Per the FAQ on Keane's website, Keane's drummer Richard Hughes, stated the following:
"We've been asked whether "Somewhere Only We Know" is about a specific place, and Tim has been saying that, for him, or us as individuals, it might be about a geographical space, or a feeling; it can mean something individual to each person, and they can interpret it to a memory of theirs... It's perhaps more of a theme rather than a specific message... Feelings that may be universal, without necessarily being totally specific to us, or a place, or a time..."
With the nostalgic sentiment and the overall tone of the song, I think Keane is attempting to express a Portuguese term known as 'saudade', which does not have a direct English translation but roughly means "that which we remember because it is gone."
Drivers out on the bridge
Slowing down as they go through a lane shift
Wires snap
Concrete gives
Metal twisting and
Everything tumbling
At the end of the work day
Stuck in traffic don't feel when the road sways
Underneath
Concrete gives
Metal twisting and
Everything tumbling
To their partners and kids
Don't suspect anything till the bridge splits
Wires snap
Concrete gives
Metal twisting and
Everything tumbling down
Where I sat I saw brake lights flash
And I pictured them: all the people, their faces in free fall, the water beneath
I pushed my palms against the table hard to see if it hurt
Were it glass would I have shattered it?
Could I battle every impulse to panic and then win
Swim out through the metal twisting upward like a sculpture
Or some terrible beast?
People trapped in their cars
Put both feet on the glass and then kick hard
Water pours in
Seat belts twist
River flowing and
Everything going down
People under the water line
Workers sift through the wreckage of it find
Seat belts stuck
Water fills up
River flowing and
Everything going downstream
On the dining room wall I watched it
Play in the reflection of the television
The reversal in the mirror hung I could see it all
How the dust clouds gather color as they billow out
Shades change shifting in the night
From the lights atop an ambulance
Like a firework's flash then that otherworldly glow
In the smoke thrown in the aftermath blows
Almost frozen for a moment there
I could see it all
Every
Dust cloud
Shattered glass
Billow out
On the TV
Wires snap and the
Concrete gives
Metal twists up and onward
I can see it all
Every
Dust cloud
Shattered glass
Billow out
On the TV
Wires snap and the
Concrete gives in
Metal twists up and onward I watch
And I can see it all
All the wreckage
All the cars piled
In the river and
The rail yard
Metal twists
Wires snap
Concrete blocks split
Dangle from tie rods
And metal twists up
Wires sway
When a breeze blows
In the distant
Sirens glow
I can see it all
Where they look for survivors
Searchlights float
Change the color of smoke clouds
And shadows still fall
People under the water
People trapped in their cars kick and try to get out
People still with their seat belts on
Pets they had in the back and
Car seats
And I watch it on TV lying down here
On the floor in the dining room reversed in the mirror
Where I know I'm not dreaming now
But I know I've been sleeping
I just don't know since when
I only know that it's light outside
I only know that the rent is still late
When did they find out the concrete gave?
When did they learn that the wires snapped?
Slowing down as they go through a lane shift
Wires snap
Concrete gives
Metal twisting and
Everything tumbling
At the end of the work day
Stuck in traffic don't feel when the road sways
Underneath
Concrete gives
Metal twisting and
Everything tumbling
To their partners and kids
Don't suspect anything till the bridge splits
Wires snap
Concrete gives
Metal twisting and
Everything tumbling down
Where I sat I saw brake lights flash
And I pictured them: all the people, their faces in free fall, the water beneath
I pushed my palms against the table hard to see if it hurt
Were it glass would I have shattered it?
Could I battle every impulse to panic and then win
Swim out through the metal twisting upward like a sculpture
Or some terrible beast?
People trapped in their cars
Put both feet on the glass and then kick hard
Water pours in
Seat belts twist
River flowing and
Everything going down
People under the water line
Workers sift through the wreckage of it find
Seat belts stuck
Water fills up
River flowing and
Everything going downstream
On the dining room wall I watched it
Play in the reflection of the television
The reversal in the mirror hung I could see it all
How the dust clouds gather color as they billow out
Shades change shifting in the night
From the lights atop an ambulance
Like a firework's flash then that otherworldly glow
In the smoke thrown in the aftermath blows
Almost frozen for a moment there
I could see it all
Every
Dust cloud
Shattered glass
Billow out
On the TV
Wires snap and the
Concrete gives
Metal twists up and onward
I can see it all
Every
Dust cloud
Shattered glass
Billow out
On the TV
Wires snap and the
Concrete gives in
Metal twists up and onward I watch
And I can see it all
All the wreckage
All the cars piled
In the river and
The rail yard
Metal twists
Wires snap
Concrete blocks split
Dangle from tie rods
And metal twists up
Wires sway
When a breeze blows
In the distant
Sirens glow
I can see it all
Where they look for survivors
Searchlights float
Change the color of smoke clouds
And shadows still fall
People under the water
People trapped in their cars kick and try to get out
People still with their seat belts on
Pets they had in the back and
Car seats
And I watch it on TV lying down here
On the floor in the dining room reversed in the mirror
Where I know I'm not dreaming now
But I know I've been sleeping
I just don't know since when
I only know that it's light outside
I only know that the rent is still late
When did they find out the concrete gave?
When did they learn that the wires snapped?
Lyrics submitted by frseraphimrose
35 Lyrics as written by Bradley Ryen Vander Lugt Adam David Vass
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Songtrust Ave
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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