Daughter – In the Shallows

My InterpretationShe's telling her lover that if he leaves, she will die. The death imagery is pretty clear here: "blood-stained clouds," "drown with me." The shallows of a body of water are where you find the corpses that have drifted near the shore. Her lifeless corpse is face-up towards the sky--"lying on my back." To drive the point home, she invokes the cosmic imagery of "watching stars collide." Sorry to burst anybody's bubble, but this is not a song about hope and "thriving together." She's not singing about a midnight backstroke while waiting for her lover to join her. It's a cry of pain, a heartbreaking meditation on the intertwined forces of Eros and Thanatos, love and death, on a loss so painful that life no longer seems worth living.

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  @radioplay
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  I think this is spot on!

  Flag rachaellaon February 03, 2014  

General Comment@radioplay, agree entirely with your interpretation, although I think that "watching stars collide" is an illustration of the 'thousand yard stare' or blank look of the eyes of a corpse that died with his/her eyes open. Hence the full image is her corpse floating in the shallows face-up with her eyes open, supposedly stargazing post-mortem.

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  @gembelindo
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  I think you're absolutely right, gembelindo.

  Flag radioplayon April 16, 2014  

My Opinionto me this songs sounds so bittersweet.
its the point in the relationship whether you can go through the crap or you can let it ruin you guys.
i think she wants him to stay a bit longer but she has determined that she will leave.
she just wants a few more minutes with him.
i think.

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  @asjklmp
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  right on, i feel it too, as if a relationship is at its end, and one of the two is pleading that if you leave me, you'll find me in the shallows, the darkness that falls after a relationship ends. the rest of the lyrics just expresses all these bad things that would happen if he/she leaves.

  Flag rickiexon September 30, 2013  

My InterpretationI personally feel like this song is a plea.

It's a plea from Elena Tonra (Daughter's amazing singer) to her man whoever it may be to not leave when things look dark. She wants her lover to find that calm through the rain that drowns them. She wants them to drown together. Not in a literal sense of course but she wants them to face whatever tragedy or whatever battle they are placed in and thrive together.

Else she is left alone to sleep IN THE SHALLOW waters that could've been the couple's queen sized bed.

I love Daughter and their lyrics :) Very Death Cab for Cutie-esque!

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  @swagdaddy

General CommentI Love to read others interpretations of songs, especially my favorite(s). And it's interesting to see each one bring it back to Love and relationships and longing pertaining to "Shallows"....as that is what so much of music and Life is about.......but I think that part is secondary and the...just, apocalyptic visuals are truly what the song is about, and the part about the one she loves is in response to the extinction level event taking place, not the ending of or wishing for a personal relationship. And honestly, if you scroll their YouTube live clips Elena will tell you herself before they play it,quite simply...."this song is about the end of the world."

#OhDaughter

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  @CiCito

General CommentIt's like making peace with the apocalypse.

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  @eioj106219