Mirrorball

Guy spoke once on XFM London about how the songs was about a new girlfriend and his feelings after he'd left her house one morning.

They'd gone out the night before (And we took the town to town last night) and gone back to her house. He'd left in the morning to leave her sleeping and the song is how he felt on the journy home.

The line "We kissed like we invented it" he said is a tribute to his sister who says the line about her daughter, Guy's neice. Apprently the teenager got a new boyfriend who she spent all the time kissing and her mother coined the phrase to Guy one night.

Beautiful song.

At first, I thought this was a song about a woman he loves, but then I looked at the lyrics a bit more closely. The "that wouldn't wake a baby" is what makes me think he's actually kissing a baby, his own baby. "On the self same face that wouldn't let me sleep", since babies keep their parents up. And any parent will tell you that everything changes when the children are born.

"My sorry name has made it to graffitti" makes me think about how some people talk about getting a feeling of accomplishment when they have children. They feel like they've made an impression in this world, from being no one special. He sings about feeling completed now that he's got his child. Even the most mundane things, like the streets and the sirens, are turned into something wonderful and new.

The "we" in "we took the town to town last night" is probably the new parents, dizzy with happiness and love, both for each other and their child.

To me, this song is about a newborn, and eagerly awaited, baby.

Saw Elbow in sydney earlier this year and they did this and Guy said that it was about waking up the day after you have fallen in love.I like the newborn analogy though as it fits so well,and who is to say it can't be about falling in love as a new parent....except for the kissing bit! P.S Elbow live are quite possibly the best i've seen

It's a really beautiful song!

Unfortunately, the interpretation that connects it to a newborn is so present here. I wish "foredent" all the best with finding a song that expresses what it means to have a newborn baby in his or her arms, but it is definitely not this song! It is too obvious that it's about love between two grown ups ("We kissed like we invented it", "every step leads me to your door").

The first verse is so beautiful and so deeply misunderstood here: Saying goodbye to a new love after the first night, he gives her a kiss on the cheek - without waking her up. Ironically it is the same face that didn't let him sleep during the night and the reason for this is not sex but pure excitement and love. Maybe there are people who can sleep whenever they want to, but there are many people who can't fall asleep if they're excited.

I really like the basic image of the song: The moon a mirrorball, the streets a stage for dancing. Especially wonderful is "the city sirens violins" - that perfectly sums up what love can do. Unfortunately, this wonderful image of love is not evolved further - it stops short there. It lasts only three lines :( There could have been more poetic ideas gathered around this image.

The most unfitting line is fro me "My sorry name has made it to graffiti". As some have already guessed here, I would also say it's meant literal: He has seen a graffiti somewhere that is somehow connected to an episode of his life. The best interpretation would be that they have seen it together on their famous evening. Then it's like a coded message to this one person. It's nice for this one person, but for all other audience it does not offer anything they can relate to. But as the rest of the song is wonderfully relatable, this does not matter much.

[Edit: Looks better with paragraphs]

Gaius is right. He sees everything as a stage now. He just wants to dance because of how he feels. The moon is a mirrorball is a pretty obvious reference to a disco hall and the sirens becoming violins is genius. Everything makes him want to dance.

Pretty clear I think... he knows she is the one for him, and is ecstatic about it. Everything is different now that he's in love.

foredent, I hadn't thought of it that way, but the interpretation you make fits very well, and as a parent myself, I can relate to that feeling.

Very close runner-up for prettiest goddam song of the year. See also: Goldfrapp - Clowns

I agree with pumkinhed that this is one of the prettiest songs I've heard in awhile! Also really like "weather to fly" off this album

Sadly, I have to agree with the consensus that foredent is wrong :-( I thought it was actually about a baby for a while too, but there are too many lines that undermine it (and Garvey doesn't have any kids, yet). But I do think the "wouldn't let me sleep" bit is a deliberate reference to babies' fabled ability to keep their parents awake.

I take the line "my sorry name has made it to graffiti" literally - ie somewhere in Bury there is a toilet wall where someone has written something about him.