| M. Ward – Poison Cup Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Love isn't perfect. It has ups and downs. But it has to be all or nothing. You have to take the bad, or poison, to get the good. | |
| Portishead – Life in Mono Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| This sounds so much like the Mono version... I am really confused about that. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – The Avalanche Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| I abstractly think it's about getting up from your mistakes. Not only that, but doing it with the help of the Lord. | |
| Belle & Sebastian – You're Just a Baby Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| It sounds like it's about a dramatic and immature woman. Perhaps they get together (maybe for just a night) and he realizes this and won't be around in the morning (he's leaving her). | |
| The Shins – Know Your Onion! Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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P.S. Making yourself: Make yourself: You make yourself: You make yourself do something. I see it as making yourself strive on, foward. Life sucks, too bad, keep living. |
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| The Shins – Know Your Onion! Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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My interpretation of this song may be colored by my own life experiences. People are very onion-like in all of the layers they have. In most day-to-day encounters with others, they have their usual fronts up. Once a person begins getting to know someone on a deeper level, they start peeling back the layers. Someone who may seem awkward and stiff might be the most beautiful and loving soul. Some people put up better facades than others, and consequentially "park cars" on the people who don't do such a good job. It's simple enough to see in the schoolyard with the bully and the geeky kid. I relate this song to being shy. I think a lot of times people don't understand, so they arrange their perceptions of a person according to the top layer. The cars on the chest part really just makes me think of an outsider being constrained by what others think, yet they can see the beauty of communication and relationships just beyond their reach. |
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| Danielson – Bloodbook on the Halfshell Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I think the "bloody books" are Bibles. They are bloody because of all the blood that went into them and goes on in them, specifically the Cross. I think if you're thinking along the lines of the "bloody books" being Bibles, it sort of explains itself. |
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| Sufjan Stevens – Sister Winter Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I could be completely off-base, but it sounds romantic love turned to love like that of a sister. Summer time: "I gave you everything", and then winter time: "now my heart is cold as ice". Summer is when things are warm and romantic. Winter seems to be used as a way to describe how it was when the romantic feeling cooled. "All my friends, I've returned to wish you a Happy Christmas": They're friends now, and he's taking a step to be okay that they're like brother and sister now. |
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| Bright Eyes – Time Code Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| When it's just the noises it sounds like goes from death to the womb. It's just things moving around, maybe people putting you in a casket. Rewind time a little and you breathe heavily. Continue backwards through your life... the lyrics are life in the works (or a description of what you hear throughout the song). Childhood abuse? Screaming, maybe it's what it sounds like when you're born, everyone all bright and screaming. The womb, heart beat. | |
| Kings of Convenience – Surprise Ice Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| The feel of it sounds to me like unexpressed love in someone's dreary life. Life is so dark and yet "a room is always warm". Love is the bright spot in this person's life. "Weeks pass, no progress is made", they keep it inside. | |
| Danielson – My Lion Sleeps Tonight Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Prodigal son parable - Luke 15:11-32 "As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly." - Proverbs 26:11 I think there are more verses referenced, but these are the only ones I could get. |
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| Belle & Sebastian – You Don't Send Me Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I think this could be a number of things. A relationship that is getting old / a past relationship where "you don't send me" means "you don't affect me and my life anymore" / The music scene. There is nothing to hear that hasn't been heard before, it's all old etc. Just some ideas. |
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| Sufjan Stevens – Seven Swans Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Maybe I'll come back and write it all out some time, but I heard a live recording where he said that he and his siblings came home from college etc. and his dad was burning something in the backyard when it suddenly caught all this brush on fire. He said they were up all night and whatnot, and he had a vision of seven swans in the firelight. It's not word for word perfect, but it's the general idea. | |
| Danielson – When It Comes To You I'm Lazy Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I think this is about how easy it is for us to become lazy with having a relationship with God. You kind of push everything away despite what you know you really want (not just what you "should" do) because it's too much work. "Pappa!" is crying out to God because you are know you are trapped in this pattern. "I want to be just like you and I want to be free..." etc. "I want nothing of the world in me" sounds like a prayer. I really like it. |
