This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
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The Night We Met
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Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
yes, the whole point the Cocteau Twins make with their lyrics is that they use words just as fillers...the lyrics don't really mean much, but that's the beauty of it, you can still have an amazing powerful song and it can be simple...they use words because words are beautiful, it's just the idea that words can be sung along with a melody and work out.
In my book it's almost certainly "For a timepiece never changes this" -- it's about the only truly clear lyric on the whole album, although even then I thought it was "...changes pace" at first.
For "paper warm beings"(!) I've always heard "paper windings" which makes a tiny bit more sense, makes me think of trails of paper (from the aforementioned paperchase) wound round trees, bushes, etc. Wouldn't bet I'm right though.
Finally, I've never been able to make up my mind whether it's "Here's what it takes" or "Here's what it says". May even be both, at different times.
@AmbientSheep Here's what it says. Liz is referring to the paper chase she knows so well. If you want to know what all that paper says, she knows. She's literally telling you what it is says. <br /> <br /> (But the really cool part is why she called it Persephone.)
Fucking hell, I can't believe no one has commented on this song. Well with anything concerning Cocteau Twins' lyrics there might not be a way out most of the time, but still! This song is simply amazing. I can't be alone on this now can I... >_>
I've always heard "for a timepiece never changes face" instead of "For our time being's never changes this"
No, you are not.
ok, this song is amazing...but HOW COULD SOMEONE WRITE DOWN the lyrics that indeed never were written? oh my this song..
Not so, I'm afraid. Liz DID have a lyrics book. It's been mentioned a few times over the years, in particular I remember a 1985 interview with Simon Raymonde in the booklet that accompanied a WOMAD album, in which she said she had such a book and he'd read some of her lyrics.<br /> <br /> Also, somewhere on Youtube, there's a recent-ish interview with Liz in which she reads out the words to a song on Victorialand in her normal speaking voice. They don't make any sense in English, but they're definitely words...
Does anyone know how the Cocteau Twins wrote their lyrics? Do they mean anything? I just can't imagine the creative process behind them. It's like they're plucked out of nowhere.
Depends on the album. The first two albums definitely have proper lyrics, even if they're not always easy to understand. Treasure definitely has some proper lyrics, not sure if all of them are. After that, no, she deliberately got vaguer for a while, apparently due to not having confidence in her own words, so she'd pick stuff out of old books -- a great example is the list of Latin butterfly names in Melonella. Then later on she went back to "proper" lyrics again, but I'd lost interest by that time I'm afraid, as their later stuff leaves me a bit cold.
Definitely one of Cocteau Twins best. If you haven't listened to much of their stuff, you should. They're awesome! Much better than the homogenized crap on the radio.
"A timepiece never changes pace"
nevermind, it's definitely not pace or face