Your Heart Is an Empty Room

i think that everyone's interpretation is unique and beautiful in its own way. My own way of looking at it is from the perspective of a person living in the city. In any city, there are so many people out there, but it's so easy to just stay in your house and not be in real love, in a relationship that is meaningful. Its easy to go out and meet someone for a casual encounter (the chase), but it leaves you empty, hollow, and sad. And going home you are cutoff from any chance of meeting someone for that real love, that meaningful love. Getting out and meeting people is the only way to actually try to find that kind of relationship: "Out on the street, are so many possibilities / to not be alone." And sometimes it takes something powerful to get someone moving in the right direction, hence burning down your house: "For the things that you didn't need / cause you knew you were finally free". It forces you out of that space, that shell of protection (your sense of home), that cycle of endless meaningless relationships (hence the empty heart), and that place that you can't find real love. Time to get out the house...

Although it could be about a girl I want to change the perspective a little.

I think this song is about loneliness. What he describes is exactly how it feels when you feel disconnected from the rest of the world, alone, and unsure of what to do with yourself. Things meaning absolutely nothing to you all you really care about is love friendship and personal relationships. You long for these things but ti seems they are completely unattainable (she stopped running months ago). When he talks about home, I took it as home being away from the world, new people, and new experiences. Being away from it being a good thing. When your home all the time just sitting alone, you lose sight of what the world is and you miss opportunities.

A Buddhist story goes like this. A scholar blabs to a monk as they sit down for tea. The monk says "You are like this cup; you are full of ideas about Buddha's Way. You come and ask for teaching, but your cup is full; I can't put anything in. Before I can teach you, you'll have to empty your cup."

I think this kinda relates to Your heart is an Empty Room. "And all you see is where else you can be when you're at home." You can't move on if you continue to mope about what could have been. Empty your heart if you want to love again.

I think it's about a person (let's just say it's a girl for example) who can't really find her place in this world or in this time. It's about a person who is running all her life long because she's afraid to stay as long as someone can hurt her. She's like travelling around the world, or she desperately wants to. She might experienced really bad things somewhere along the way. The singer has a kind of deeper relationship with her, which is fatal, because she's afraid of letting someone really know her and she always wants freedom.

"BURN IT DOWN UNTIL THE EMBERS SMOKE ON THE GROUND AND START NEW WHEN YOUR HEART IS AN EMPTY ROOM WITH WALLS OF THE DEEPEST BLUE" -> She "burns" every bridge she crosses and destroys all relationships created because she feels like she has to escape again. She does that everytime "her heart is an empty room" because new places/situations make her feel a little more alive again.

"HOME'S FACE, HOW IT AGES WHEN YOU'RE AWAY THE SPRING BLOOMS THEN YOU FIND THE LOVE THAT'S TRUE BUT YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT NOW TO DO BECAUSE THE CHASE IS ALL YOU KNOW" -> From time to time she comes back, and she realizes how things have changed again. She finds another person which inspires her, and secretely she's hoping this new person will make her want to rest. (PERSON = THE SINGER??) But she unlearned how to trust other people or how to be in a serious relation ship and all she knows is the chase for things that make her feel alive. She doesn't know what to do again.

"AND ALL YOU SEE IS WHERE ELSE YOU COULD BE WHEN YOU'RE AT HOME AND OUT ON THE STREET ARE SO MANY POSSIBILITIES TO NOT BE ALONE" -> Again, all the time her eyes are seeking for the most authentic, most inspiring things in life so one day she will feel normal. She's always getting nervous when she's at home for to long. She thinks there are a hundred of things to see and experience. And she's running around in vibrant cities because it makes her feel less alone. She's really really lonely but thinks that's better than getting hurt somehow.

"FLAMES AND SMOKE CLIMBED OUT OF EVERY WINDOW AND DISAPPEARED WITH EVERYTHING THAT YOU HELD DEAR BUT YOU SHED NOT A SINGLE TEAR FOR THE THING'S THAT YOU DIDN'T NEED BECAUSE YOU FINALLY KNOW YOU'RE FREE" -> And along her endless journey, the girl got... cold. She can't feel anything anymore and isn't able to shed a tear for the missed chance to love the Person (singer?). She's free in her way, but on the other hand she's trapped.

quite possibly the best song on Plans. that or marching bands of manhattan.

This song reminds me of a U2 song.

haha, a little out of context but yeah.

the flames and smoke climbed out of every window and dissappear with everything that you hold dear you shed not a single tear for the things that you didn't need cause you knew you were finally free

this part reminds me of the movie Fight Club. good song.

I kind of disagree with everyone so far, although there are a lot of good arguments. Here's my take. The lyrics for the end of the first verse are wrong, they should be: Home's face: how it ages when you're away Spring blooms and you find the love that's true But you don't know what now to do Cause the chase is all you know And she stopped running months ago To me, this is about a relationship the narrator is in and is tired of. The first line suggests they're no longer attracted to them; home's face being that of his girlfriend, which has (metaphorically) aged. The initial excitement has worn off; "she stopped running months ago." Basically, he feels trapped because, as line 2 suggests, he at least thought it was true love, but now feels nothing. This now fits in a lot better with the burning house metaphor. The first line of the song implies that the narrator set his own house on fire. The second verse expands this idea; he's both literally burning his house down to escape the draw of material possesions, and metaphorically burning down this relationship, "everything that you hold dear". In both cases he "shed not a single tear" because he's now "finally free" from the enabling comfort of a stable relationship and material wealth. The chorus is what ties the two together; when he's at home, with his girlfriend, all he can think about is that he'd rather be somewhere else, with someone else, but is kept there by the stability they provide. So the overall message with this interpretation is the opposite of what pretty much everyone else here has said...i think it says to go out and meet random people, rather than get stuck in a stable relationship.

Yeah, these lyrics are slightly wrong! Lol

I LOVE

And all you see is where else you could be when you're at home And out on the street are so many possibilities to not be alone

I can just relate to that in the most amazing way. LOVE.

"And all you see Is where else you could be When you're at home Out on the street Are so many possibilities To not be alone"

I believe that he is referring to as "at home" as to being with him or having an opportunity to be with him-- but all she sees when she is "at home" (with him) is other chances with other people. But, when he says "Out on the street, are so many possibilities to not be alone", he is saying when this person is away from him and not with him-- that "out on the streets" it's so easy to not be alone because there are so many people you could be with.

I tried to make that not-confusing. I think I just gave you all a headache.