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| Erlend Øye – Sudden Rush Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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It could be that someone borrowed a book, and came back to return it. When he realizes who it is (that came to his door, perhaps), he is filled with expectations. Thinking sarcasticly, "How cool you didn't call." His feelings get ahead of his brain and he feels the beginnings of disappointment. He smiles and says a casual "hi", but the smile isn't returned. He thinks, "Why did you come (here/my house/wherever) at all if it wasn't for (to see) me?" He sees the borrwoed book in the person's hands, and starts to remember how they first met (something to do with him lending out the book?). They leave quickly (as someone with no emotional attachment). I don't know what some lines mean. I think 'Like a river in a droughtful season' is how he is hungry for a relationship with this person. Not sure about 'Another blow of resignation / when realise I do' though. This is all speculation, of course. I'd love to here more thoughts. |
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| Belle & Sebastian – I Fought in a War Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| "A. i wrote [I Fought in a War] around the summer or 1999. it's mostly from personal experience, with a little tip of the hat to the story "To Esme With Love And Squalor" by Salinger. I don't mind the way you hear it. I spent my whole life taking other people's words to mean exactly what I want them to mean, and I don't mean to be flippant! it's the inherent power in any piece of artistic expression that it may kick off in someone else, feelings completely unimagined by the creator. " | |
| Belle & Sebastian – Mary Jo Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Q.I know you said Mary Jo was pure fantasy but I was wondering then, what inspired you to write that song? thanks in advance!! A. seeing a women for a fleeting moment across the street from where I lived for a short spell. in the moment between someone coming into a flat, putting on the lights, and then closing the curtains. i think the women had a nurse's uniform on, but I could be wrong because it was just a blink. she had time to glance in my direction, and the glance held it all |
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| Belle & Sebastian – I Love My Car Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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From the site's Q&As: From: b Q.I was just recently listening to “I Love My Car” and it really hit me like never before, quite how mean that song is. Mind you, I’m sure it’s all very tongue in cheek, and I do so adore the song in question, but it got me thinking. It got me a bit depressed, really. I thought, “Do people really think about how they love inanimate objects and household animals more than their partner?” Don’t get me wrong here, in no way am I criticising the lyrics, but I was just wondering if this song was written while these upfront words were fresh and true. It is truly plaguing me how the song came to be. Falling out of love is not such a nice business, after all! At least, so I have come to believe. I’m quite young and perhaps ignorant, as I’m currently lucky enough to be in love for the first time (and loved back) and have therefore never fallen out of it (or had anyone fall out of it with me)! Maybe I'm just being silly? A. well b, i think the thing is that when you find yourself tumbling bruised from a relationship, and you find a semblance of stability, sometimes you find yourself finding inordinate comfort in small, steady things, even investing them with a personality. I find myself doing that at the best of times, so when the shit really hits the fan love-wise, the warm embrace of four doors and three litres of engine becomes legendary. hope you grow up wiser (than me) Stuart - 24/07/06 |
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| Belle & Sebastian – Lazy Line Painter Jane Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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"Wondering how you got your name And what you're going to do about it" Sounds like she's gotten a bad name from the ways she's conducted herself. Maybe she's been loose with a few people and now people know her as that and expect it from her. |
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| Sufjan Stevens – The Mistress Witch from McClure (Or, the Mind That Knows Itself) Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Sufjan: ..."The Mistress Witch of McClure" song is based on some...[pause] experiences that I had. Pitchfork: Would you care to elaborate on that at all? Sufjan: Probably not, it might be a little incriminating. [laughs] --- Something about the weight of the "Oh my God"s strikes something in me. It's almost italicized. The "mind that knows itself" lines make me think it's something you know/realize inside. |
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| Sufjan Stevens – Godzuki Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| "Godzuki" sounds like a mix of "Godzilla" and "Marzuki" (Sufjan Steven's brother). This reminds me a lot of when my siblings and I were young, with a tape, the record button, and a microphone. We'd basically play games and record our voices. This clip sounds like kids playing a game to me. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us! Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I almost consider the first part to be read as: Thinking outrageously. I write in cursive. I hide in my bed with the lights on the floor. Wearing three layers of coats and leg warmers. I see my own breath on the face of the door. It gives way to a wealth of images, but one set of mine is that of someone purposely holding up in a poorly insulated cabin or something. Trying to keep warm, writing a piece (in cursive)... a story or a song. They "hide" from the cold in bed, and the light on the floor (maybe) because there isn't a nightstand. Lying in bed, thinking, breathing (seeing the vapors "on" the door). Oh, I am not quite sleeping / Oh, I am fast in bed / There on the wall in the bedroom creeping / I see a wasp with her wings outstretched. I don't know how it is for everyone else, but when I'm in bed I think a lot. I go over memories. "Not quite sleeping" is a good time for it, suspended between the real and dream world. When I hear "there on the wall" I think it's like the "breath on the door" thing. It's something in the air, and your vision hits the backdrop. The wasp could be a memory or an event that this person is remembering. I somehow do not see it as a real wasp because wasps + cold don't go together for me. Those are my thoughts on that part. |
