This is an interesting song in terms of how the storytelling is done. It starts out being told from third person, and only addresses the main character in reference as "someone", which seems to imply that their identity isn't actually that important. However, in the second verse it begins to refer to the character as "she", and seems to give a stronger sense of familiarity to her, though there has still never been any context provided in terms of who this person is and what is written in this letter that she is reading. Then in the second half of the song, the narration switches to first person, which makes it unclear to me whether the portion of the song is meant to be told from another character's perspective, or whether this is a continuation of the same story now being told from a different point of view for some reason.
Whatever the case, my overall takeaway from these lyrics is that it's a song about grieving and having to mask one's emotions. The "bleeding" in the title and second half of the lyrics refers to the act of letting out grief, which...I think for anyone who's ever experienced the process of grief, is very much what it feels like emotionally.
It's left very open-ended what the news this person may have received in the letter was, but it was clearly something very saddening that she knew she was going to have to process as grief. Unfortunately, the world we live in is one where it's not always particularly convenient to wear our emotions on our sleeves while we're grieving, which is why so many people have to resort to masking to get through day to day life, and can only fully express themselves in private or around those they feel safe/comfortable with. However, sometimes things happen that make that mask slip, and we find ourselves no longer able to conceal the true underlying emotion as well as we normally can.
I personally believe that that is what the chorus of this song is specifically about - "all the things we keep inside, all the things that really matter" refers to the true, deeper emotions that we frequently hold back around most people, and only express among those that we are closest with. "A face puts on its best disguise" refers to the act of masking to try to get through day to day life while having heavy emotions weigh upon you; "and all is well until the heart betrays" refers to the pretenses of idyll that you may try to keep up while masking...only to have a pang of emotion suddenly hit that makes it harder to keep up that mask and hide the way that you're truly feeling.
Then later on, the outro section ("soak up all that I bleed") I think is about being able to grieve openly - crying out the tears that you need to shed for whatever this sadness is, and finally being able to just cathartically feel things to the fullest, after which you may hopefully be able to let go and move on from that grief. It can be painful to feel this stage, but also very liberating - after all, in order for these emotions to be "soaked up" in a way that will not continue to burden you as much, it is necessary to "bleed" them out one last time.
I'm not as sure what "the night" is supposed to represent in the "lord bring on the night" lines, but contextually I could believe it to mean the company of those close to you that you can be more unmasked around. The "wrap it all around me" and "let it hold me tight" lines could imply physical affection (hugs) and compassion from those that understand or may also be affected by this grief, and the "and I'll fly away" lines perhaps signal a moving on and putting this behind you after undergoing such a catharsis.
I could be wrong about some of this, but this song was definitely there for me when I was working through some heavy stuff earlier this year, and I will say that it works amazingly as grieving music for the very purpose I described.
This is an interesting song in terms of how the storytelling is done. It starts out being told from third person, and only addresses the main character in reference as "someone", which seems to imply that their identity isn't actually that important. However, in the second verse it begins to refer to the character as "she", and seems to give a stronger sense of familiarity to her, though there has still never been any context provided in terms of who this person is and what is written in this letter that she is reading. Then in the second half of the song, the narration switches to first person, which makes it unclear to me whether the portion of the song is meant to be told from another character's perspective, or whether this is a continuation of the same story now being told from a different point of view for some reason.
Whatever the case, my overall takeaway from these lyrics is that it's a song about grieving and having to mask one's emotions. The "bleeding" in the title and second half of the lyrics refers to the act of letting out grief, which...I think for anyone who's ever experienced the process of grief, is very much what it feels like emotionally. It's left very open-ended what the news this person may have received in the letter was, but it was clearly something very saddening that she knew she was going to have to process as grief. Unfortunately, the world we live in is one where it's not always particularly convenient to wear our emotions on our sleeves while we're grieving, which is why so many people have to resort to masking to get through day to day life, and can only fully express themselves in private or around those they feel safe/comfortable with. However, sometimes things happen that make that mask slip, and we find ourselves no longer able to conceal the true underlying emotion as well as we normally can.
I personally believe that that is what the chorus of this song is specifically about - "all the things we keep inside, all the things that really matter" refers to the true, deeper emotions that we frequently hold back around most people, and only express among those that we are closest with. "A face puts on its best disguise" refers to the act of masking to try to get through day to day life while having heavy emotions weigh upon you; "and all is well until the heart betrays" refers to the pretenses of idyll that you may try to keep up while masking...only to have a pang of emotion suddenly hit that makes it harder to keep up that mask and hide the way that you're truly feeling. Then later on, the outro section ("soak up all that I bleed") I think is about being able to grieve openly - crying out the tears that you need to shed for whatever this sadness is, and finally being able to just cathartically feel things to the fullest, after which you may hopefully be able to let go and move on from that grief. It can be painful to feel this stage, but also very liberating - after all, in order for these emotions to be "soaked up" in a way that will not continue to burden you as much, it is necessary to "bleed" them out one last time. I'm not as sure what "the night" is supposed to represent in the "lord bring on the night" lines, but contextually I could believe it to mean the company of those close to you that you can be more unmasked around. The "wrap it all around me" and "let it hold me tight" lines could imply physical affection (hugs) and compassion from those that understand or may also be affected by this grief, and the "and I'll fly away" lines perhaps signal a moving on and putting this behind you after undergoing such a catharsis.
I could be wrong about some of this, but this song was definitely there for me when I was working through some heavy stuff earlier this year, and I will say that it works amazingly as grieving music for the very purpose I described.