The Pull of You

So when I started listening to this album I found myself tearing up during this song and in particular the 4th verse. At the time I couldn’t say why thus why I started writing this. )This song at times really reminds me of other great songs, especially Pink Floyd’s “The Final Cut” as it has one very similar line and I believe both have a theme of the problems insecurities cause.)

Like with many National songs a lot of the references are too specific for me to get without help but this is my interpretation.

It’s obviously about a person in a relationship; either the relationship is falling apart on their insecurities are causing them to believe it is. I’m going with the latter. The character feels like this relationship should be perfect, that they have found the perfect person, and from what the partner says “What was it you always said? We're connected by a thread If we're ever far apart I'll still feel the pull of you” they have no reason to doubt that their partner feels the same way and will love them forever.

But despite this they have terrible doubts about whether their partner does love them or more importantly if they should. They don’t believe you can be or should be loved by someone who doesn’t understand you “I know, I get it I'm either at the bottom of a well Or spinning into somebody's outdoor glass furniture”. They feel like an emotional burden who their partner can’t depend on and is stressed out by their unpredictable and erratic emotional states.

This is repeated and deepened in the third verse where they admit their own feelings to their partner are also up and down “I know I can get attached and then unattached To my own versions of others My view of you comes back and drops away”. They hate this because they believe they should be crazy about the other person since the other person is (or was) devoted to them despite their flaws and in their eyes are comparatively flawless.

Now to the fourth. This is when everything in their insecure mind starts tumbling. They hate their own doubts because they realize how dependent they are on their partner “Oh, how often I dream about you You don't know how I need you” But at the same time they realize how their own insecurity is stopping them from opening up to their partner “And there's still everything you don't know” and “You got me all wrong If I said I was sorry for always being underwater, would you stay?”. With underwater meaning hidden (perhaps she believes she’s like an iceberg to him, mostly hidden underwater). And because they feel they are not honest and open with their partner they believe they are a hinderance or perhaps even worse that their partner should be with someone better “Don't let me get in the way of you finding everything”. Through this they are almost begging their partner to stay while simultaneously hating themselves for doing that. So they’ve convinced themselves they’re not good enough and that the partner is slipping away now that they have realized how crazy they are “Why am I so hard to be around? Here at the approach of the end of everything”.

The last two verses are fairly similar and go on with the theme of the protagonist and their partner drifting apart. Or at least that’s how the protagonist feels. The song full circles then with the line “We're connected by a thread If we ever get far apart I'll still feel the pull of you”. This was the line the partner used to affirm their everlasting love but now the protagonist sees this metaphorical thread as a sign their partner pulling away from them.

In my opinion this song is about insecurities making us doubt our relationships rather than a relationship actually falling apart but I could easily see it the other way.