Lyric discussion by lazyoli 

Cover art for Char lyrics by Crystal Castles

nothing yet? ok, let me throw some random stuff at you:

Char - heating, burning of wood in a vacuum, without air. what does wood stand for? the guy who is spoken to? leftovers of a burning. what is left after a destructive fire under pressure. nature that is used as an instrument or in an industrial way. chemical process. wood is something alive (tree) or at least used to be. char is the dead, treated rest that is left behind. ash.

I'm afraid they're gonna find you. - who? why afraid? Why are they looking for him? Is he hiding? And there's nothing that I can do A century of your priceless time - why priceless? 100 years?? nobody gets that old! speaker wants a brazen amount of time, more than the span of a usual life time, to do something that breaks the laws of society. To commit a victimless crime - what crime is victimless? e.g. homosexuality (or used to be), drugs. the speaker animates the guy who is spoken to to break societal norms. victims doesn't see himself as a victim but society does through (antiquated) laws. Vow to caress your rashes - comfort for something that itches, that you cannot forget, that is constantly annoying you. disease. Pariah. externally obviously visibly sick. vow = religious conotation. sacred, holy. Vow to punish with lashes - punish with a whip. who? speaker or society? "the others"? sado. You can hide inside my locket - why locket? private. usually photos of loved ones inside a locket. again hiding. hide from society. hide activities, relationships. speaker probably female (singer is anyway). a relationship with no secrets vs. society.

Put a leash on when they walk you - sado. like a dog. who puts on the leash? they. Next year say you didn't want to - why year?? late justification, excuse. after a relatively long time. Do they chastise you when you stray - sado. chastise. religion again. deviating from norms is punished. speaker experiences it from afar. from a watcher perspective. not there. not part of it. Sallow skin and they can't look away - bleak skin? from what? from staying indoors? from being dead? why cant "they" look away? shocking? different? control?

Start a collection of brine - dried saltwater. chemical again. tears. he/she cries so much that he/she can start a collection of dried tears. Because all you do is cry ^ Wood ticks whisper to console you - wood again. living on wood. wood ticks don't whisper. the guy spoken to is looking for comfort, but ticks don't really spent comfort. they suck blood. parasites. humans who take advantage of the weakness of others.

All you do is cry... the one spoken to is very sad.

My Interpretation

@lazyoli I didn't realize I could reply to you directly so I will just copy and paste my comment here. In case you were open to discussion or just curious to new interpretations.

I think that lazyoli does a pretty good job digging up clues. I wanna say it probably is about being gay.

"I'm afraid that they might find you" could be like hiding in the closet, the secret might get out that he or she is gay.

"Time to punish with lashes" could be referring to the extreme punishment when people see the slight signs or...