I'm not really a huge fan of her/this genre (I actually found out about this song on accident) but I liked the lyrics.
At first, as some other commenters have said, I thought that she was making a reference to Lolita. (You'd be thirteen, I'd be thirty-five, I can say that you look pretty...you set my heart on fire, etc., etc.) but most people are saying it's about her miscarriage.
"Strongest taste
Loudest drop
Head is filled
The thought unlocked"
Here is where I imagine things happening in slow motion as she is haunted by the memory of her unborn child, thus initiating a cataclysm of emotions and mental turmoil. Perhaps she is drinking and she drops the glass, it shatters (loudest drop), and she doesn't notice due to being in some sort of depressed haze.
"You'd be thirteen, I'd be thirty-five
Gone to find a place for us to hide"
Had the child be alive whenever the story in the lyrics take place, the child would be thirteen, and she would be thirty-five. To make up for all the time they never got to spend with one another, she feels the need to find a place for them to "hide," away from the rest of the world so that she can protect and nurture the child.
"Be together, but alone,
As the need for it has grown, yeah"
This idea of being with the child, however, is entirely fictionalized; the child is dead. Although in her mind they are together, in actuality they are alone. Over time, she has obviously not healed from the miscarriage, and the need for them to spend time together has grown, rather than the wound being healed with time.
(The scatting, if it can be called that, that comes next is one aspect I found somewhat annoying, considering the content of the song. At the same time, it could also signify baby talk, or even that she is regressing to a childlike state or losing consciousness)
"A cave or a shed
A car or a bed
A hole in the ground
Or a burial mound
A bush or a tree
Or the aegean sea, will do for me"
Wherever they meet, whether it be in the physical world or in the afterlife, it doesn't matter. Also, I feel that she might be alluding to the fact that she would've preferred that, if the child had to die somehow while she was still alive, she would prefer that they die together (i.e., drowning and being buried together).
"I can say that you look pretty
You turn my legs into spaghetti
You set my heart on fire"
No matter what the child would've looked like physically, she would tell her (assuming it would be a girl) that she looks pretty (OR, in the afterlife, her soul is beautiful). The thought of the child makes her experience emotions she never thought she could feel.
"For you I found a vent
In the bottom of a coal mine
Just enough space for your hands in the inside"
I honestly don't have an explanation for this lyric. The same with the one that mentions a prison cell. Perhaps this symbolizes the burial of the child (or lack thereof). This may also reference her mental state; she is "trapped," so to speak, in her own mind similar to a prisoner in a prison cell.
"If you go
Do/please let me know"
She doesn't want to be separated from the child again. She had no idea that she would the first time, so she's saying that if the child, once they are reunited, were to go somewhere, to at least let her know first.
"I go running with a heart on fire"
She re-references the line "you set my heart on fire." Her heart has been set on fire by the child, one which can never be unlit, even after they are reunited; because she loves the child and will never stop (ask most parents). As she is forced to resume normal life, she goes about doing so with a heart constantly on fire. She blindly runs towards the child, in hopes of finding her again.
I'm not really a huge fan of her/this genre (I actually found out about this song on accident) but I liked the lyrics.
At first, as some other commenters have said, I thought that she was making a reference to Lolita. (You'd be thirteen, I'd be thirty-five, I can say that you look pretty...you set my heart on fire, etc., etc.) but most people are saying it's about her miscarriage.
"Strongest taste Loudest drop Head is filled The thought unlocked"
Here is where I imagine things happening in slow motion as she is haunted by the memory of her unborn child, thus initiating a cataclysm of emotions and mental turmoil. Perhaps she is drinking and she drops the glass, it shatters (loudest drop), and she doesn't notice due to being in some sort of depressed haze.
"You'd be thirteen, I'd be thirty-five Gone to find a place for us to hide"
Had the child be alive whenever the story in the lyrics take place, the child would be thirteen, and she would be thirty-five. To make up for all the time they never got to spend with one another, she feels the need to find a place for them to "hide," away from the rest of the world so that she can protect and nurture the child.
"Be together, but alone, As the need for it has grown, yeah"
This idea of being with the child, however, is entirely fictionalized; the child is dead. Although in her mind they are together, in actuality they are alone. Over time, she has obviously not healed from the miscarriage, and the need for them to spend time together has grown, rather than the wound being healed with time.
(The scatting, if it can be called that, that comes next is one aspect I found somewhat annoying, considering the content of the song. At the same time, it could also signify baby talk, or even that she is regressing to a childlike state or losing consciousness)
"A cave or a shed A car or a bed A hole in the ground Or a burial mound A bush or a tree Or the aegean sea, will do for me"
Wherever they meet, whether it be in the physical world or in the afterlife, it doesn't matter. Also, I feel that she might be alluding to the fact that she would've preferred that, if the child had to die somehow while she was still alive, she would prefer that they die together (i.e., drowning and being buried together).
"I can say that you look pretty You turn my legs into spaghetti You set my heart on fire"
No matter what the child would've looked like physically, she would tell her (assuming it would be a girl) that she looks pretty (OR, in the afterlife, her soul is beautiful). The thought of the child makes her experience emotions she never thought she could feel.
"For you I found a vent In the bottom of a coal mine Just enough space for your hands in the inside"
I honestly don't have an explanation for this lyric. The same with the one that mentions a prison cell. Perhaps this symbolizes the burial of the child (or lack thereof). This may also reference her mental state; she is "trapped," so to speak, in her own mind similar to a prisoner in a prison cell.
"If you go Do/please let me know"
She doesn't want to be separated from the child again. She had no idea that she would the first time, so she's saying that if the child, once they are reunited, were to go somewhere, to at least let her know first.
"I go running with a heart on fire" She re-references the line "you set my heart on fire." Her heart has been set on fire by the child, one which can never be unlit, even after they are reunited; because she loves the child and will never stop (ask most parents). As she is forced to resume normal life, she goes about doing so with a heart constantly on fire. She blindly runs towards the child, in hopes of finding her again.