Photograph

I think that this song is about photographs, and their interplay with our perceptions of people. When the speaker says "if you want beautiful, pitiful, have me in a picture," he's suggesting to the listener that she cannot make him be what she wants (beautiful, pitiful), but she can have a picture of him, and imagine that the person in the picture has those qualities. Similarly, the listener cannot really make the speaker dance, but she can make the picture "dance" by spinning it around.

When the speaker says "if there's a crease in my face over time, there's plenty more where that came from," he's responding to the unspoken objection that a photograph can become creased and aged by pointing out that he, as a person, is sure to wrinkle and age himself. A simple crease in the photo is relatively insignificant. If the listener wants the speaker perfect, she's better off with a creased photograph than an aging person.

"Words, frozen, will thaw when I am wasted; I am better shut up" speaks to the fact that a moment in time characterized by something the speaker says will pass, as he goes on to do or say something that undermines those words. But moment itself and what the words represent can be frozen in time in the picture.

When the speaker says "when I'm alone and the world is a fist, and I am weightless," I think he's referring to himself not as an actual person, but as the person that is in the photo. He's alone, the world is a fist, and he is weightless because "he" is merely a picture being waved around in somebody's hand. "He" is fearless because, of course, he's not real. The act of "spin[ning] the sky surrounding" has a literal and a figurative meaning. Literally, the sky surrounding the person in the picture can be spun because the picture itself (and all of its contents) can be physically spun. Figuratively, "spin[ning] the sky surrounding" is recontextualizing the picture's scene in the listener's own mind. For example, if you have a picture of a person in front of a sky, you can imagine that sky is the sky of Alaska, Kyoto, Texas . . . it doesn't matter. You can contextualize what is in the picture any way you wish.

This song is really about the fact that pictures never lie, but we can use the pictures as tools to lie to ourselves.

What?! No comments? This is probably my favorite Verve Pipe song. I like this whole album. Reminds me so much of high school.

yeah this album does rock the universe. same here, kmk.. heh. definitely reminds of locker room daze.

blind labors the blind

ahh comment got cut off. but "blind labors the blind" will always stick out in my mind. it's the kind of lyric that just stays with you as unique and ponderous.

The video to this song would suggest this is about a girl hanging herself. I believe the first verse is about her contemplating how she will be remembered after death. The person viewing the picture can interpret the picture and the person in it as anything they want. The words “ a frame is quite confining, hang me up...hang me up” is a metaphor for the world and life itself being confining. “Hang me up” can be taken as the person wants to be remembered after death, perhaps in a Photograph where they look happy and well and not filled with turmoil. However, it can also be interpreted literally as the person having a desire to hang themself. The next verse, “ when i'm alone and the world is a fist, i am weightless a universe, gravitate, orchestrate, i am fearless and spin, the sky surrounding free from all the picture perfect and spin the sky surrounding, larger than life, meanwhile” captures the romanticized feelings the person has about hanging themself. That somehow they will be weightless hanging there, with the sky spinning around them. they will finally be free of the confines of the world and the need to be “picture perfect”. They are now larger than life after they die, yet the world can still view them in a simple photograph. Maybe a photograph from better times?