Maddening Shroud

a lighthearted approach to be anything less than content with life, and how it\'s going

love the bells.. and that weird sound they\'ve got going on... kinda some funky percussion type deal

oh my lord this song got to me. i think the beauty of frou frou/imogen heap is the songs created are so strong, even when they have light musicality. i related this song to my personal situation: look at life and those around you--observing it all makes me want to toss in the towel sometimes on my relationship. like is it all worth it? is this real and even if it is does that matter?

I really felt like this song almost described my entire high school experience. I'm a freshman in college now, but I still feel the aftershock of the depressed, hopeless state I was in. Spring Break of my senior year I was getting ready to throw it all away. I just felt like everything I did was useless and I my life was completely meaningless. Everyone I had known disregarded me and I had absolutely no friends left at the end of highschool, my life had just come to a dead end and I was getting ready to just jump...end my life and leave everyone and everything behind that I knew. I was that close...but I realized that no matter what kind of shit is thrown at you there is always something you can do in this world, make better...even if it is a tiny stone in a huge pile of boulders. Even if you are the last one standing on the side of a cold, lonely frontier, at least you are standing for something...at least you are doing something. Better than doing something than nothing right? Than simply giving up and letting the smallest, frivolous things about life get you down and make you want to give up?

carries on from "let go" in imagery etc., although this one is more like the response to let go.

so the person who "let go" has been sung to is saying, yeah, sometime i like to get away, but actually it feels like hell. this person is trying to express how they feel about life, but they find it really hard. so instead it just ends with "i've got a good mind to throw it all away..."

The title, along with certain lines in the song, make me think of the book "Far From the Madding Crowd" by Thomas Hardy. There seems to be a similar sentiment that runs throughout, as well.

This isn't about the singer being suicidal, is it?

it almost sounds like it, but to me i think sometimes she just feels like giving up on everything in her life but not necessarily herself. this is such an upbeat song but with such heavier lyrics; kind of ironic in a way!!?

This song is what I play when I feel down.

It sounds so lighthearted, but like one of you said, it's basically about not being happy with your life sometimes.

THESE LYRICS ARE REALLY WRONG 'Sometimes i like to get away from this maddening shroud - sometimes i'll have you know its all insane maybe its time for me to pack it in maybe its time for me to jack it in maybe its time for me to halt I've got a good mind to throw it all away, throw it all away, throw it all away, I've got a good mind to throw it all away after all what is it worth? sometimes i like to get away from this saddening crowd- sometimes i feel my life's in vain maybe its time for me to pack it in maybe its time for me to jack it in maybe its time for me to halt I've got a good mind etc....after all what is it worth? somedays my strength walks out, somedays i can't go on It is for real - we can walk about we can work it over and over and over and over and over and... I've got a good mind to throw it all away etc...after all what is it worth? repeat.

I still think this song is about suicide or more poetically the parallel between giving up on a relationship and giving up on life. The allusion to shroud reminds me of the concept of the mortal coil or the funeral shroud. That is why I don't think it is just about a failing relationship. The maddening shroud makes me think of how life can envelope you with its insanity. Her statements like "sometimes i feel my life's in vain maybe its time for me to pack it in maybe its time for me to jack it in maybe its time for me to halt"

Sound much more fatalistic yjan a failing rlationship.