Very generally, I think this is about wanting–deep down–to be a good person but realizing this is not reflected in your actions. There is a central theme of guilt or regret for not living up to your own intentions.
People can have different sides to their personality that make them feel this way. Sides that don't necessarily fit into their self-concept, or that they want to keep hidden from certain people, or that they hate themselves for, or that make them feel like they're living a double life.
Some specific instances are possibly implied, e.g.:
"Will you recognize me, when I'm lying on my back?
Something's gone inside me, and I can't get it back."
This sounds like it could be about feeling slutty, lost innocence, or I can quote Russell Brand's description of post-coital tristesse: "After I come, it's like 'Oh my God, what have I done?' A sense of profound existential angst, a sense of loss, a sense that somehow I've let my mum down."
The chorus, I think, generalizes to the broader meaning of the song:
"Oh heaven, oh heaven, I wake with good intentions, but the day it always lasts too long."
You have only good intentions but they aren't necessarily reflected in your actions and you know it. Every new day is an opportunity to change this, but you always end up not living up to your own intentions.
"Then I'm gone!"
Not sure what to think here. It could refer to your well-intentioned inner self getting thrown out the proverbial window time and time again, as if you can live out your ugly side off the record, a bit like when a Christian person flips a crucifix around hoping Jesus won't see what they do next. But you can't turn your conscience off and your own behavior keeps getting you down. It could also be a reference to the fear that this cycle will keep on repeating until you die, leaving only the memory of your ugly actions and not of the good person you intended to be.
"Will you recognize me, when I'm stealing from the poor. You're not gonna like me, I'm nothing like before."
Fear of irrevocably having become a bad person, feeling permanently 'dirty' and corrupted. Like having your own little fall of man, whatever happens next you will have to live with not always having been the good person you wished you'd be.
"Will you recognize me, when I lose another friend? Will you learn to leave me, or give me one more try again?"
Obvious self-hatred, being disappointed or fed up with yourself to the point of not understanding how any sane person could possibly see through your flaws and actually like you or want to be around you.
To end this on a more positive note, the fact that the narrator still has friends (who she feels keep giving her chances despite her being a terrible person in her own eyes) is a pretty obvious indication that much of this anguish is just her being too hard on herself.
Nobody's perfect, and one shouldn't fall for this dangerous black-and-white reasoning of "I cannot live up to my perfect inner self therefore I am a bad person."
Very generally, I think this is about wanting–deep down–to be a good person but realizing this is not reflected in your actions. There is a central theme of guilt or regret for not living up to your own intentions.
People can have different sides to their personality that make them feel this way. Sides that don't necessarily fit into their self-concept, or that they want to keep hidden from certain people, or that they hate themselves for, or that make them feel like they're living a double life.
Some specific instances are possibly implied, e.g.:
"Will you recognize me, when I'm lying on my back? Something's gone inside me, and I can't get it back."
This sounds like it could be about feeling slutty, lost innocence, or I can quote Russell Brand's description of post-coital tristesse: "After I come, it's like 'Oh my God, what have I done?' A sense of profound existential angst, a sense of loss, a sense that somehow I've let my mum down."
The chorus, I think, generalizes to the broader meaning of the song:
"Oh heaven, oh heaven, I wake with good intentions, but the day it always lasts too long."
You have only good intentions but they aren't necessarily reflected in your actions and you know it. Every new day is an opportunity to change this, but you always end up not living up to your own intentions.
"Then I'm gone!"
Not sure what to think here. It could refer to your well-intentioned inner self getting thrown out the proverbial window time and time again, as if you can live out your ugly side off the record, a bit like when a Christian person flips a crucifix around hoping Jesus won't see what they do next. But you can't turn your conscience off and your own behavior keeps getting you down. It could also be a reference to the fear that this cycle will keep on repeating until you die, leaving only the memory of your ugly actions and not of the good person you intended to be.
"Will you recognize me, when I'm stealing from the poor. You're not gonna like me, I'm nothing like before."
Fear of irrevocably having become a bad person, feeling permanently 'dirty' and corrupted. Like having your own little fall of man, whatever happens next you will have to live with not always having been the good person you wished you'd be.
"Will you recognize me, when I lose another friend? Will you learn to leave me, or give me one more try again?"
Obvious self-hatred, being disappointed or fed up with yourself to the point of not understanding how any sane person could possibly see through your flaws and actually like you or want to be around you.
To end this on a more positive note, the fact that the narrator still has friends (who she feels keep giving her chances despite her being a terrible person in her own eyes) is a pretty obvious indication that much of this anguish is just her being too hard on herself.
Nobody's perfect, and one shouldn't fall for this dangerous black-and-white reasoning of "I cannot live up to my perfect inner self therefore I am a bad person."