I was 7 in 1996 (born in 1988)! Matthew Murphy (lead singer) was born in 1984 so that would have made him around 12 in '96.
The song has quite a sad note to it. This is my own personal interpretation of it, feel free to disagree: '96 sounds like the year the singer first met the girl he's currently with today (possibly). But something is not right in their relationship. He's doing all the giving, and she's not giving anything back. They are friends, not lovers. And he wishes to go back to 1996 when they were young, had no worries about the world and "weren't scarred by the modern itch". It sounds as if the both of them feel disconnected with the modern world and unhappy with their lives -"I'm not cut out for the modern life"- and this is affecting their relationship. And when he says "There's little here to miss" it sounds as though his life in 1996 was a whole lot better than it is now (2011 say), and the singer will forever be nostalgic about his early teenage years.
I was 7 in 1996 (born in 1988)! Matthew Murphy (lead singer) was born in 1984 so that would have made him around 12 in '96.
The song has quite a sad note to it. This is my own personal interpretation of it, feel free to disagree: '96 sounds like the year the singer first met the girl he's currently with today (possibly). But something is not right in their relationship. He's doing all the giving, and she's not giving anything back. They are friends, not lovers. And he wishes to go back to 1996 when they were young, had no worries about the world and "weren't scarred by the modern itch". It sounds as if the both of them feel disconnected with the modern world and unhappy with their lives -"I'm not cut out for the modern life"- and this is affecting their relationship. And when he says "There's little here to miss" it sounds as though his life in 1996 was a whole lot better than it is now (2011 say), and the singer will forever be nostalgic about his early teenage years.