The verses are about a romanticized (in the sense of "made larger than life") version of a relationship. The chorus refers to exaggerating the good times and covering up the bad, whitewashing over a more realistic memory of their past together with "distortion" and taking "liberties" with their time together.
The one thing I really don't have a handle on with this song - and it bugs me because it's the title, which is a testament to its importance in the theme of the song - is the relationship between being surrounded and spiraling.
Being surrounded indicates being trapped in one spot due to outside forces.
Spiraling seems more like a self-directed path to an inevitable center point - usually, as someone else mentioned, a downward spiral, as if the end result is undesirable.
It doesn't seem like either of them is something you'd want to be... both indicate a type of being trapped. So what's the important distinction between the two? Others surrounding you and boxing you in vs. spiraling out of control, doing it to yourselves?
So then they're stuck in this idealized relationship, that they want to think is "perfect," even though it might just be "our little hell." Maybe if they're not actually surrounded/trapped in the relationship, if it's really not working out and they're just spiraling toward a more and more broken relationship, they need to come clean with themselves about how unhappy they are?
The surrounded/spiraling imagery is so vague and not directly related to anything else in the song, so it's harder to get a handle on.
"The one thing I really don't have a handle on with this song - and it bugs me because it's the title, which is a testament to its importance in the theme of the song - is the relationship between being surrounded and spiraling."
"The one thing I really don't have a handle on with this song - and it bugs me because it's the title, which is a testament to its importance in the theme of the song - is the relationship between being surrounded and spiraling."
Now, I come to think that 'surrounded' would mean being surrounded by the nostalgia that he has of the loved one, and 'spiraling', as in he's sinking into the nostalgia at a high rate.
Now, I come to think that 'surrounded' would mean being surrounded by the nostalgia that he has of the loved one, and 'spiraling', as in he's sinking into the nostalgia at a high rate.
The verses are about a romanticized (in the sense of "made larger than life") version of a relationship. The chorus refers to exaggerating the good times and covering up the bad, whitewashing over a more realistic memory of their past together with "distortion" and taking "liberties" with their time together.
The one thing I really don't have a handle on with this song - and it bugs me because it's the title, which is a testament to its importance in the theme of the song - is the relationship between being surrounded and spiraling.
Being surrounded indicates being trapped in one spot due to outside forces.
Spiraling seems more like a self-directed path to an inevitable center point - usually, as someone else mentioned, a downward spiral, as if the end result is undesirable.
It doesn't seem like either of them is something you'd want to be... both indicate a type of being trapped. So what's the important distinction between the two? Others surrounding you and boxing you in vs. spiraling out of control, doing it to yourselves?
So then they're stuck in this idealized relationship, that they want to think is "perfect," even though it might just be "our little hell." Maybe if they're not actually surrounded/trapped in the relationship, if it's really not working out and they're just spiraling toward a more and more broken relationship, they need to come clean with themselves about how unhappy they are?
The surrounded/spiraling imagery is so vague and not directly related to anything else in the song, so it's harder to get a handle on.
"The one thing I really don't have a handle on with this song - and it bugs me because it's the title, which is a testament to its importance in the theme of the song - is the relationship between being surrounded and spiraling."
"The one thing I really don't have a handle on with this song - and it bugs me because it's the title, which is a testament to its importance in the theme of the song - is the relationship between being surrounded and spiraling."
Now, I come to think that 'surrounded' would mean being surrounded by the nostalgia that he has of the loved one, and 'spiraling', as in he's sinking into the nostalgia at a high rate.
Now, I come to think that 'surrounded' would mean being surrounded by the nostalgia that he has of the loved one, and 'spiraling', as in he's sinking into the nostalgia at a high rate.