Crash Years

To me, the song is a sympathetic note to someone who's being openly criticized by everyone around them for a mistake they made, or a humiliating experience they're going through.

I think the chorus of "Traffic was slow for the crash years" calls to mind an accident on the highway that causes traffic to slow down so everyone can get a look at what happened.

"There's no other show like it round here" = everyone's enjoying watching and commenting on this person's troubles.

The singer's sympathetic stance is apparent in the way she insinuates "the rest of us" have got our own mistakes and bad choices to live with: "You're ruined, like the rest of us, ruined." And everyone has a bad time dealing with them: "And like the rest of us, you've got those old eternity blues."

Basically, it seems this is a note to say "I'm on your side, and it sucks that you have to endure everyone talking smack about you." Which is why she ruefully states: "Tonight will be an open mic" -- that is, everyone who wants to will say whatever they want about you.

I'm assuming "Honey child you're not safe here" is a Smiths reference, (Panic, one of their most famous songs, contains the line "Honey pie you're not safe here"). Has this been confirmed?

this song is so pretty :-)

it's so damn nice that sh*t like this exists... damn. happiness!

This is a somewhat bipolar song about creativity or more specifically, the lack of creativity in depressing and down times. "The skirts go up Before the war" - life is cyclical and when there is creativity and energy things are fun and relaxed, but its all temporal. The down-cycle is inevitable due to the human condition and we are all subject to the forces at play - "the maddening crowds "They're ruined like the rest of us". The writer reflects the sense of being a ruined animated puppet going round and round, passing through time.

"The traffic was slow for the crash years" - boredom and tedium with not a lot of inspiration, "roll up the windows" - could equally be phrased "pull down the blinds" with "As a rule" being a positive qualifier. A dark time with the need to infuse light "Light a candle's end" - we're all low on light in the down-cycle. "Your finger's raised, you're looking for the word" referring to the writing process, and the best material comes from the ether - like McCartney's "Scrambled Eggs" or Richard's "Satisfaction" or from stumbling across the right riff. "Another drag Spectacular view" - my guess, a gestalt; a cigarette, looking out the window at nature's inspiration, even when you're down. "What can you lose" - another positive perspective from the writer's inner dialog, a small voice, but a voice nevertheless.

"Honey child you're not safe here" - I agree a Smith's reference, and poignant in this cultural season of fear. "The ruins were wild" brings to mind Cat Stevens Ruins - "It's so quiet in the ruins"(song's on my Iphone). "Tonight will be open mic" - perhaps the next spark will hit the stage - renewal, and darkness tends to spark creativity.

Loving the stock market interpretations, I think that fits really well.

This is niche, but I just have to add my take: As someone who was a complete fuck up for a few years, kept burning bridges and disappointing people, that time in my life felt like there was a spotlight on everything I did wrong. Especially when the biggest fuckup was running my sedan into a semi, totalling it. This song is at least a little bit literal for me.

But more broadly, everyone goes through periods where it feels they can't do anything right. It's "Crash Years" because whatever you're doing is a messy, totally obvious disaster and you're crashing and burning. But it's also because it's a phase. It's the crash years, not the crash forever, and you just have to live through them. Because next up will be the flight years or the love letter years or the suncatcher years. The Crash Years, as I interpret them, are the thing you survive.

To me it's post-post-apocalyptic, with a club's owner reminiscing, maybe to her adopted child (Honey child you're not safe here) about how "traffic was slow during the crash years."

The first verse is a characterization of the banks and, particularly, the stock market ("walls of clocks"). "Crash Years" literally refers to a (or the) recession but figuratively symbolizes any kind of melancholic time.

In the second verse I believe it is "drab", not "drag". This verse deals with depression from aforementioned event and how we all sometimes hope for more bad in the middle of despair.

The refrain rounds things out and I think the traffic, show, window and mic references are a personal reflection from the perspective of an artist/musician.

I think decatur is spot on. This is a song about the recession/stock market crash/housing crash.

The first verse in its entirety is basically saying "it's everyones fault" but pays particular note to living dolls who live behinds walls of clocks and ride in circles, i.e. wall streeters. The "skirts go up" is a direct reference to the economy it is a saying that when the economy is well skirts are longer and when its bad there shorter, saying "skirts are going up" means the economy is getting worse.

I think the second verse and the reference of a crash and traffic is looking at how we all responded to it like a crash on the freeway. We slowed down to look at it and the basically rolled up our windows to ignore it and move on.

The third verse is about someone in particular and I kinda lean toward Obama as someone kinda stuck in the position of dealing with the accident and not really having the poper voice in talking to everyone about the problem. I think I thought this as he was a smoker and the "another drag" and he just kinda looks out over the scene of the accident, but another draB sound more correct in how I hear the song. Would be interesting to hear other peoples view of who this verse is refering.

The "ruins were wild" I think refers to the crash never really being solved and the people still there are still running around wild, wall streeters without any punishment or new rules from conrgess, and the "tonight will be an open mic" is a sense of hope that any of us can come forward and talk about this.

I don't know if this is what the song is about, but it reminds me of World War II.

A few lyrics make me think this in particular: "The skirts go up Before the war" A lot of men and women get married in a rush and have lots of babies before the men go off to war, like the Baby Boom.

"Traffic was slow for the crash years" The United States suffered The Great Depression. The stock market crashed in 1929, aka Black Tuesday. I think this could refer to traffic as in trade, and a "crash" as in an economic collapse.

In general, the overall theme of ruin, and tone of this song make me think it could relate to that time period of WWII.