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| Coldplay – Talk Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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For me, this makes me think of communication. "Are you lost or incomplete? Do you feel like a puzzle, you can’t find your missing piece? Tell me how do you feel? Well I feel like they’re talking in a language I don’t speak And they’re talking it to me" It's seriously how I feel, being painfully shy. Different language about covers it. |
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| Sufjan Stevens – Seven Swans Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Well, I do know that most people who do consider themselves "Christian singers" consider it their ticket to Hell if they don't mention some form of God in their songs at least three times. I'm exaggerating, but I don't think of Sufjan as a Christian singer either. I think of him as a Christian that is a singer. Being a Christian affects everything you do, and I see that in his work. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – The Seer's Tower Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| In my opinion, Sufjan is definitely intelligent and brave enough to incorporate more than one meaning. After all, the whole album is all about Illinois, or is it? Everything has more than one meaning as it is. I do agree with the apocolyptical view though. Ever since I first heard this song I have gotten that feeling very strongly. | |
| Jimmy Eat World – The Middle Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Some days I just repeat "it doesn't matter if it's good enough for somone else" over and over in my head. This song has inspired me for years. | |
| Belle & Sebastian – Funny Little Frog Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I think this song is about someone admired from a far, maybe not even somone the singer is aquainted with. He goes on to talk about all of the freedom this gives him because "You are my girl, and you don’t even know it". "You sit on the bed in the dark changing places With the ghost that was there before you came You’ve come to save my life again" This makes me think he just goes from crush to crush. Maybe this is replacing an actual lover (the ghost). Any way you go about it though, this object of affection is keeping him alive by keeping him happy. "I’ll maybe tell you all about it someday" That's my take. |
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| Bright Eyes – Easy/Lucky/Free Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Don't hospitals etc. have refridgerators full of blood (in preparation for people needing it)? I think the verse about that is about how violent people are now, and have always been. "My twitchin' muscles tease my flippant thoughts" seems like he's saying he's physically revolted by it all, causing his appathetic mind to think about the situation. It seems like every time even someone you have MET dies it really hits home. You go for a while without thinking about death, but when someone you know or love has died... it's almost as if your mind just spends a good deal of time trying to wrap itself around the situation. Death is hard to comprehend. You can hear screaming in the background after a verse of "Don't you weep / there is nothing as lucky, as easy, or free". I think this verse can be taken as sarcastic or not. Isn't the "atomic clock" the exact perfect time? Something like that. I really have no idea where he is going with the last verse. "We'll lay in bags as dead as leaves" sounds like a comparison to when you rake up the dead leaves from trees and put them into bags with... body bags? We'll lay in them. They're dead. They're all planning to meet when they're dead? I've read most of the other comments, and I agree with a lot of them. I just felt like adding my own little thoughts to the mix. |
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| Feist – Let It Die Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Now I know what I don't want I learned that with you It took me a while to hear that line for some reason, but isn't it always true? |
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| Franz Ferdinand – I'm Your Villain Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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My take on this song is that there are two people who are completely attracted to each other, yet they "hate" each other. If they just gave into what's between them they could be happy, but for now they're going to be miserable and loathe one another. But they'll get together sooner or later. Two words: Sexual tension. |
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| Sufjan Stevens – Seven Swans Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I found this in an interview, and I thought it would be helpful to the discussion of this song: UNCUT: Your god seems very vengeful in your songs. STEVENS: [Laughs] Oh no. There's no element of revenge in the character of God, but there's definitely an aggressive joy. He's not chasing you like a stalker, he's chasing you like a lover chases you. There's a lot of aggression in that kind of romance. We pursue things out of reverence, out of our need to worship. |
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| Feist – Mushaboom Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I'm actually pretty sure Bright Eyes is the one covering... This is Feist's song. | |
| Death Cab for Cutie – Different Names for the Same Thing Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I know this isn't the intended meaning, but I feel it when I listen to this song. This really makes me think of how it is to be shy. You're surrounded by people and yet you can't find the right words to share even the most perfect moment with them. They might as well be speaking a different language *shrug* |
