| Sia – Paranoid Android (Radiohead cover) Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| No matter which version you prefer, you all have to admit that the piano entry at the first "What's that..." is fucking gorgeous. | |
| The Mars Volta – Vicarious Atonement Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I just got a hardon from listening to this song. Amazing. |
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| Radiohead – I Might Be Wrong Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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The Fifth Element just shot their self in the foot by proclaiming their interpretation to be perfect, and then not offering one. :D I ♥ the synth intro that so abruptly cuts out in the middle of the second line. Also, the outro is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I know. As far as lyrical interpretation goes, I must disagree on the earlier "blind faith" idea because the very definition of blind faith is that it is not self-aware, and Thom's insistent "I might be wrong" obviously contradicts that. I like the religion idea, though. I guess Thom probably meant this song in a more general vein. It can be applied to any kind of change in faith, from religious to romantic and everything besides. I like the idea of the "waterfall" being an extension of the common "river of life" metaphor - a metaphor that Thom uses frequently, most notably in Pyramid Song. |
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| Gang of Four – Damaged Goods Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Hahahaaaha Nine Inch Nails isn't even a band, it's one guy wanking around on his mother's PC. PSYCHE. |
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| The Mars Volta – Cygnus...Vismund Cygnus Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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NESavoth: having read what everyone else has had to say about the song, my guess is simply that the way the title is formulated suggests to us that this song is all about introducing the character Vismund Cygnus. Also, in regards to the band name, I read yet another contradicting story (on the band website, I believe): supposedly it's a reference to the works of some Italian writer. *shrug* |
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| Franz Ferdinand – Walk Away Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Am I the only person here who's noticed the obvious contradiction in a *guy* singing 'mascara bleeds into my eye'? Alex Kapranos is indie, but not that indie. I don't know the song very well - I only just listened to it for the first time - but the first thing that struck me when the song got to that line was that the entire song up to that point makes the listener think it's the boy singing to the girl (since, you know, it's a guy's voice singing it); but that line suddenly turns the perspective around and makes you realise that all this time, it's been the girl talking to the boy and that Alex is simply telling the story from her point of view. Make sense? No? That's fine, I don't know the song at all and I can't be arsed to analyse the lyrics in depth right now. |
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| Muse – Sing for Absolution Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Does anyone else think the orbital billboard in the video saying 'ice age is coming' could be a reference to Radiohead's Idioteque? Muse are known to be influenced by Radiohead, and Kid A and Absolution had similar apocalyptic themes going on... I dunno, if I'm right, maybe this is a clue to the correct interpretation of the video, if not the song. | |
| Radiohead – Paranoid Android Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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This is one of the greatest songs ever written. The lyrics probably do not have one set meaning, but are rather a kind of word painting. The music is so awesomely well-written... Also, in 10 minutes I'm going to watch a SICK string quartet arrangement of this song, done by a guy with a master's degree in classical composition. w00t w00t. |
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| Gruvis Malt – Even The Scars Forget The Wound Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| 311 and Grüvis Malt sound less alike than, say, Muse and Radiohead, two of the greatest bands of our day, do; yet both of the latter bands continue producing music made of awesome. So chill with the hatin'. In my humble opinion, the complexity of Grüvis tunes such as Destination far surpass that of anything I've heard by 311, but that's just a subjective viewpoint. | |
| Gruvis Malt – Filling in a City Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| This band deserves way more exposure than they get. | |
| Muse – Futurism Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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hahaha caliboo, it's actually ridiculous how much of a dystopianist mr Bellamy is. I just commented on Micro Cuts, saying that it evoked images of this dystopian future of totalitarian government. :D ...yeah. The intro is the proverbial shit. The little Franz Ferdinand four-on-the-floor bit before the proper beat kicks in is made of awesome. |
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| Muse – Micro Cuts Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Epic song. My favourite rock song ever. Possibly my favourite piece of music. The structure is so awesome. The way the verse and chorus have this dominant-tonic relationship, the way the verse arpeggios are voiced, the strict diatonic nature of the verse and chorus, the shift between duple and triple meter, and last but not least the crazy high vocals all contribute to making this play like a rock opera; and then after the beautiful 2-part interlude, the entire thing degenerates into a blues-scale riff and thrash drumming. :D Anyway. The lyrics have a dystopian feel to them. The murder theme works for me. The megaphone in the first chorus is such a symbol of totalitarianism, which in itself has become pretty much inextricable from dystopian literature ever since Orwell published 1984. So the overall effect for me is one of this person who, despite being stuck in circumstances that *will* betray his crimes, is driven to such a desperate hatred that he sees no way out but to kill. The second verse conjures all sorts of images of torture and experimentation, presumably following the murderer's capture; and again, this is a common theme of Big Brother-type science fiction government. ...and, yeah, the simplicity of the outro riff is awesome. Also the disjointed end to the song. I would love to shoot a 1984-inspired music video for this song. |
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| Muse – Fury Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I'm amazed at how few people get the irony in the chorus. I personally love it. "We'll pray there's no God" is one of my favourite lines, ever. |
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| Muse – Con-Science Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Many possible meanings. Most of them are probably accurate. I love how the little piano ostinato is stubbornly repeated and harmonised throughout the entire song. Very Baroque, to be quite fair. |
