is subjective. He's praying for rain because it'd be something different from perfect sunny days.<br />
<br /> “And when it finally came, and when it came”<br />
Hold up, hombre, you didn't finish listening to the line yet.<br />
<br /> “Everyday was the same: still praying for rain”<br />
So here's the thing you missed: the singer's conformed to the monotonous, perfect nature of the reflected world. He sings the same lines repeatedly for the end of the song. He may have prayed for rain because it would be something different, at least at first. But as time passed, rain came and went (as it would, because the other side of the mirror has different weather all the time), and presumably many other forms of weather as well. Perhaps he expected something to happen when the monotony was "broken," maybe a feeling or some way to shatter the reflected world and get back to his own. Chasing that dream, he falls into a perfect routine: he prays, it rains, nothing changes, so he prays, it rains, nothing changes, ad infinitum.<br />
<br />
Here's the deal: you're not stupid for how you interpreted this song, though I'm sure it seems like I think that from my responses to your statements. You definitely misinterpreted a lot of it, though, probably because you thought it was about a relationship.
If you listen to Ira Glass interviewing the band on the "Extra-Nice edition", you'll learn that much of this album is about Damian's failing marriage and divorce (he writes all the lyrics). In fact the whole record is almost a concept album about the end of his relationship with his wife. And this being the finalé of the record, it's not hard to see that this might be the finalé to the relationship.
It's pretty clear if you listen to the lyrics on some of the other songs that he places a fair amount of blame on himself. I think this is the big realisation that the realtionship is doomed; in a moment of reflection (har, har) Damian realises that he's been detached in order to protect his own feelings, but that detachment was killing the relationship.
The coda is where I kind of fall off this metaphor... but coming from Australia, where we just suffered a decades-long drought, I think it might be this: we're praying for the relationship to fix itself, that tomorrow we'll wake up and everything will be okay. We're praying that tomorrow it rains and the crops will grow and we won't have to sell the farm. But when it finally came: we didn't even notice. We just continued praying that everything would be fine, as the real saviour came and went.
It's pretty condemning of the narrator. Of both of them, I guess. It seems like he thought it would have been really easy to salvage the relationship if he'd only noticed it was under threat.
I think the above have already got it in one, so I'm just going to mention — this song reminds me SO MUCH of the BBC's ASHES TO ASHES, and needs to be played over the Season 2 finale.