submissions
| Aimee Mann – Calling It Quits Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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"The Diamond as Big as the Ritz" is the title of a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, about a man who controls the world's largest diamond and commits a number of atrocities in order to keep that information privileged. One of the measures he takes is to tell his plantation slaves that the North lost the Civil War, thus keeping them in permanent bondage. One needn't look very hard to find parallels to the label-artist relationship that Aimee's lamenting here, in her usual bemusedly bitter tone. |
submissions
| Lady Sovereign – Random Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Guys this song sounds good and is a lot of fun do we really need our pop music do be more than that |
submissions
| The Dismemberment Plan – Ellen and Ben Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I really like the irony in that final line -- "You know I would love a surprise." The narrator of this song seems like a fairly unambitious guy, stuck in the rat race, "trying to keep [his] eyes on the prize, you know how it goes." Ellen and Ben seem to represent unabashed romance in all its messy, self-destructive glory, and our narrator is really put off by it. Yet he tells himself, and us, that he's the kind of guy who likes surprises, spontaneity, fun things.
It's that old conflict between keeping your head above water and letting your heart do what it wants. It's something the Plan was concerned with from its first album, and I just think it's fitting that all those tensions are summed up in the last song and the last line of the band's career. |
submissions
| Third Eye Blind – Can't Get Away Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I dated a girl who looked kind of like Scarlett Johansson for a few months, and after we parted ways, I kept seeing her-face-but-not-her-face on magazine covers and subway posters. Not fun. This is probably the straight up saddest song on the record. |
submissions
| Brazilian Girls – Don't Stop Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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This song is basically what sex would sound like if it got a record deal. You can't listen to this and still call yourself a virgin. |
submissions
| John Vanderslice – Coming And Going On Easy Terms Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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To add to this: I like how the dad is using meditation techniques to calm himself down on the way to the morgue. Probably some of the same things his son learned in "Maharishi oblivion." I agree that the son is probably dead and the father has just convinced himself otherwise -- the power of belief, a lesson the son could never teach the father in life.
Awesome song. Vanderslice is pretty much God. |
submissions
| Modest Mouse – Paper Thin Walls Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I'm not saying it doesn't fit in with the song's overall tone of bemused paranoia, but for what it's worth, the line "Laugh hard, it's a long way to the bank" is a quote from a They Might Be Giants Song, "Rhythm Section Want Ad." |
submissions
| Stars – Toxic Holiday Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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All due respect, tyrant m (like you probably monitor this page vigilantly since posting your comment seven months ago), but I think this song is rad. You can't argue with that bassline, and Amy's self-harmonizing. A nice, tranquil tale of idyll, set to a pulsing beat that makes you want to chill more than it makes you want to dance. Song kicks. End of story. |
submissions
| Jens Lekman – Rocky Dennis' Farewell Song Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I think the line is actually "maybe they just care about their dollars." In Jens' Scandinavian inflection, that would more or less rhyme with "colors." Also, beautiful song. I like how he tries to "explain the ocean," which probably means both the actual ocean and the deep field of feelings he has for her, but he can't make her understand. |
submissions
| They Might Be Giants – Museum of Idiots Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Yeah, this is pretty obviously a breakup song. The narrator knows they're both at fault, but he's telling her he'll still be around if she needs him. He can't see moving forward, so he's going to stay right here in the burned-out neighborhood. We know she's not coming back, even if the narrator doesn't. |
submissions
| Mike Doughty – The Pink Life Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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To me this is about a woman who can't make up her mind about what she wants. "I feel I'm getting killed by your fickleness." She goes back and forth between the red and the white and ends up with pink, something that's not as strong as either.
Too many choices can be a bad thing: the line about infinite options is immediately followed by a line about lost opportunities, like when you take so long to choose a direction that you end up standing still. |
submissions
| Black Star – Thieves In The Night Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I always read this as commentary on how black urban youth are trying to live these cartoonish lives of outsize wealth and violence because they hear again and again that it's their only way out of the ghetto. "Most cats in my area be loving the hysteria." They completely buy into it and lose touch with what it means to be an actual human being -- strong, free, compassionate, good. |
submissions
| Mike Doughty – Cash Cow Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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It's always hard to pin down what Doughty is saying, but at the very least, this seems to be a song about not walking away from a good thing -- a "cash cow." Don't shout that the cow's lame when it's not; don't mock the cow and the gifts it can bring you. Be generous of spirit, and welcome the cow into your pavilion. Stick close to it through good times and bad, over the long haul. You'll be glad you did. It's a silly image, but in the best Doughty tradition, also kind of sneakily profound. |
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