The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
""reclaims the land and we return full in colour. Dark Sea don't bother me when water turns into land. Oh our end has come at last and we return full in colour. Oh I see I see the fires ahead but in my mind it's turning cold. The Sun will freeze and our fate don't bother me. The rise of the sea does not concern me when all of your city lights turn you brightest day into sleepless night. But it's not me No it's not me. The Sun will freeze and our fate don't bother me. The rise of the sea does not concern me when all of your city lights turn your brightest day into sleepless night. and the rising and all you are now watching out. But it's not me No it's not me. It's not me It's not me.""
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Light Up The Sky
Van Halen
Van Halen
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Lord Huron
Lord Huron
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"
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
My interpretation is that the narrator has reached a state of resignation but it also has a somewhat resentful after-taste. Feeling that all shall become inverse in time but perhaps not simply feeling above it, he effectively declares that "The fires ahead." are not his concern because he did not wish or intend for cataclysmic events to occur. It's a denial and abdication of responsibility, they see others causing their own suffering: "All of your city lights Turn your brightest days Into Sleepless nights. But It's not me. No It's not me." The narrator feels that they did not cause or play into this, yet the sadness of the refrain and tone of the lyrics invites a reply. You can hear them hanging their head and turning away on the last line. They do care but are masking it with self-righteous disappointment and lamentation. A person feeling like they have not been listened to, acknowledged or valued wishes to turn their back on the world as it ends but their emotions reveal this as a hollow declaration made in sorrow. As though they are begging someone to show them otherwise.
Quite a cathartic and beautiful piece.