To me this song is highlighting the differences between growing up in the country and the city while focussing on themes of feminism, liberalism and change.
I think it's a story where the narrator is singing about her childhood through which she felt misplaced and alone in a right-wing, country dwelling family (hence the title). She's left the country and family now and lives in the city.
Ok so first of all you have this "TOO far away from the city". That makes it sound bad, too backward, too isolated. Then in the first verse "They said we have a communist in the family/I had to wear a mask". She has to hide the fact that she's liberal. You know how right-wing people often label left-wing people as communist? She has to suppress her liberality for fear of her family finding out. Also in the first verse you're told that she doesn't live there anymore "Some kids left on their own".
Next verse, obvious feminist ideas coming through. The men in the family all have jobs, specifically jobs traditionally considered as 'manly' jobs, the women seem to the narrator to be fussing about the house "What the mothers did I didn't know". That line is echoed in a later verse when "The mothers walked towards the forest". More on that in a bit :P
Then the chorus, to me the chorus is a flick back to the present. In between her retelling of the story she seeks to find comfort in what is new, she wants the music played by what is perhaps a lover? Perhaps the city? Perhaps they're both the same thing?
The first two lines of the next verse I take to be about the narrator's mother. The first two lines I imagine to be about her having sex, her daughter sees her and she is laughing while she does it, maybe this is a point about the debasing of women, but something tells me The Knife isn't quite as radical as that. Either way she views an act considered by much (too much!) of society to be dirty, but this person turns around and says that SHE is the one who is dirty for reading books, and for being an intelligent woman. Maybe she is trying to make the point that in order for men to like you and have sex with you, "You should not show you can read".
Next verse, maybe just illustrating how far away the city seemed. "Green-tones hide the blush", not sure about that line. Maybe green tone to cover up her happiness at certain things, part of her mask? Green-tones because green is the colour of illness on a face but also a colour associated with nature/the country.
In the last verse, the country is portrayed as something good. I think this verse might be telling us WHY the mothers did that to themselves. They wanted clean air, a safe oasis so they walked towards the forest not realising quite how malicious the forest and country ways of life can be.
This is obviously all just interpretation, different things fit for different people. This fits for me because I can very much relate to the narrator's point of view...
To me this song is highlighting the differences between growing up in the country and the city while focussing on themes of feminism, liberalism and change.
I think it's a story where the narrator is singing about her childhood through which she felt misplaced and alone in a right-wing, country dwelling family (hence the title). She's left the country and family now and lives in the city.
Ok so first of all you have this "TOO far away from the city". That makes it sound bad, too backward, too isolated. Then in the first verse "They said we have a communist in the family/I had to wear a mask". She has to hide the fact that she's liberal. You know how right-wing people often label left-wing people as communist? She has to suppress her liberality for fear of her family finding out. Also in the first verse you're told that she doesn't live there anymore "Some kids left on their own".
Next verse, obvious feminist ideas coming through. The men in the family all have jobs, specifically jobs traditionally considered as 'manly' jobs, the women seem to the narrator to be fussing about the house "What the mothers did I didn't know". That line is echoed in a later verse when "The mothers walked towards the forest". More on that in a bit :P
Then the chorus, to me the chorus is a flick back to the present. In between her retelling of the story she seeks to find comfort in what is new, she wants the music played by what is perhaps a lover? Perhaps the city? Perhaps they're both the same thing?
The first two lines of the next verse I take to be about the narrator's mother. The first two lines I imagine to be about her having sex, her daughter sees her and she is laughing while she does it, maybe this is a point about the debasing of women, but something tells me The Knife isn't quite as radical as that. Either way she views an act considered by much (too much!) of society to be dirty, but this person turns around and says that SHE is the one who is dirty for reading books, and for being an intelligent woman. Maybe she is trying to make the point that in order for men to like you and have sex with you, "You should not show you can read".
Next verse, maybe just illustrating how far away the city seemed. "Green-tones hide the blush", not sure about that line. Maybe green tone to cover up her happiness at certain things, part of her mask? Green-tones because green is the colour of illness on a face but also a colour associated with nature/the country.
In the last verse, the country is portrayed as something good. I think this verse might be telling us WHY the mothers did that to themselves. They wanted clean air, a safe oasis so they walked towards the forest not realising quite how malicious the forest and country ways of life can be.
This is obviously all just interpretation, different things fit for different people. This fits for me because I can very much relate to the narrator's point of view...