The Space In Between

I haven't heard any NiN, so I don't have the same comparison base as most of you. I did the see the music video though. I think this song is about The space in between Life and Death, whether Life and Death are literal or metaphors / concepts. Your feedback and opinions are welcome.

Going through the lyrics.

All our blood lying on the floor Sense the crowd expecting something more.

The first two lines match very well with the video, where the protagonists are lying bleeding on the floor. The protagonists appear to be dead, and yet the woman is singing and you can't sing when you are dead. The second line refers to the crowd and their expectations, whether the crowd references to the two other people in the video (the gent smoking the cigarette and the woman with the blonde, who seem oblivious to the bleeding people beside them), or the audience of the song, or some other implicit crowd, I am not sure.

The conflicting tense in these two lines ,from past to current, also reaffirms the being almost alive and not quite dead or having physically died but still existing.

When crowds encounter people dying, they either expect the people to die or expect the people to live. Also if the space between life and death is spirit like, then crowds expect certain behavior from spirits rather than actions and sense data they can't perceive.

Opened up, proudly on display, What we tried so hard to hide away

These two lines could refer to many things, but I they refer to the nature of their lives (secrets of dying / dead) and their vulnerability as human beings in this limbo state (weakness of mortality, weakness of their existence / souls etc).

Blinding light illuminates the scene Try to fill the spaces in between

The next two lines refer to the blinding light that we believe we see at the end of the tunnel or in near death experiences. But instead of being in enveloped in it and ceasing to exist, the protagonists remain, as this light tries to fill the space in between life and death, like it would only fully permeate people that are dead and ready (or not in limbo) or something similar.

In the music video, I believe the light is symbolized or supplemented with fire. Notice how the singer continues singer, and the flames that would burn her don't seem to anything. If she was alive or dead they would burn her.

Arms entwined in a final pose Narrative drawing to a close

The next two lines, once again indicate the being on the edge of life / death, particularly with the usage of the words final and close. The also indicate the passage of time, which is a contradiction that reinforces the limbo state.

Still remain the things we couldn't kill In your eyes I can see it still

These lines are interesting. The first line is in past tense again and the second is in present again, further reaffirming their circumstance It also refers to the fact that remains of themselves in this state is that which isn't capable of being killed by them (whether these remaining things are capable of dying isn't specified), the second line affirms that the singer can still see and she can she something in her compatriot's eyes. Whether this is life, or something that won't die with the rest of him, or hope or love, isn't known.

How we choose the framing of the scene Hate begins to spill across the screen

The penultimate two lines also are interesting. I think they refer to the perception of their circumstance, whether that of themselves or by others (possibly the gent and blonder, possibly the audience of the song (meta, I know) in their state).

The first line seems to imply that in their neither fully dead nor fully alive (both in terms of mortality, existence and tangibility to reality) state, they still have the ability to influence others perception of them, which must come across as a contrast from the earlier vulnerability of their state.

The next line mentions Hate and its spilling across a screen. We don't know whose hate it is and who it is directed at and we don't know why the hate is there. The screen could be between the protagonists and the living, the protagonists and the dead, the protagonists and the audience or between the protagonists and their environment around them.

Earlier in the music video we see a tap overflowing and spilling, possibly this symbolizes the hatred, and hence we can gather that whilst the hatred might extinguish the blinding list attempting to vanquish them either to the realm of living or dead, this would be unlikely to happen quickly, just like the amount of spilled water is tiny in comparison to the amount of flames in the music video.

Blinding light illuminates the scene Try to fill the spaces in between

The interpretation of these two lines is covered above, when they are previously sung.