This entire Mesh album is about a woman who is in love with an abusive alcoholic. Even though the singer of Mesh is male, I think the songs on Fragile are told through the perspective of the woman. In Sympathy, she's talking about the cycle of him getting drunk, being abusive, and she keeps forgiving him because he keeps promising it's going to stop but it keeps happening again and again, and it keeps getting worse. But all he cares about is himself, he's never there for her when she needs him, and in this song she's really angry about that. She wants him to start to take some responsibility for his actions instead of relying on her for sympathy. She wants him to quit drinking and she wants to be there for him, but he refuses, and she's starting to get fed up.
This entire Mesh album is about a woman who is in love with an abusive alcoholic. Even though the singer of Mesh is male, I think the songs on Fragile are told through the perspective of the woman. In Sympathy, she's talking about the cycle of him getting drunk, being abusive, and she keeps forgiving him because he keeps promising it's going to stop but it keeps happening again and again, and it keeps getting worse. But all he cares about is himself, he's never there for her when she needs him, and in this song she's really angry about that. She wants him to start to take some responsibility for his actions instead of relying on her for sympathy. She wants him to quit drinking and she wants to be there for him, but he refuses, and she's starting to get fed up.