Ok here is what I think, feel free to let me know what you think. I think it's from one perspective, a woman. A woman who is a mother of a teenager, and is rememebring herself as a teenager. I think it combines her life with her daughter and her life with her own mother and is kind of about growing up and realizing that what you thought was wrong and what you are thinking right now is probably wrong too.
"In a car outside, we stalk the idle kind
If you're leaving just let me know
Tobacco and peppermint, dusting for fingerprints
A film in her eyes from the glow"
I think the woman out is looking for her daughter. The girl snuck out. The mom looks for groups of teenagers. The tobacco and peppermint is the smell inside the car, she's smoking and sucking breath mints while "dusting for fingerprints", figurative way to say she is playing detective and looking for her daughter. The film in her eyes is prob. street lights, signifying it is late at night.
"Some rules are made with all intentions to break and she defends it with a warped rationale
And I've seen what happens to the wicked and proud when they
decide to try to take on the throne for the crown"
She remembers being a teenager. Thinking you know what's best and living by your own rules. She knows her daughter is going through this right now. She has seen what happens to the "wicked and the proud" bc that was her at one time rebelling against her own mother and trying to take the power of freedom.
"And we learn as we age
We learn nothing and my body still aches
And you take 'cause they give
Though I love you and my body it leaks like a sieve"
Becoming an adult doesn't mean you get all the answers like kids think, in reality you only truly grow up once you realize there is no right answer, you just relive the same scenerios from different perspectives. The only think that changes is your body, it gets older and more decrepit. "And you take.." is from the kid perspective. You take and take from your parents but you still love them. "body it leaks" is the over dramatized version from akids perspective of angst and melancholy.
"When it got cold outside, smoke beneath the playground lights
If you're coming home just let me know
Sucking on your breath mint, dissected and stuck with pins
A film in her eyes from the glow"
The woman is remembering her childhood. The's why he uses "got", past tense. It's cold at night and she is smoking in a playground. Her mother has told her, if youre coming home just let me know. She's sucking on her peppermint breath mints. This is why i think it's a story about just one woman's perspective. She developed this habbit as a kid and does the same thing in the car while looking for her daughter. I think it's his way of making the conncetion that it's her as an adult in the first verse. The dissected and stuck with pins is her teenage thoughts. feeling dissected and stuck with pins, always being asked questions and proded at and being told what's right for her, etc. how most teens feel.
"Concrete and water, she's looking for her daughter
at midnight in torrential downpour
And everything I said about how messed your head is
We're cut up and left in bits and pieces on the ground"
Back to the present. She is driving around looking for her daughter late at night. She is thinking about her own mother and how she probably said she was wrong and was angry and said mean things to her as a teen. But now that she is in her shoes she understands and takes it back.
And we learn as we age
Wait for nothing and my body still aches
And you take 'cause they give
Though I love you and my body it leaks like a sieve
And we learn as we age
Wait for nothing and my body still aches
And you take 'cause they give
Though I love you and my body it leaks like a sieve
Take the picture from the wall when you think that nothing matters (and we learn as we age)
Take the picture from the frame and it's a long ways to the floor (we learn nothing and my body still aches)
Cut your finger on the edge 'cause it's sharper than they told you (and you take 'cause they give)
Take a leap from out the window cause it's way too far to go through the door (though I love you and my body it leaks like a sieve)
This part is talking about rebelling and finding your own way. You take down the picture, remove the idea. Remove the picture from the frame and throw it to the floor, rip apart the framework of that idea and cast it to the floor. Cut your finger while doing so bc you weren't careful and were careless bc you weren't prepared. Take a leap from the window, you do things your own way even though the it's harder and more painful than the way you were shown. It doesnt matter and it's worth it to have to done your way.
Sorry of that was muddled or if my ideas didn't come off clear.
Ok here is what I think, feel free to let me know what you think. I think it's from one perspective, a woman. A woman who is a mother of a teenager, and is rememebring herself as a teenager. I think it combines her life with her daughter and her life with her own mother and is kind of about growing up and realizing that what you thought was wrong and what you are thinking right now is probably wrong too.
"In a car outside, we stalk the idle kind If you're leaving just let me know Tobacco and peppermint, dusting for fingerprints A film in her eyes from the glow"
I think the woman out is looking for her daughter. The girl snuck out. The mom looks for groups of teenagers. The tobacco and peppermint is the smell inside the car, she's smoking and sucking breath mints while "dusting for fingerprints", figurative way to say she is playing detective and looking for her daughter. The film in her eyes is prob. street lights, signifying it is late at night.
"Some rules are made with all intentions to break and she defends it with a warped rationale And I've seen what happens to the wicked and proud when they decide to try to take on the throne for the crown"
She remembers being a teenager. Thinking you know what's best and living by your own rules. She knows her daughter is going through this right now. She has seen what happens to the "wicked and the proud" bc that was her at one time rebelling against her own mother and trying to take the power of freedom.
"And we learn as we age We learn nothing and my body still aches And you take 'cause they give Though I love you and my body it leaks like a sieve"
Becoming an adult doesn't mean you get all the answers like kids think, in reality you only truly grow up once you realize there is no right answer, you just relive the same scenerios from different perspectives. The only think that changes is your body, it gets older and more decrepit. "And you take.." is from the kid perspective. You take and take from your parents but you still love them. "body it leaks" is the over dramatized version from akids perspective of angst and melancholy.
"When it got cold outside, smoke beneath the playground lights If you're coming home just let me know Sucking on your breath mint, dissected and stuck with pins A film in her eyes from the glow"
The woman is remembering her childhood. The's why he uses "got", past tense. It's cold at night and she is smoking in a playground. Her mother has told her, if youre coming home just let me know. She's sucking on her peppermint breath mints. This is why i think it's a story about just one woman's perspective. She developed this habbit as a kid and does the same thing in the car while looking for her daughter. I think it's his way of making the conncetion that it's her as an adult in the first verse. The dissected and stuck with pins is her teenage thoughts. feeling dissected and stuck with pins, always being asked questions and proded at and being told what's right for her, etc. how most teens feel.
"Concrete and water, she's looking for her daughter at midnight in torrential downpour And everything I said about how messed your head is We're cut up and left in bits and pieces on the ground"
Back to the present. She is driving around looking for her daughter late at night. She is thinking about her own mother and how she probably said she was wrong and was angry and said mean things to her as a teen. But now that she is in her shoes she understands and takes it back.
And we learn as we age Wait for nothing and my body still aches And you take 'cause they give Though I love you and my body it leaks like a sieve
And we learn as we age Wait for nothing and my body still aches And you take 'cause they give Though I love you and my body it leaks like a sieve
Take the picture from the wall when you think that nothing matters (and we learn as we age) Take the picture from the frame and it's a long ways to the floor (we learn nothing and my body still aches) Cut your finger on the edge 'cause it's sharper than they told you (and you take 'cause they give) Take a leap from out the window cause it's way too far to go through the door (though I love you and my body it leaks like a sieve)
This part is talking about rebelling and finding your own way. You take down the picture, remove the idea. Remove the picture from the frame and throw it to the floor, rip apart the framework of that idea and cast it to the floor. Cut your finger while doing so bc you weren't careful and were careless bc you weren't prepared. Take a leap from the window, you do things your own way even though the it's harder and more painful than the way you were shown. It doesnt matter and it's worth it to have to done your way.
Sorry of that was muddled or if my ideas didn't come off clear.