Blue

Though initially i think this song can be taken as one that just describes depression, upon closer inspection, it is actually so beautiful in it's description of the relationship, the give and take nature of being depressed - the depression becoming like a person, an exterior force, and it's unshakable grip on your life.I think in this song, she has personified her depression as a person, giving it a name, reffering to it as 'Blue'. She's saying how this depression has marked her for life, like a tattoo, and how though at some moments she wished it wasnt there anymore, and at some she loves it, she can not remove 'Blue' from her.

I think in the first verse, she is commenting on how the depression has had such an effect on her, and how perhaps she wished she could have that effect on 'Blue'. She is using the song to effect 'Blue', shown by the lines, "Songs are like tattoos," "Here is a song for you, ink on a pin", and then finally, when she sings 'Here is your song from me." These indicate she wants to mark 'Blue' the way that it marked her through her song, saying that songs in their way can be as equally lasting as a tattoo.

In the first verse, it describes the grip it has on her. "Crown and anchor me, or let me sail away." It has such a hold on her, it can either trap her or free her. The second verse details how lasting it can be, how depression fills emptiness in you that you never knew you had - "an empty space to fill in."

The next section talks about brief moments when she has thought she can beat it - "there are so many sinking now you gotta keep thinking you can make it through these waves." It then lists these exterior forces, "acid, booze and ass, needles guns and grass", one after another in quick succession like waves. "Every body's saying that hells the hippest way to go ... i dont think so but i'm gonna take a look around it though." This is could be again reaffirming her occasional need to break free of it's chokehold. Hell could be reffering to the above substances, the popular poisons such as sex and drugs. But then she cries, 'Blue, i love you!' as if to say, "No, i didnt mean it, i could never leave you."

But it is not until this final verse that we realise how much it has affected her, how much she truly relies on it - "Blue, here is a shell for you, inside you'll hear a sigh." She has become a shell, filled with unhappiness. She is surrendering her emptiness over to the depression.