Angela

At first glance it seems to be sort of a coming of age, leaving your home town kind of story.

There also may be references to mental illness. Most specifically in the lines: "Did you hear the notes, all those static codes In the radio abyss". -Schizophrenic auditory hallucinations can be triggered (or more intense) when the person is hearing white noise. Also the lines about the "wars in your mind" and "wilderness inside" may generally reference the persons battle with the onset of this mental illness, thinking that the problems lies in the town itself but ultimately finding out that this problems will follow her. The wilderness being the new unknown territory her brain has created. She may also be experiencing paranoia: "The strangers in this town, They raise you up just to cut you down". These "strangers" may only be perceived by Angela as cutting her down.

Anyway, this is a great song. I like to think the narrator loved this person and is seeing them flee from her problems both physically and mentally, hoping she eventually finds "home" or peace. Pretty tragic.

Thanks for reading!

I see this song as a coming of age ballad. Angela leaves behind her small town roots, including her love and heads out to make it big. After some time she realizes that the big time isn't what it's all cracked up to be and heads back to her roots where she feels most safe. Including back to the love of her life whom she left behind. Not sure where anyone would take this to mean Angela has a mental illness or heroin addiction. The song is clearly not about addiction. I guess everything is up for interpretation. We are after all a depression obsessed society now!

I don't think it is so much about schizophrenia as it is about the inevitable doubt we will all find in our lives as we look back.

We know that the album focuses on the story of Cleopatra and the reflection back on her life. The album seems to tell a real array of emotions invoked by this story, with "Angela" focusing on the idea of living with regrets and the questions that come along with it, such as wondering if you made the right choice or not. It is a struggle we will all face with as our own stories unfold through our lives.

I was raised by a family that abused me mentally and raised me in a cult like environment. By the time I got the strength to leave and be on my own as a young free women it was a feeling of EXCITEMENT I don’t think I’ll ever be able to describe. I just jumped in my green jeep turned on the white lights and drove.

It was my first chance to dive into the “wilderness” or “the world” outside of my cult. I moved through a lot of towns to figure out who I really was. I was trying to leave all the negativity behind without any real support or guide. I did anything and everything that brought me any type of exhilaration. Any type of feeling that was once repressed I choose to explore.

It wasn’t until my mid twenties when I met my boyfriend, that I realized I wasn’t just living my life freely all along. Subconsciously before him I wasted a lot of time abusing drugs, and getting into trouble whenever my “upbringing” would come into “the corner of my mind” . I basically waged a war within myself.

Overtime by being in a supportive relationship with him I no longer focus on “the corner of my mind”. Instead, I find myself getting lost into him, and him into me “ I even catch myself revisiting the ideal of unconditional love again. The type of love I never experienced with my real family. He’s been so supportive and influential to me. He “raises me up to watch me grow” like I’m his queen. His very own cleopatra. Moreover, each day we’re together, we keep building each other up like a symbolic brick house.

Personally, It’s been a long time coming for me, a long time running away from love. But now that I’m with him I finally feel at home. As far as family goes, from a second time around, he’s the only love I ever knew. “ God knows I’ll be ready to say YES should he get down on one knee.

In interpret this song as being more about people who try to run away from their problems, and the ensuing mental health problems that tend to follow.

I interpret the song as being a story about a woman who has run away from her problems for a better life in Hollywood (like so many young people do). But all she finds is a cold-hearted wasteland full of people who 'drag you down' ("Strangers in this town, raise you up just to cut you down").

People try to run away from their problems only to find that you can't do that. Your problems always follow you, no matter how rich or famous you become, your problems remain, or get worse, as appears to be the case in this song.

I see the song as suggesting a descent into drug addiction, and the craziness that descent can conjure up in a person's mind.

"Did you hear the notes, all those static codes In the radio abyss?"

...suggests a level of 'psychosis' brought on by chronic drug use.

"Were you safe and warm in your coat of arms With your fingers in a fist"

Suggests, probably heroin addiction. Angela's fingers are in a fist (trying to find a vein, and maybe even overdosing), and she is 'warm in her coat of arms', the warmth that swells over you from a heroin high.

There is also the suggestion that she is in a cheap hotel room.

"Vacancy, hotel room..."

...and of course the constant throughout the song:

"Home at last"

Suggests the warmth of Heroin taking her to her final destination. That is, death is taking her home, away from the pain of life.

It's a very sad song.