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| Patrick Wolf – Tristan Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I was reading a piece of an interview on Patrick Wolf and this is what he had to say about this song: PATRICK WOLF: I took a holiday down to Cornwall in October, which down there is almost mid-autumn; it's very stormy and so you get this huge shipwrecking kind of weather down there. There was no-one around, no tourists. It was my first night there and I had taken down my organ to finish off some lyrics. Then I went for a long walk and suddenly a storm came in in this very dangerous place. I came back safe and sound and dried myself off and suddenly this song "Tristan" came wrapping on the door. It came in two minutes. It was finished then and it was almost like a possession, like I was possessed for two minutes. And I wrote that song. I didn't really know what happened and then suddenly had this gift. It's like someone came to the door and jumped inside me, wrote a song and then ran away again. --- This is probably my favorite song by him. It is so passionate and describes almost every feeling within me. When he says, "and I am alive" it always make me think "I am a human being". Everyone is human. No matter how they chose to live life. The whole sound of it is very jaded. But I love it so much. |
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| Death Cab for Cutie – The Sound of Settling Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I love this song. I have "this is the sound of settling" inscribed on the back of my iPod. Every time I hear this song I want to live life a little more. "I've got a hunger twisting my stomach into knots." That line explains so much to me. I know it. It's a hunger to get up and live, but you're so stuck in your nerves and reminded of your regrets that you just act like always. But that feeling that things could be so much more is there. It's an excited and worried feeling wrapped up in one. The line about fleeting youth talks about how fast that period in your life goes by. You only live once. "This is the sound of settling"... I don't know exactly, but somehow I think it's good, not bad. When I think of a stomach (twisted into knots) problem, I think when it's over that it's settled. Maybe that's silly, but it's my take on it :) |
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| Belle & Sebastian – Jonathan David Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I haven't really read the whole part of the Bible where has the story of Jonathan and David, so I don't have any idea what that is about, but... The general feeling I get from the song is that there are three people. Two guys and a girl. The guys are close friends, and they both like the same girl. The girl likes the guy who isn't singing the song, and the singer deals with this. I know you like her Well I like her too I know she likes you It's not as if I'm being sent off to war There are worse things in this world I really think this is so sad because the singer knows he doesn't have or stand a chance with this girl. His friend will get her. He obviously cares for his friend a lot, so he can't be angry. After all, didn't he fall for this girl? Who could blame him. When he get's to "it's not like I'm..." he is trying to tell himself things that will make him realize that a broken heart isn't the end of the world. I mean, it's not like he's being sent off to war? Sounds like one of those horrible things you tell yourself when you want to be okay with something that you aren't. I think the whole rest of song is just continuing the story on this note. The singer keeps saying things like it's okay, his words attempt to make light of it all, but you can tell it really is deep hurting. It's not like we'll be parted It's not like we'll never know love We'll still be friends. We'll both know love (...only I won't get the love I'm longing for). It'll all work out despite my disappointment. It finally ends with what I think is talking about how his best friend and this girl are engaged, and how he will no longer have his best friend, and no longer have his love. There are a lot of other parts I'm fuzzy on, so I'll let someone else pick at those. This is totally just what I "see" when I hear this song, so I thought I would add my thoughts to the mix, whether that's how the song was intended or not. |
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| Brave Saint Saturn – Binary Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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These aren't the right lyrics. These are the demo's lyrics. blessed is the man who does prevail doomed are the peacemakers when they fail if hope springs eternal it never does here i guess i lost all my hope last year i tried to steal the moon from the sky i am lost and lonely i drift in space my dreams are haunted by her face blessed are the drifters, the stars that die whose light expires, before goodbyes goodbye, goodbye binary star you're the brightest blue by far and up against the starry sea i thought that you were meant for me blessed are the meek who shall inherit the throes of death for all their merit the right to stumble, to fall and perish doomed are those who hold and cherish i tried to steal the moon from the sky you hide behind your broken wings your dreams are all for better things and in the dark we climb this slope cause the bravest thing is always hope goodbye, goodbye |
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| Brave Saint Saturn – Babies Breath Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I can't really put my finger on the whole meaning of it, but I love this song. It sounds like a well-loved lullaby. I think in keeping with the theme of the whole album "daylight" can safely be translated to "Jesus". |
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| Brave Saint Saturn – Anastasia Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| Constip8d, I don't know what you heard, but does this song sound like it's about a dead person? I know the facts, and none of Reese Roper's fiancés have died. | |
| Brave Saint Saturn – Independence Day Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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Constip8d, he's talking about this person in present tense. You're biting your lip now, I know 'cause you do it all the time. You're blinking your eyes hard, I know 'cause you used to be mine. I do know the real-life story. Though it was mutual, it really broke him up that his still-best-friend wouldn't even call him up anymore. In Enamel he talks about the bitterness and anger he felt because of it. [On the bright side, though Reese would go on to go through another engagement that was broken off (post "Anastasia"), he is now happily married to a woman named Amy :) ] |
