A Good Sadness Lyrics

Lyric discussion by Bearstronauts 

Cover art for A Good Sadness lyrics by MGMT

This song might be about a girl, or potential lover, actually. The writer (either Andrew or Ben) is being nostalgic about memories he has with another person.

"I can still hear the reflections in the air Feeding time Either hemisphere if it's summer there Seeking you, taking a dive, Streets realigned Ooh ooh ooh Stored in my mind"

This part is about walking through a neighborhood. He is remembering hearing 'reflections in the air' during summer when he'd walk somewhere and find where the other person was swimming. He knows those streets and that neighborhood well though and is envisioning them in his mind, as they are stored there forever.

"All I could do not to steal All the fun in the world From your little heart And now I owe it back to you"

The writer is saying that he tried all he could do to not 'steal all the fun in the world' from this person's heart, but by leaving them or breaking up, he did. And now he feels he owes it back to them.

"But it's hard to catch it and let it go, Find excuses to burn right through the grief And to melt, to melt, to melt Oh my poor memories"

He feels like it's hard to get rid of someone's heart when you've already caught it. You don't want to let that person go. He finds excuses about the relationship to get over being sad about it. He's burning his memories.

"Down to a trace 'Til you forget that I'm alive And you feel it's all right Ooh I'm sure you'll be fine Tune it out and I'm sure you'll be fine"

He feels she will forget about him by burning her own memories with him til she forgets he's even alive. And he knows she'll be fine in the end if she just tunes it out.

"Doing well Finding an excuse Shutting down soon (Over my eyes) Lost the recall"

Again, by forgetting and finding excuses, she will just shut all her memories down soon and lose the ability to recall him.

My Interpretation