This Is the Last Time

I get the feeling this is about a semi-casual relationship which is good but can never last. It needs to be left behind but it's difficult cos it seems good whenever it's on.

Each time they get together it's great - "you feel a hundred times yourself," "wish everybody knew what's so great about you" - but a long term relationship is impossible - "your love is like a swamp." Every time is amazing but is concluded with "this is the last time," but they keep getting drawn back.

It maybe starts to become something more serious - "Oh, don't tell anyone I'm here I've got Tylenol and beer I was thinking that you'd call somebody Closer to you"

This suggests to me the other person (Jenny?) has needed some help - the kind of situation which would ask for close friend or partner, and she has called him. He brings Tylenol and beer, hoping to bring a quick-fix to the problem, unlike a close friend who may offer more supportive measures. He doesn't want anyone to know so it won't seem like they're in a proper relationship. He thinks the situation would be someone else (someone closer)'s job.

He promises he wouldn't get sucked in (fall into a more meaningful relationship) and won't cry - he knows it's technically only a casual relationship but he does have feelings for her.

Together they are a mix of good and bad - "under prime," "vacant and kind" - and later in the song he is promising to no longer be vacant, be faking or waiting. Once he's out of the semi-casual relationship he can stop pretending not to care, or waiting for it to become something more. He can move on.

That's just what i took from it, but it's coloured by personal experience, and the fact that Jenny/Jennifer comes up in other songs (I think?) maybe suggests a more complex story.

It sounds like the main character really loves Jenny, but he knows she is bad for him... like an addiction. He promises himself he won't get "sucked" in, but when he is with her "she is 100 times herself." This is what he loves her for, and he wishes other people could see this side of her.

When he says "don't tell anyone I'm here," I think it is because he does not want anyone to know that she has pulled him back in.

At the end, when he says "Jenny I am in trouble," he knows he is being pulled in... and this makes "sad" because he is addicted .. again ... but living off the "high" of the addition.

This is obviously not the last time...

Urgh! It's

"I've got Tylenol and beer" not "I've got time and no one's near."

The latter is hyper-cliché, the former much more evocative.

Official lyrics from album sleeve:

Oh, when I lift you up You feel like a hundred times yourself I wish everybody knew What's so great about you

Oh, but your love is such a swamp You don't think before you jump And I said I wouldn't get sucked in This is the last time

Oh, don't tell anyone I'm here I got Tylenol and beer I was thinking that you'd call somebody Closer to you

Oh, but your love is such a swamp You're the only thing I want And I said I wouldn't cry about it This is the last time This is the last time

We were so under the brine We were so vacant and kind We were so under the brine We were so vacant

We were so under the brine We were so out of our minds We were so under the brine We were so vacant

Oh, when I lift you up You feel like a hundred times yourself I wish everybody knew What's so great about you

Oh, but your love is such a swamp You don't think before you jump And I said I wouldn't get sucked in

I won't be vacant anymore I won't be waiting anymore I won't be vacant anymore I won't be waiting anymore

Jenny, I am in trouble Can't get these thoughts out of me Jenny, I'm seeing double I know this changes everything

It takes a lot of pain to pick me up It takes a lot of rain in the cup

Baby you gave me bad ideas Baby you left me sad and high

This song remind me of Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. The characters in that movie always come back toghether and the girl is like that ''jenny'' in the song:100 times her self xD

Sorry for my english ^^''

So far my favorite song on the album. I won't be vacant anymore.

Is that Sharon Van Etten singing at the end - "It takes a lot of pain to pick me up?" Very cool finish to this song.

this song, for me, always sounded like a break up where one person can't let go. The narrator has been doing his own thing and doing it alone for a while, after coming out of a great relationship that for some reason or another ended. But the ex keeps calling, and they were happy together, i.e. "when I lift you up you feel like a hundred times yourself. i wish everybody knew what's so great about you." both care about each other but it's over, and she keeps calling him asking for more, and the narrator is surprised that he was her choice, which is the line "I was thinking that you'd call somebody closer to you." The rest of the song sounds like the bad decisions he's made with her and how he can't seem to get unstuck from the swamp that is her love. he's always sucked back in, saying that this is the last time every single time. the lines "I won't be vacant/waiting anymore" sound like he's been putting his entire life on hold in case she calls. he's been vacant in his own life waiting for her, and he's just getting sick of it, but he can't seem to stop, which is when he acknowledges that he's in trouble and he can't get rid of the thoughts of their relationship. That's just my idea. I love this song. whole album really is amazing.

I think swap should be swamp

a song about addiction, (thinly) disguised as a love song.