Primary

To take into account Robert's brief explanation: 'Toying with the idea that it may be better to die very young, innocent and dreaming...or even to murder as a gift...' (As already mentioned), we can observe the lyrics with this in mind. Also, if we assume primary and the demo version (cold colours? The first song the band thought they had finished, and then completely overhauled) have the same subject matter, it would help to look at the lyrics for that version. They have been interpreted on the internet — find them if you want. I may refer to them but I'd rather not spend too long trying to get an understanding of those, because I'm not sure if they are correct. They sound right enough with the music, but it's dubious.

So we can go through the lyrics with Robert's given premise, of how it may be preferable to live out life as an innocent carefree child and die than to live and see grey, drab adulthood. Because of this the killing of the child, unaware and dreaming, could be seen, as it is put, as a 'gift'. In the context of the Faith record as well, it seems to stand out from the other, more bleak or grave songs concerning God, the church, well, faith as a whole. However, it's place makes sense given another of Robert's insights into the focus of the record: 'I was thinking about how, as a youngster, you're often indoctrinated and encouraged to trust in something 'other'. I wanted to get at different expressions of this trust, to understand why people have it, to find out if it was a real thing for me.' The link between children and the rest of the record is more clear. Robert claimed to come from a religious background; it is possible that as a child he had maybe believed in 'something other'. Seeing as how the rest of the record documents struggles with the idea of faith, trying to understand or attain it in some form, perhaps the sort of envy shown in Primary of the children could relate to a child's ability to believe. Smith claims he 'wanted to feel connected... wanted to feel whatever it was others were feeling. I wanted something to believe in.' so this makes sense.

Onto the actual lyrical content. The first stanza could describe the kind of beauty the narrator sees in the dreaming children. The 'dreaming' of the children could refer to the belief and wonder of the world they still hold. The narrator 'slows his steps' — we see as the song goes on that the narrator could in a less figurative sense kill the children, 'as a gift'. The narrator laments over his age, the years having filled his heart. This could mean that age has dulled his capacities to love or experience other such emotions / wonder.

The 'further we go' refrain is moderately obvious. It discusses how the onset of ageing seems to increase a person's knowledge and experience, but decrease their honesty or 'feeling'. We can then assume that the narrator values the honesty and innate purity of a child much more than the knowledge of an adult. They think, maybe, that the dry knowledge is worthless without the mentioned qualities.

In the third section I am not so sure about in my analysis. Presumably, it is the narrator's experience of the children, perhaps his deliberation over killing them. 'Oh remember / Oh please don't change' reflects the narrator's wishes for the children not to grow into lifeless adult forms. He'd prefer for them to remain as compassionate and pure and true and young, for their sakes, rather than growing up. Again, Smith's imagery in the following stanza I find pretty impenetrable. The children in the lyrics are maybe thirteen years old, in Autumn. So they are on the brink of puberty — which could be perceived as the end of their childhood. 'Another perfect lie is choked' — the perfect lie could refer to belief or religion, or just another invention of a child.

Finally, the last verse concludes the lyric. (I always thought the line was 'so lay close together', but my lyrics booklet tells me otherwise also.) If the narrator did in fact kill the children, they can dream forevermore, in their own world, in their perfect state, and still have that belief and wonder outside of the tangible and known universe, rather than losing all of that in regressing to adulthood.

As for the title and allusions to colour, the demo lyrics mention colours more. 'Blue is waiting for your brother', 'yellow, green / And other such happy colour ', 'I feel so old and grey'. So it could be explained that the primary colours of the children (simple, vibrant, 'happy') are in contrast to the dull grey that the adult narrator feels. Also, to expand on the core meaning in the demo lyric; there are more allusions to the possible killing of the children. 'Shutting down the light', and the conclusive 'Stop.' as the final line and end of the song. It's difficult to draw much else from the lyrics, they are either indiscernable or too abstract for comment.

At least, all that is my own interpretation, based on outside explications and facts. The lyrics could also apply to other such notions as love, probably, but in essence this is what I can affirm from them.