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Unofferable Lyrics
Tell me a lie
I'll be the first to fall
Give me an offer unofferable
Imagine a war
in those tiny hands
that held onto a penance
I didn't deserve
Don't it feel like a knife
in the back of your head?
And it reeks like an afterthought rotten, unsaid
Maybe something got lost or forgotten instead
Oh, and I'm bound by a drunk
with a few memories
of how you burn through your lovers
it's like an ugly disease
Give me an offer unofferable
That held onto a penance I didn't deserve
And it reeks like an afterthought rotten instead
and maybe something got lost or forgotten, unsaid
I'll be the first to fall
Give me an offer unofferable
in those tiny hands
that held onto a penance
I didn't deserve
in the back of your head?
And it reeks like an afterthought rotten, unsaid
Maybe something got lost or forgotten instead
with a few memories
of how you burn through your lovers
it's like an ugly disease
That held onto a penance I didn't deserve
And it reeks like an afterthought rotten instead
and maybe something got lost or forgotten, unsaid
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Great start! Matching this up with live shows, I think it's more like this:
Tell me a lie I'll be the first to fall Give me an offer unofferable
Imagine a war in those tiny hands that held onto a penance I didn't deserve
Don't it feel like a knife in the back of your head? And it reeks like an afterthought rotten, unsaid Maybe something got lost or forgotten instead
Oh, and I'm bound by a drunk with a few memories of how you burn through your lovers it's like an ugly disease
Give me an offer unofferable That held onto a penance I didn't deserve And it reeks like an afterthought rotten instead and maybe something got lost or forgotten, unsaid
...
(I'm not sure why the instead/unsaid parts shift, but they do.)
I interpreted the lyrics from the album, which offered the opportunity to playback individual parts of the song in order to make the best assumption of the words being sung. It may be clearer what they are saying live, but I wouldn't know. They are touring Canada and I live in Mississippi. That in itself may explain why I misheard the lyrics, haha. Down here, "and said" can be pronounced "an' said" which sounds a lot like "unsaid". When it comes to the "Imagine a war" vs "Imagine the warmth" debate, it just made more sense that hands would have...
I interpreted the lyrics from the album, which offered the opportunity to playback individual parts of the song in order to make the best assumption of the words being sung. It may be clearer what they are saying live, but I wouldn't know. They are touring Canada and I live in Mississippi. That in itself may explain why I misheard the lyrics, haha. Down here, "and said" can be pronounced "an' said" which sounds a lot like "unsaid". When it comes to the "Imagine a war" vs "Imagine the warmth" debate, it just made more sense that hands would have warmth instead of a war in them, but "war" would definitely offer more imagery and deeper meaning in the song. That word was hard to decipher. It definitely sounds like he says "Imagine the" and not "Imagine a" though. When it comes to "drunk" or "trunk" I interpreted the song to mean that he kept "a few memories" (which could be held in a "trunk", idk) and that those memories were what was binding him, not that he was being literally tied up by a drunkard. I feel like the instead/unsaid shift makes more sense as instead/and said. As in: in the first verse something rotten was said and something potentially more important was lost or forgotten. When it shifts, the reeking afterthought is left to rot while something potentially more important was said. That's how I originally interpreted it, and I like it better that way, ha. I'll call that artistic license.
I think the song is about a guy (the singer) and he's singing about his childhood. His mother left when he was younger, and he's holding onto this penance that he didn't really deserve "Imagine a war, in those tiny hands that held onto a penance I didn't deserve." He wants to know why his mother would choose to leave him, and he didn't deserve what happened.
I think the 'drunk' is his father. The father couldn't cope well without the mother, he still loved her but another part of him hated her for leaving them. "Oh, and I'm bound by a drunk, with a few memories of how you burn through your lovers It's like an ugly disease"
The "offer unofferable" I think could possibly be he wants his mother back, and at the start when he says, "Tell me a lie, I'll be the first to fall", I think he's saying he wants to be told that his mother did really love him, and that she will come back for him, and he will believe it, because he's so desperate to see/know her.
Not sure what anyone else thinks, but that's how I understand it:) Beautiful song.