Lyric discussion by stowawaygirl 

Cover art for Absentee lyrics by Emmy the Great

Here are the correct lyrics:

One goodbye for everyone Old pair of shoes the last place they were left Out by the door where they always were kept Brown laces We stand in line to hear the news We’ve not been together since Christmas last year Room full of children all sad in the ear Small faces

And church music playing, playing Our parents sleep and sleep They don’t remember the ones they have left We find the magazines under your bed Strange pictures I play out in the street And trip on the sidewalk all covered in blood Tears not allowed, I pick myself up No stitches

Absentee kyrie ilasion Your memory like disease holds on The fallow has grown out again And all, all the fields are yellow Your CDs, car keys, diaries My family kept these secretly Your memory like disease Absentee kyrie ilasion, ilasion, kyrie ilasion

I think this song is about her brother dying in the army when she was young.

“One goodbye for everyone” — funeral “Old pair of shoes the last place they were left” — things are still as they were before he was gone “We stand in line to hear the news” — waiting to hear whether he is one of the ones who has been killed “We’ve not been together since Christmas last year” — being on leave only for Christmas “They don’t remember the ones they have left” — as a child, she is kind of ignored because her parents miss the brother so much — “Tears not allowed, I pick myself up” “We find the magazines under your bed / Strange pictures” — finding porn under the brother’s bed when they go through his stuff after his death “Your memory like disease holds on” — the parents are totally stuck on the memory of their lost son “The fallow has grown out again” — time keeps passing, the feelings about the brother don’t change “Your CDs, car keys, diaries / My family kept these secretly” — they kept the things that belonged to him still

My Interpretation