This song is probably my favorite off this entire album. I love its simplicity.
I think Navigator clearly relies on the same nostalgic tone of pretty much every other Real Estate song (and I love it). It utilizes a lot of suburban imagery, and discusses the fleeting nature of our youth, and more specifically that time spent with a person he felt strongly about.
But I think this song is sung from a point in time where that youth is just a memory, and that he can't change how quickly it passed him by. And the person he asks to "meet [him] where the pavement ends" is long gone. "Where the pavement ends" (most likely an allusion to the famous Shel Silverstein collection of poems) is somewhere abstract, maybe the distant future, maybe even death.
Finally in the last stanza, he contemplates just how fast time is moving in his life, and how he wishes it would slow down or stop. And while he knows he's still young he feels so exhausted by how much has passed him by.
I agree with your interpretation @smdhoesss... This song is also my favorite on the album. Real Estate truly are masters of capturing and making you feel that nostalgia. It's so depressingly beautiful! Of course being a native of New Jersey myself probably helps amplify it a little hah
I agree with your interpretation @smdhoesss... This song is also my favorite on the album. Real Estate truly are masters of capturing and making you feel that nostalgia. It's so depressingly beautiful! Of course being a native of New Jersey myself probably helps amplify it a little hah
This song is probably my favorite off this entire album. I love its simplicity.
I think Navigator clearly relies on the same nostalgic tone of pretty much every other Real Estate song (and I love it). It utilizes a lot of suburban imagery, and discusses the fleeting nature of our youth, and more specifically that time spent with a person he felt strongly about.
But I think this song is sung from a point in time where that youth is just a memory, and that he can't change how quickly it passed him by. And the person he asks to "meet [him] where the pavement ends" is long gone. "Where the pavement ends" (most likely an allusion to the famous Shel Silverstein collection of poems) is somewhere abstract, maybe the distant future, maybe even death.
Finally in the last stanza, he contemplates just how fast time is moving in his life, and how he wishes it would slow down or stop. And while he knows he's still young he feels so exhausted by how much has passed him by.
I agree with your interpretation @smdhoesss... This song is also my favorite on the album. Real Estate truly are masters of capturing and making you feel that nostalgia. It's so depressingly beautiful! Of course being a native of New Jersey myself probably helps amplify it a little hah
I agree with your interpretation @smdhoesss... This song is also my favorite on the album. Real Estate truly are masters of capturing and making you feel that nostalgia. It's so depressingly beautiful! Of course being a native of New Jersey myself probably helps amplify it a little hah