This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Been fighting things that I can't see
Like voices coming from the inside of me
Like doing things I find hard to believe in
Am I myself or am I dreaming?
I've been awake for an hour or so
Checking for a pulse but I just don't know
Am I a man if I feel like a ghost?
The stranger in the mirror is wearing my clothes
No, I'm not alright
I know that I'm not right
A steering wheel doesn't mean you can drive
A warm body don't mean I'm alive
No, I'm not alright
I know that I'm not right
Feel like I travel but I never arrive
I wanna thrive not just survive
I come alive when I hear you singing
But lately I haven't been hearing a thing
I get the feeling that I'm in between
A machine and a man who only looks like me
I try and hide it and not let it show
But deep down inside me I just don't know
Am I a man if I feel like a hoax?
The stranger in the mirror's been wearing my clothes
No, I'm not alright
I know that I'm not right
A steering wheel doesn't mean you can drive
A warm body don't mean I'm alive
No, I'm not alright
I know that I'm not right
Feels like I travel but I never arrive
I wanna thrive not just survive
I'm always close, but I'm never enough
I'm always in line, but I'm never in love
I get so down, but I won't give up
I get so down, but I won't give up
Been fighting things that I can't see
Like voices coming from the inside of me
Like doing things I find hard to believe in
Am I myself or am I dreaming?
Am I myself or am I dreaming?
Am I myself or am I dreaming?
Thrive, thrive, thrive, thrive...
No, I'm not alright
I know that I'm not right
A steering wheel don't mean you can drive
A warm body don't mean I'm alive
No, I'm not alright
I know that I'm not right
Feel like I travel but I never arrive
I wanna thrive not just survive
I wanna thrive not just survive
eh... yeahh...
Feel like I travel but I never arrive
I wanna thrive not just survive
I wanna thrive not just survive
I wanna thrive not just survive
Feels like I travel but I never arrive
I wanna thrive not just survive
Like voices coming from the inside of me
Like doing things I find hard to believe in
Am I myself or am I dreaming?
I've been awake for an hour or so
Checking for a pulse but I just don't know
Am I a man if I feel like a ghost?
The stranger in the mirror is wearing my clothes
No, I'm not alright
I know that I'm not right
A steering wheel doesn't mean you can drive
A warm body don't mean I'm alive
No, I'm not alright
I know that I'm not right
Feel like I travel but I never arrive
I wanna thrive not just survive
I come alive when I hear you singing
But lately I haven't been hearing a thing
I get the feeling that I'm in between
A machine and a man who only looks like me
I try and hide it and not let it show
But deep down inside me I just don't know
Am I a man if I feel like a hoax?
The stranger in the mirror's been wearing my clothes
No, I'm not alright
I know that I'm not right
A steering wheel doesn't mean you can drive
A warm body don't mean I'm alive
No, I'm not alright
I know that I'm not right
Feels like I travel but I never arrive
I wanna thrive not just survive
I'm always close, but I'm never enough
I'm always in line, but I'm never in love
I get so down, but I won't give up
I get so down, but I won't give up
Been fighting things that I can't see
Like voices coming from the inside of me
Like doing things I find hard to believe in
Am I myself or am I dreaming?
Am I myself or am I dreaming?
Am I myself or am I dreaming?
Thrive, thrive, thrive, thrive...
No, I'm not alright
I know that I'm not right
A steering wheel don't mean you can drive
A warm body don't mean I'm alive
No, I'm not alright
I know that I'm not right
Feel like I travel but I never arrive
I wanna thrive not just survive
I wanna thrive not just survive
eh... yeahh...
Feel like I travel but I never arrive
I wanna thrive not just survive
I wanna thrive not just survive
I wanna thrive not just survive
Feels like I travel but I never arrive
I wanna thrive not just survive
Lyrics submitted by pkenziep, edited by Emzee4life
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First of all, amazing songs and amazing lyrics.
One correction in the lyrics listed here: Between the chorus and the "I get so down..." bridge, there should be these two lines:
"I'm always close, but I'm never enough. I'm always in line, but I'm never in love."
I think this song is pretty straightforward. "I wanna thrive, not just survive" pretty much sums it up. He's saying he's not content with just getting by. He wants to excel, make a difference, go beyond what is expected. And right now, that's not happening so he's determined to change that.
Beautiful song.