Gibbard paints a picture with very broad strokes, in line with the stuff he's been writing since Codes and Keys and devoid of the typical specificities he'd put in his songs before that.
Metaphors about pollution, unharvested potential and ownership make it almost too easy to point at his failed marriage. There are also spiritual / religious undertones, such as the city of seven hills and the cyclic nature of things, contrasting with the harsh 'desert veiled in pavement' which seems to refer to LA.
All in all this wide-eyed imagery seems to be about trying to reconcile with the past, coping and forgiving (hard things to do, evidently). The connecting figure lies obviously in the chorus, where the addressed person is even bigger/scarier than the black sun (both an occult sign and a stand-in for a black hole) revolving around it.
Gibbard paints a picture with very broad strokes, in line with the stuff he's been writing since Codes and Keys and devoid of the typical specificities he'd put in his songs before that.
Metaphors about pollution, unharvested potential and ownership make it almost too easy to point at his failed marriage. There are also spiritual / religious undertones, such as the city of seven hills and the cyclic nature of things, contrasting with the harsh 'desert veiled in pavement' which seems to refer to LA.
All in all this wide-eyed imagery seems to be about trying to reconcile with the past, coping and forgiving (hard things to do, evidently). The connecting figure lies obviously in the chorus, where the addressed person is even bigger/scarier than the black sun (both an occult sign and a stand-in for a black hole) revolving around it.
@kindacute See my interpretation above and let me know what you think.
@kindacute See my interpretation above and let me know what you think.