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| The Magnetic Fields – Absolutely Cuckoo Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I think the meaning of this song is pretty plain. Don't fall in love with me yet / We've only recently met They just met, and things are going a little fast. True I'm in love with you but you might decide I'm a nut / Give me a week or two to go absolutely cuckoo The feeling between them is mutal, but the singer is afraid that sooner or later something about himself will drive the person they are in love with away. then, when you see your error, then, you can flee in terror like everybody else does The singer has been hurt and left more than once in his life, perhaps not only by former lovers but by other people in his life. This leaves him feeling like there is something "wrong" about him or his personality that chases people away. I only tell you this cause I'm easy to get rid of but not if you fall in love He's saying that if you aren't in love with him he's easy to leave/dump/walk away from. If this other person falls in love with him, it won't be so easy to get rid of him (as he's thinking once they find out that he's "cuckoo" they'll dislike him). He's warning them of this. Know now that I'm on the make Dictionary.com defines "on the make" as "eagerly seeking a sexual partner", so I'm not sure at this point if that's what this means. Throwing that out there. It can also mean something like "on the mend" so perhaps he's trying to fix himself of this so called personality problem ("cuckoo"). and if you make a mistake my heart will certainly break I'll have to jump in a lake This is also where it gets kind of crazy, because he was just saying that the other person should get away from him because he's "cuckoo", and now he's saying if they make a mistake (could be implying a break-up or just something that he doesn't agree with) he'll go mad and commit suicide. and all my friends will blame you His friends will blame this person for making him insane with sadness, therefore making him commit suicide. There's no telling what they'll do They could get pretty mad... The singer is trying to frighten his lover now. It's only fair to tell you I'm absolutely cuckoo Bringing it back to the main theme, he's "cuckoo" or crazy (with love, with fear, with actual madness) and he's telling this person right now |
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| Mae – Last Call Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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The feeling I get from this song is... Be yourself. It's also like, I don't know. The "you" in the story is a person who is different. "You" doesn't fit in. "They" are the people who are just like each other, and they make "you" feel like "you" needs to change. The person who is singing is encouraging "you" to just be who "you" is, because what's different about "you" makes "you" beautiful. Also, the lyrics are wrong. I think these are more correct: Hello, grab your bag and let's go. More out of place than anything you know. Like an opera at a disco. When all you wanted was a rock show tonight. These lights, are they hanging in the distance? Did they glimmer for an instant? When they're shining do you feel alright? Know love, you were looking good tonight. This is the last call. Too long to list it. Please don't you miss it. Don't give up and let them hold you down when they tell you no. We could burn this town. Scream, waking from a bad dream. Don't think anything is what it seems. Can't you figure out what this means? Don't sit back and keep your hands clean today. We'll say maybe we can find a new way. Or create another great cliche. Storms are coming, why don't we play? Instead of sitting, dancing in the rain today. So long, they tried to tell you that you don't belong. So, I guess we'll have to prove them wrong. Pretty soon we'll hear them sing a long. Ain't it funny that it's our song? So long. |
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| Brave Saint Saturn – Anastasia Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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A good song, a beautiful song, a tragic song. This is about Anastatia, the second girl he was engaged to. "I'm afraid that if I write this song She might break my heart in two" Roper has already been through an engagement breaking... It's tough trusting that this isn't just going to happen all over again. "She hits the mark The kindled spark but I'll just drag her down Down" She's amazing, but he thinks he's going to just drag her down with his "un-amazingness". |
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| Brave Saint Saturn – Independence Day Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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This is about loosing not only a fiancé, but a best friend (Lost my best friend and a fiancé). "You're biting your lip now, I know 'cause you do it all the time." It's someone you've grown SO close to, you know everything about them, even the little quirky things. "Proving that you're free, Independently. You say, you still love me, But I'm your own worst enemy." The girl is saying she wants to be independent, but she's really just trying to sever all connection between them (Nothing I could say could sway you not to sever ties). "I'd rather have been shot, On the Third Of May." For the guy? It's painful as all get out. He'd rather have died than have broken up with her. "I can think of better synonyms for fear, I hope your life is great I hope it's been a wonderful year. Waiting every day, Staring at the phone, Jesus Christ, I feel so empty and alone. " What he's saying is that "independence" is not a good word for "fear". She was afraid. Saying she just wanted "independence" was a lie. He just wants to stay friends, even if there is nothing romantic between them. But she calls him, or talks to him, or anything... leaving him feeling incredibly horrible and alone. To lose a best friend like that is awful. |
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