The song seems to me to be talking about the fundamental difference between men and women, how men have an instinct to spread seed and then move on and how women try to make a home, try to keep them around. The "house by the sea" mentioned in each verse is the happy medium that the male and the girls in this song wish to achieve.
In the first verse, I feel that the sisters have something amorous going on with the singer, who is clearly male; this is perhaps the cause of their jealousy towards each other, or towards any other women he looks at. The one laying on the floor is being inviting and enticing, and the one changing the locks is conspiring to keep the man there. The part about buying their time on his knees seems to refer to the fact that, in lots of hormone-centered relationships like this one, the guy humbles himself before the girl to get into her pants.
The second verse is describing how heavenly the house by the sea is; how great it is when everybody's natural instincts co-incide and love-making is what's going down. Roses and raspberry leaves smell pretty good, and having smoke in your nose, whether it's tobacco or a more illicit substance, is a fun, meaningless thing you do in luxury. Maybe this also links to their being two girls instead of your normal one-on-one relationship - the house by the sea is an irresistable male fantasy."Making the meaning they lack" could refer to the man thinking up reasons to be there, and him "burning the book they come back to" means that he's rejecting their reasons - they think he should stay there, start a family.
In the third verse, the man has left the sisters and has travelled far away, putting an ocean between himself and that heavenly house. "Like the shape of a wave," their regard from him goes from a zenith of love and mating to a nadir of celebrating his death.
The final six lines are particularly potent, amptly and poetically summarizing the relationship. 1: he lives for them, hopelessly in love, and he goes whenever they do. 2-3: Their control over him tightens, and his instincts want him to escape and roam. This goes from simply wanting to leave to trying to escape the metaphysical bondage he's in. 4: They don't call him Sam Beam (or whatever) like they used to, now the name is full of responsability and expectations. 5-6: Having left, he still dreams of the pleasure of that house, and he dreams of "love and freedom" co-existing somehow.
The song seems to me to be talking about the fundamental difference between men and women, how men have an instinct to spread seed and then move on and how women try to make a home, try to keep them around. The "house by the sea" mentioned in each verse is the happy medium that the male and the girls in this song wish to achieve.
In the first verse, I feel that the sisters have something amorous going on with the singer, who is clearly male; this is perhaps the cause of their jealousy towards each other, or towards any other women he looks at. The one laying on the floor is being inviting and enticing, and the one changing the locks is conspiring to keep the man there. The part about buying their time on his knees seems to refer to the fact that, in lots of hormone-centered relationships like this one, the guy humbles himself before the girl to get into her pants.
The second verse is describing how heavenly the house by the sea is; how great it is when everybody's natural instincts co-incide and love-making is what's going down. Roses and raspberry leaves smell pretty good, and having smoke in your nose, whether it's tobacco or a more illicit substance, is a fun, meaningless thing you do in luxury. Maybe this also links to their being two girls instead of your normal one-on-one relationship - the house by the sea is an irresistable male fantasy."Making the meaning they lack" could refer to the man thinking up reasons to be there, and him "burning the book they come back to" means that he's rejecting their reasons - they think he should stay there, start a family.
In the third verse, the man has left the sisters and has travelled far away, putting an ocean between himself and that heavenly house. "Like the shape of a wave," their regard from him goes from a zenith of love and mating to a nadir of celebrating his death.
The final six lines are particularly potent, amptly and poetically summarizing the relationship. 1: he lives for them, hopelessly in love, and he goes whenever they do. 2-3: Their control over him tightens, and his instincts want him to escape and roam. This goes from simply wanting to leave to trying to escape the metaphysical bondage he's in. 4: They don't call him Sam Beam (or whatever) like they used to, now the name is full of responsability and expectations. 5-6: Having left, he still dreams of the pleasure of that house, and he dreams of "love and freedom" co-existing somehow.