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"
They're calling you a genius
Is that why you're acting so competitive
And even if they mean it
Don't let the feeling get to your head
I really wanna call you
Better clean up the mess from the last time we met
The roof is gonna fall through
I'll stay out in the cold all alone instead
[Chorus]
If you think you can, reach out your hand
Like all is well and nothing changes
But I went through hell to watch you in outer-space
The wine is in the basement
So why can't I hide away and hibernate
I'm sleeping through the moment
And we're so afraid of getting worse with age
[Chorus]
I'm so careful, I got out of the way
I'm so grateful, just to be, just to be able to say
Won't you give me distance
Just one of the words you ṗut on my brain
And maybe then you'd listen
And I could get out of this one [?]
You see me waving my white flag
You see me waving my white flag
Won't you ever wanna take me there
Won't you ever wanna take me there
Is that why you're acting so competitive
And even if they mean it
Don't let the feeling get to your head
I really wanna call you
Better clean up the mess from the last time we met
The roof is gonna fall through
I'll stay out in the cold all alone instead
[Chorus]
If you think you can, reach out your hand
Like all is well and nothing changes
But I went through hell to watch you in outer-space
The wine is in the basement
So why can't I hide away and hibernate
I'm sleeping through the moment
And we're so afraid of getting worse with age
[Chorus]
I'm so careful, I got out of the way
I'm so grateful, just to be, just to be able to say
Won't you give me distance
Just one of the words you ṗut on my brain
And maybe then you'd listen
And I could get out of this one [?]
You see me waving my white flag
You see me waving my white flag
Won't you ever wanna take me there
Won't you ever wanna take me there
Lyrics submitted by MisterDangles, edited by tbarbz, ChipperSpiff
Loner Phase Lyrics as written by Matthew Aveiro Dann Gallucci
Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Downtown Music Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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The Night We Met
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Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Dreamwalker
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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.
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Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Blue
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“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
At the end it actually says "won't you ever wanna take me back", not "take me there". Personally, I think this song is about two people who once had a relationship years ago, then had a complicated fuzzy friendship that was superficial and fake after they parted ways. The so called "genius" of the story loved the other, and the other person was always fully aware of it, but never loved them back. The genius confessed it all to the other person, and the other person was over it, but still tried to keep on staying this sad fake friendly, simply for their own egotistical reasons. It felt good to have this person love them so much even though she/he would never love them back. This "genius" character has a huge ego, lets everything go to his or her head and has become a destroyed mean person from this love they will never get.It seems like he/she hurt the other at one point in time, and perhaps even again recently and that now the other lover who never will requite the love is re-eveluating the entire relationship. They are wondering if they ever even loved each other, or worse if they love each other more now and will never admit it. The genius does the classic human psychological thing in which you show exactly the opposite emotions you actually feel, in this case turning love into hatred.One of the most tragic flaws in human behavior. Now they both wonder if the other would take them back, the genius for his acts of disgust towards the only one he really loves, and the other wondering if he or she would ever take him/her back because of the acts of hatred towards her/him.
Basically they both have fucked up a lot and it seems there might not be a solution anymore. Their friendship is nothing, their relationship even less, and if one of them doesn't step up and change it they are gone from one another forever. The genius won't step up and apologize because he has wronged her so many times, and the other is bitter and sick of always being the bigger person. They dont want to know whats happening in each others lives anymore, it is too painful and ad to see love become portrayed as hatred. They need away from each other.