Apartment Lyrics
I feel this cold inside me
It howls away all through the market
It calls your name
I write for fear of silence
You carved a boat to sail my shadow
Now I walk alone
Hide in a raincoat when things are falling apart
I hear the coast by nightfall
So sure to keep you dreaming
You understood
Oh, I know you understood
Yes sir, it shows I was no good
Hide in a raincoat when things are falling apart
Cause sooner or later this is bound to stop
Come on, let's savor what we're falling over
I hear the coast
You've put "You carved a boat to sell my shadow"; I don't think it say "sell", but "sail". Would make more sense.
I see it as being about a breakup. The song is basically in narrative form:
The first stanza sees the writer leaving their apartment to go to their partner's, doing some shopping on the way, during which time they are plagued by cold thoughts and emotions related to what s/he is about to do.
While taking a train or bus to the other person's apartment, the speaker is afraid to be alone with their thoughts, perhaps due to the possibility of having second thoughts about the breakup, and writes to kill time and take their mind off it. "You carved a boat to sail my shadow" seems to refer to how the other person has put in effort and made sacrifices for their relationship, but for whatever reason it is not working and the speaker must now "walk alone".
The chorus contains my favorite imagery in the song. The speaker walks down the sidewalk, "hiding" in their raincoat from the elements and presumably from their personal situation, which is "falling apart". At the first chorus, I take this to be as they walk up to the other person's apartment.
After ending the relationship, the speaker feels the need to escape, and so goes to the coast at dusk (I hear the lyrics as "I hit the coast by nightfall", though "I hear the coast by nightfall" could mean the same thing). The next line, "So sure to keep you dreaming", I take to be a reminiscence of the relationship that s/he has just abandoned; perhaps they had a favorite spot on the coast where the speaker is now. The next lines indicate that the speaker feels that the relationship's demise is his/her own fault, as the other person understood them, but the speaker was "no good" and could not reconcile their personal problems somehow.
This time in the chorus, I see "I hit the sidewalk" either as continual in the narrative, with them returning to their own apartment, or as a flashback of sorts. The flashback interpretation fits with the next lines; the speaker is remembering the time when the two were falling in love, and in retrospect urging them to enjoy it before it is over.
A fantastic song, vivid and relatable.
So I've been listening to this song for a long time, but I've never really thought about it's meaning. However, the other night, it hit me. THIS SONG IS ABOUT A CAR CRASH!
"On my way to your apartment, I feel this cold inside me." So he's heading over to this girls apartment, and there's something wrong. We don't know what it is yet. "It calls your name" Also a haunting line as he makes his way to this apartment that I'm amusing belongs to a girl. Something awful happened with him and this girl, and for some reason he has to go back to her apartment.
"I write for fear of silence." So he doesn't wanna be alone with these thoughts in his head. He writes to distract himself. "Now I walk alone" is saying that he's made this trip from his apartment to her apartment before. Only this time, he's walking by himself instead of with her.
"Alright, Alright" is him finally giving in to these thoughts he's been trying to avoid. Then he starts to remember the awful thing that happened.....
"I hit the sidewalk, and this is how it starts." His car crashed into the sidewalk and so the car wreck begins.He and the girl are both in the vehicle. "Hide in a raincoat, when things are falling apart." The girl is "hiding" in a raincoat as the car is tumbling.
"After leaving your apartment I hear the coast by nightfall So sure to keep you dreaming You understood Oh, I know you understood"
This part is very clear. He fills us in on the moments before the crash. They leave her apartment and are driving along the coast. He can hear the ocean and she falls asleep. He wants to wake her up but decides not to. He's about to wake her when he crashes into the sidewalk. The girl is dead. "Yes sir, it shows i was no good." He's talking to an officer after the crash, telling him it was all his fault. If he had waken her up, then maybe she would still be alive.
"Alright, Alright." Now we know the story, so he's finally accepting what he's done. He once again recounts the crash. "I hit the sidewalk and this is how it starts Hide in a raincoat when things are falling apart Cause sooner or later this is bound to stop Come on, let's savor what we're falling over." He wishes he had savored his last seconds with her.
"After leaving your apartment I hear the coast" He is in his car, the crash is finished. He knows she's dead. and he can hear the ocean.
So finally the beginning of the song makes sense: He's killed his girlfriend in a car crash. He writes so he cant think about the crash and what he's done. But finally he gives in. And all the while he is on his way to his dead girlfriends house.
@lagoons11 this seems like a bit of a stretch, but I like how creative this is. Very interesting to read
@lagoons11 this seems like a bit of a stretch, but I like how creative this is. Very interesting to read
corrections:
It (howls) away all through the market I write for (fear) of silence
: )
Very Smiths/Morrissey-esque. Of course, Morrissey would have thrown in some lyrical zingers so you would have absolutely no idea what it was about.
"Eye at the sidewalk and this is how it starts Hide in a raincoat when things are falling apart"
(Eye at the sidewalk = Staring down at the sidewalk)
Also, "Come on let's savor while we're falling hard"
The song is about a breakup. “Apartment” is about their “apart-ment”.
Twixbabe's apartment
This is obviously someone who is feeling guilty for having non-emotional sexual encounters with the same person continuously and leaves when they fall asleep. How is no one getting that?