Furnace Room Lullaby

This song is about committing enormities. The first stanza is about twisting and breaking someone; perhaps she means emotionally, but it brings to mind a picture of someone burning the body of a murdered man - 'the coals went so wild as they swallowed the rest' (of his flesh?). She's twisting and breaking the man so that he can be eaten by the fire and she can be free from his 'throne on her chest', which makes me think she loved him at some point. But now he's destroyed.

In the second stanza, she's realised what's she's done and can't handle it - 'wrapped in the depth of these deeds'. She's trapped in a hell symbolised in 'the basement' - a place which is dark, subterranean and spooky. The last line of this stanza is one of my all time faves by Neko "A demon holds my place on earth til I die", which I like to think references one of the lowest circles of Dante's Inferno, where Dante comes across a man he knows to be alive on earth. When he inquires how this is possible, the man tells of his hideous sin and informs Dante that some sins are so awful that once one committs them, one's soul goes immediately to hell and a demon inhabits the body on earth until the body dies. So whatever she has done, it is bad bad bad.

The repeated "At night all I hear is your heart"s, I think of as another literary reference, this time to Poe's The Telltale Heart. She's killed him and detroyed the evidence, but the guilt is following her in the sound of his heart's beating.

This is one damn fantastic song. I heard her sing it live, with a totally unaccompanied start, and it gave me such chills.

In concert, she's repeatedly introduced it as such: "This is a song about me stalking you."

ABSOLUTELY it's very dante and poe. she murdered her "king," who was either too domineering OR manipulating her with her emotions. perhaps she killed with some twisting device, which she then destroyed in fire, and dragged his body under the bed. the twisting part is mysterious! but it does seem like his body ended up under the bed, not consumed in a fire. hm...

Love this song...I was watching "the gift" on dvd while doing bongrips, and for some unknown reason I decided to check out the special features (which included the video for this song). Whatever, I guess you could label this "country", which i find very unappealing...I absolutely despise country music; but there's a certain quality in that chick's voice that gets this song forever stuck in my head. Definitely not your typical country shit...check it out *

real country is good-as it's Neko

You should see her live - she's AMAZING! I would marry her in a second.

Nothing wrong with country, nothing wrong with conscious hiphop.

Love her writing and singing. What a voice. Yes, I see her everytime she comes through town.

easy on the marriage thing, driftsight, see Hold On, Hold On lyrics. She knows what she wants, as does everyone if they look at it.

have another bongrip JulieBeBe, you love country. Admit it. C'mon, the latest from Loretta Lynn, 'Van Lear Rose'? Produced by Jack White? Fantastic country./ Have a listen to 'Portland Oregon' and tell us you hate country./ bah, humbug. Peace./

I somehow hear this as a song by a man. A man who has killed a woman -- a lover maybe?

'Take you' would mean sex, even rape. 'Throne on my chest' was where the woman was when it was still all consensual. But then he twisted her over and 'pushed her into the beams' -- of the bed I suppose, OR the floor boards, in the form of blood. The blood has seeped so deep into them.

And he feels shocked and bad about what he did -- hearing her heartbeat in the silence of the night.

I think everyone has it right except for the person who thinks it's a man doing the murdering. IS Neko 'country???' I don't know, don't care. 'Furnace' is the only song of hers I've heard (from 'The Gift,') but can't wait to hear more!