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| Muse – Citizen Erased Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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lol @ emokid86. Intricate piano? Nooo. Piano Thing is about the closest thing to "intricate piano" you'll hear from Matt. This is one of those great songs that can be interpreted in several ways as it outlines a common emotional idea; and in some ways I believe the song is more about the narrator's character and personality than about the specific events involved to cause him to feel like he does. |
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| Muse – Starlight Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| yays! ^_^ | |
| Muse – Screenager Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I must agree Psychoteen, Muse "fucking own". :D If you guys haven't read it yet, check out the Wikipedia entry on the word "Screenager": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenager The word was coined by Douglas Rushkoff before Matt wrote these lyrics. I must just also comment on the effectiveness of the music. The verse with its ominous "human bones" percussion and jarring, subtly dissonant Brazilian guitar is an awesome representation of the disjointedness that I imagine self-mutilating people feel when they perform the act; and then in a moment of glorious revelation, the movement to parallel major and its beautiful synth arpeggios just echoes what Matt sings: that we are all beautiful as we are born. Finally, if you have only heard the album version, get a hold of the Hullabaloo DVD - Matt playing this on piano is awesome. |
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| Muse – Supermassive Black Hole Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Seriously, all you "hXc MuS3 F4nS" can fuck off and die. This is a brilliant song. It's not selling out. It's not softcore. What it *is* is a deliberate, shameless ripoff of Britney Spears. :D Read on for my interpretation. Matt is starstruck! But we know this isn't the real Matt speaking, he's just narrating for someone else (as he does a lot of the time). This person got caught by a person, under "false pretences" - maybe a very superficial image? Obviously the package was very attractive; but now he finds the contents aren't as hot as he thought, and he's regretting going there in the first place. He just wants to be released from his suffering. And yet, she sets his soul alight! (I say it's a she 'cause he's narrating from the perspective of a guy. OK. My word is law.) She still has some level of appeal for him. It sounds like he's moaning in agony... "In the dead of night" - when only starlight is there to light the way (and here we realise she's not just a normal person, but a superstar) - his frigid, cynical heart is melted, and he's overcome by attraction to this girl... But then he realises that she got sucked into the "supermassive black hole", that cosmic entity that created her in the first place; and now she's only doing the same to those around her, sucking them into the black hole with her. Perhaps this SMBH refers to the pop culture that created her, that has now decided her rack life is over and she is to be recycled as reality TV/tabloid fodder. *And still*, our narrator is obsessed with this person - she still sets his soul alight. I *love* the next stanza because it's the most obviously anti-Britney part of this whole thing (Slave 4 U, anyone?). The narrator thought he was impervious to these silly pop-music robots; but the system found a way to create one that would appeal to him, as it systematically (sorry) creates pop idol upon pop idol to cater to an ever-evolving audience. And again, he asks the same questions: she's artificial and superficial, through and through, but when will that outfit be stripped so he can see what she really looks like underneath? Like some other people have mentioned, this song should in reality be interpreted alongside Starlight - their themes are almost identical, albeit from opposite points of view, and they share a set of metaphors. Indeed, I would not have been able to come to a conclusion about "glaciers" had I not just typed out an interpretation for Starlight five minutes ago. |
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| Muse – Starlight Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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OK, first of all, this just again proves what a lyrical genius Matt is. *first interpretation* Since their first album, Muse have been writing about the trials and tribulation of fame and success. The "ship" in this song could be taken as referring to fame, which is making him drift away from his roots - he's never at home - and the result is that the people he finds himself surrounded by (fans and fellow musicians), in contrast to the people he grew up with, don't really care if he "live[s] or die[s]". On some level, Matt picked up guitar in the first place because it was an instrument that could impress people; so maybe his musical journey started out (at least partly) in the pursuit of fame and fortune - the "starlight". He now knows that he can't easily give up this lifestyle, he's too deeply rooted in it already; but he's starting to have doubts whether it really is worth giving up his former life. Now, the next stanza becomes a little more metaphorical: he's personifying the starlight. He sounds like a desperate or defeated - or unrequited - lover when he says "I just wanted to hold you in my arms", perhaps indicating that he just wanted to taste a little of the fame but he never really wanted to commit himself to it on this scale. This lover, this starlight, "electrif[ies]" his life in the sense that it gives him a rush, it gives him meaning. He wants to share this rush with others, he wants to rock out, because he feeds off of that as well. He wants to "ignite" these "souls", these fans, who themselves would "die" (give up their current, supposedly boring lives) in order to "feel alive" (doing exactly what he's doing - living in stardom). Furthering this branch of the metaphor, Matt now strikes a deal with the starlight that he has attained: he will keep living the star lifestyle, on the condition that he has the security of knowing that his starlight won't "fade" into obscurity - giving up his friends and family for stardom holds no reward for him if he's an obscure hero. Finally, Matt juxtaposes "hopes and expectations" with "black holes and revelations". It would seem fame and fortune didn't turn out to be all he wanted it to be - his hopes got destroyed, sucked into a black hole. But his expectations of stardom were also inaccurate - he had a series of "revelations". It remains, however, curiously unclear whether these revelations were good or bad, and I believe herein lies the crux of this interpretation of the song. The starlight as metaphor for fame and stardom is a very apt one. A star is something that shines brightly, for thousands of years. However, ironically enough, there's a *lot* of stars in the sky... But still, we can make out each and every one clearly at some stage or another. Again, this ties in with Matt's deal with the starlight, that he'll hold on to it as long as it stands out among the other stars in the night sky. Also, a starlight is something distant, something unattainable. It is in this sense that this song always makes me think of the green light opposite the lake in F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby - and it is also this that guides me into another interpretation of the song, that of a failed romance. *** This has been my first interpretation, and it's a long one, so I'll only post my second (and further) one(s) if you guys ask for them. ^_^ |
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