Vessel

This song is SO beautiful and sad. It seems that all of Dry the River 's songs are about different kinds of love and how love affects us.

I think this song is about a young man who has made choices that he's not proud of because of a girl.

"I would sell my unborn daughter [for some peace and quiet] . . . maybe". Is a reference to guilt and doubt . An "unborn daughter" signifies responsibility, and he seems unsure if he can handle that responsibility it or not.

"We didn't stage a passion play, didn't change our given names, or waltz to our bed" He and his lover didn't care if they were going against their beliefs, and they weren't married when they lived together "change our given names/our bed"

"Than the host in your mouth, where the truth never seems to be" His lover could be deceitful. Maybe he's unsure if she is telling him the truth about the baby.

"The burning branch never speaks to me, it whispers like, 'I don't wanna be your vessel anymore'" He feels abandoned by God, and he doesn't fully understand why.

"The lonely architect" seems like a portrayal of Death. At first he's at "the door of my house" and after the next verse he's at "the foot of my bed." The young man is noticing how fragile mortality is.

"I laid it all at your feet ... but the burning branch wouldn't speak to me" He confesses everything to his lover (or God. Idk which) but God still doesn't seem to notice. In the end "I didn't wanna be your vessel anyway" almost seems like a childish spite. He didn't get what he wanted, and he's trying not to care.

This could also be a reference to Joseph and Mary from the Bible, but "unborn daughter" may veto that.

It does seem like this song is about a relationship that didn't work, but maybe also the fantasy that this main person has imagined for himself in order to cope with a harsh reality of what might be a dysfunctional relationship, heartbreak or a break-up

I knelt at the sink, Like a priest or a prince Maybe I'm to be a king And they're waiting for me at Westminster

There are two contrasting aspects about this, for once the main person kneils at a pretty ordain object; a sink, but in this fantasy the sink is probably imagined to be something else, hence he kneels and then continues by stating his hopes or dreams of maybe becoming a priest, a prince, or king.

Then the person takes us back to reality again by signing that the walls are paper thing and he can hear the neighbours arguing, breaking the illusion or fantasy by realising that he does not live a extraordinary life and live in a lavish palace, but rather a small apartment maybe, since they can hear the neighbours arguing and asking if they could lover their voice.

Again the next chorus, makes us believe that the person thinks that they never did anything special, they didn't make a scene, they didn't do anything too interesting. We didn't stage a passion play Didn't change our given names Or waltz to our bed Or need to make a sense

Again, more realisation of reality as the person sees his partner or relationship for what it truly is, paleing. The host in your mouth could refer to the mean or deceitful things that do come out of his partners mouth, either hurting the other or simply never speaking the truth, hence the next line

But I see your skin, paler now Than the host in your mouth Where the truth never seems to be

"Now the burning branch never speaks to me," is biblical and is God speaking to humanity, which would normally refer to hope or in the least some good emotions of any kind.However the main person here never does speak to this burning branch, meaning that he's lost all hope, maybe lost all he previously believed in because of his hopeless situation, and might even be slightly jealous or harbour any other ugly emotions, hence the phrase from another biblical verse: It whispers like

The use of the word vessel could also be biblical, meaning the person does not have faith anymore and does not want to be a vessel of God. However it could also be that this person does not want to be in a relationship anymore and wants to be his own person

The next part mentions that the person "may not see the future" "but i see its lonely architect, at the door of my house", which I think means that life is ebbing out of him, or to be more exact death is literally standing at his door, as his life fades away.

Then the person says that he could never have "dreamt of all the dumb accoutrement" (which has multiple definitions, but usually means personal clothing or outfit of e.g. a soldier, etc), which might then mean that he simply could not have dreamt of all the different lives, opportunities or hope he could have imagined or wished for himself

Then he tells how the main person has laid it all out for the other to see, stating that he laid it "at your feet", he's desperate and he's surrendered, he's made himself vulnerable, but yet this person who he might see as a superior or God figure of a kind still does not "speak", and he is still left without hope I laid it all at your feet

Then finally he repeats himself regarding the future, expect this time the lonely architect is not at his door but at the foot of his bed, indicating that he might be running out of time or even life.

And so the song finishes by saying that he didn't want to be a vessel anyway, telling us that although he might have tried and chased his whole life for this one thing, either it be for a relationship that never would have worked or something else, he never truly inside wanted to chase after being someone he truly wasn't. And I may not see the future But I see its lonely architect At the foot of my bed I don't wanna be your vessel any more Didn't wanna be your vessel anyway