It's the loss of something very meaningful. The song hints that it's a relationship,
but it doesn't have to be; bring your own meaning!
Musically, the song spends the first section building a tremendously beautiful, majestic theme - the "Enya" knob is turned up to 11.
"Make us suffer, like no other" is an amazing lyric in the midst of all this beauty. Beauty can make us suffer -- by showing us that we are inadequate in comparison. Beauty makes us aware of our own potential and ways in which we don't meet it.
But having established all this beauty, what becomes of it? In the middle section,
it breaks down. It doesn't break down immediately, like a record scratch; it slowly becomes more ominous. Soon the guitar takes over and the song has become
something different. it moves at the same pace, but something has changed. No longer major chords, the chords here are all minor and incomplete.
"Like no other, you can't be replaced"
At this point the loss is complete, and we are in mourning. When "There's nothing like lapis lazuli" is sung at the height of the beautiful section, it is a statement of majesty. But when it is added -- with the same melody! -- to this section, it is now a statement of loss. Beauty has made us suffer, again.
This song is about loss.
It's the loss of something very meaningful. The song hints that it's a relationship, but it doesn't have to be; bring your own meaning!
Musically, the song spends the first section building a tremendously beautiful, majestic theme - the "Enya" knob is turned up to 11.
"Make us suffer, like no other" is an amazing lyric in the midst of all this beauty. Beauty can make us suffer -- by showing us that we are inadequate in comparison. Beauty makes us aware of our own potential and ways in which we don't meet it.
But having established all this beauty, what becomes of it? In the middle section, it breaks down. It doesn't break down immediately, like a record scratch; it slowly becomes more ominous. Soon the guitar takes over and the song has become something different. it moves at the same pace, but something has changed. No longer major chords, the chords here are all minor and incomplete.
"Like no other, you can't be replaced"
At this point the loss is complete, and we are in mourning. When "There's nothing like lapis lazuli" is sung at the height of the beautiful section, it is a statement of majesty. But when it is added -- with the same melody! -- to this section, it is now a statement of loss. Beauty has made us suffer, again.
This song is about loss.