Broad-Shouldered Beasts

Seriously no one has commented

This might just be my experience colouring my interpretation of the song but I think it's about someone struggling with anxiety and someone that loves them (romantically or not) trying to help them through it.

Broad-shouldered beasts fill the sky Manhattan beats at the night But you are wrapped up in wire Curled up in fright

The city is alive and open to explore and have fun in but the person with anxiety is frozen in place by fear.

So I took you to the city for the night To dance under dizzy silver lights But for a moment, you were wild With abandon like a child, just a moment

The person's loved one brought them into the city to try to help and try to help them feel alive and carefree again, and it works - sort of.

But wasn't it you who said I was not free And wasn't it you who said I needed peace And now it's you who's floored by fear of it all

They tried to be okay for the person that they love but it doesn't work that way and quickly they got over whelmed. Although they do need to feel free and have peace from their anxiety, a night of dancing doesn't help in the way that it would for someone not struggling with it which their loved one is just now understanding.

And it's alright Take it out on me And it's alright Take it out on me

Cut to present time where the person is having an anxiety/panic attack and the loved one is just trying to be there and lets the anxious person let out everything at them, now understanding how to help.

These apartment walls are paper thin And no one is trying to listen in What to hear our doubts Hear our whispered shouts, they don't care

They are afraid to talk and let out their fears to their loved one lbecause they fear that they will be overheard and judged. The loved one is trying to reason out the person's irrational fears that the anxiety causes.

But when you feel the world wrapping 'round your neck Feel my hand 'round yours And when you feel the world wrapping 'round your neck Don't succumb

In the middle of a panic/anxiety attack it can be extremely helpful to have someone that you are comfortable around to just be there as a grounding presence. The loved one is suggesting that when all the fear and all the doubts get too overwhelming to hold their hand and know that despite the words spiraling in their head, they are loved. Hold my hand and I'll help you fight your demons, hold my hand and we can fight together, just please don't give up.

Can you tell that I really love this song? Anyways like I said I might be wrong or probably am but this is how I see the song. I do think that the loved one is probably a significant other and that an alternate meaning could be a couple fighting to stay together after kind of falling out of love.