This is one of GEG’s most straightforward songs, but a great illustration of their ability to tell a story with a few well-chosen words. It is sung by a career-focused woman, an executive in a company with offices across the US and Europe. She travels all over: London, Chicago, Norway, all with distinct impressions and yet blurred together in the hurry of her life.
As for relationships, she’s the female equivalent of the sailor with a girl in every port. She hangs out with one guy in New Orleans, takes a quick trip to see another in Nashville, has a liaison in Paris (and accidentally leaves clothes behind). She has enjoyed this lifestyle while her love life has been relatively superficial, but now she’s found somebody that she cares for more than her career. Her need for stability begins to overcome her desire for freedom and travel, and this song describes the change in her thinking.
The ending verses perhaps describe her first extended stay with this guy in Philadelphia. The lines “Keep the door unlocked I promise / I can be so unaware” show that she has trouble adjusting to a more settled kind of life, but may also refer to her lack of emotional openness. Since her past relationships have been mainly physical, she isn’t used to talking about her feelings, something that the guy clearly wants so that he can know her better.
At the same time, she begins to realize what a toll her unsettled lifestyle has taken on her (“I’ve been tired, torn, and beaten down”). She couldn’t see or admit it to herself while she was in the midst of it, but now she can, and decides that, in spite of the consequences for her career, she needs to slow down.
This is one of GEG’s most straightforward songs, but a great illustration of their ability to tell a story with a few well-chosen words. It is sung by a career-focused woman, an executive in a company with offices across the US and Europe. She travels all over: London, Chicago, Norway, all with distinct impressions and yet blurred together in the hurry of her life.
As for relationships, she’s the female equivalent of the sailor with a girl in every port. She hangs out with one guy in New Orleans, takes a quick trip to see another in Nashville, has a liaison in Paris (and accidentally leaves clothes behind). She has enjoyed this lifestyle while her love life has been relatively superficial, but now she’s found somebody that she cares for more than her career. Her need for stability begins to overcome her desire for freedom and travel, and this song describes the change in her thinking.
The ending verses perhaps describe her first extended stay with this guy in Philadelphia. The lines “Keep the door unlocked I promise / I can be so unaware” show that she has trouble adjusting to a more settled kind of life, but may also refer to her lack of emotional openness. Since her past relationships have been mainly physical, she isn’t used to talking about her feelings, something that the guy clearly wants so that he can know her better.
At the same time, she begins to realize what a toll her unsettled lifestyle has taken on her (“I’ve been tired, torn, and beaten down”). She couldn’t see or admit it to herself while she was in the midst of it, but now she can, and decides that, in spite of the consequences for her career, she needs to slow down.