Dreams So Real Lyrics

Lyric discussion by MrPete 

Cover art for Dreams So Real lyrics by Metric

I think you both make good points so I just have a few things to add.

I agree this is autobiographical. When she sang it live in London recently it was practically confessional. The atmosphere was electric.

Note that she references this song in Artifical Nocturne: "I make all that I believe in dreams so real". Perhaps a reference to her creative process, perhaps also acknowledging her visionary outlook on life.

"Dreams so real we wake up in them" is a poem by her father, which concludes "an awed woe stirring us so". This is a beautiful continuation of that theme.

The line is "play it stripped down to my thing" not "played stripped down to my bone". She believes in the power of girls. And maybe we now know her preferred sleeping atire :-)

"The scream becomes a yawn" is a classic Emily double meaning. On the one hand she fears that nobody is listening to her, it's as if she's opening her mouth but nothing is coming out...on the other, it's the middle of the night, and with fatigue her screams eventually mutate to yawns.

My Opinion

I agree with a lot that you have to say. But I think you're off on a few points. It says to believe in the power of songs, to believe in the power of girls. It's not saying she's attracted to women. Rock is a male dominated profession. She wanted to show other girls that a girl can have power in such a biased industry. But she doesn't know if anyone got the message or she's just singing the message just to keep herself afloat.

And as far as the scream becomes a yawn. When you're young and trying to...

I like your age point - a cool way to interpret the scream/yawn line.

I didn't mean to imply that she was attracted to women, not sure where that inference comes from.