| Radiohead – Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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The first time I ever listened to this was on a plane, while it was prepping to take off and the attendents were doing all the demos and such. It was one of the best music-listening experiences I have ever had. Which is probably why I love this track so much. On another note, this is what I was listening to while walking alone in the woods, at night, without a flash light, when I spotted the sillouetted form of a large seemingly ownerless dog on the path ahead of me. This song is nothing but good memories for me. |
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| Radiohead – Feral Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| This is like a mix of a dance track with naturistic ambience mixed with an element of Radiohead's typical creepiness. It's probably closest to something like Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors (which is also spectacular) in structure. Other than that I have NO idea what to make of it | |
| Radiohead – Bloom Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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GUYS: THE LYRICS ARE COMPLETELY RIGHT. Sorry. According to the Radiohead website these are exactly the lyrics. Although they definitely didn't sound like that to me at first. Anyway. I agree with Reedy that it's about a desire for nature. The name (King of Limbs) was apparantly a reference to an ancient oak tree. And a lot of the songs have some naturistic sounds in them |
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| Arcade Fire – Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| yes | |
| Radiohead – A Punchup at a Wedding (No No No No No No No No) Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Having listened to this song about four times, I'm going to try to link it to the album as a whole: This song seems to be centered around the fragility of something that should be absorbing and beautiful. It could just as easily be about being splattered with mud from a passing truck while carrying a piece of artwork. Or something like that. The "No no no" seems like denial. We want to believe that these beautiful things can exist without being ruined. All this links to the "lawlessness" theme, since the album was partly inspired by the time Thom Yorke was mugged. (Which would actually be pretty awesome for the muggers since they helped inspire a major album that was much longer than the actual crime... anyway.) The fight at the wedding is an example of anarchy, and how it intrudes on our everyday lives. This really doesn't seem like a line-by-line-able song to me, since the lyrics all say similar things, but that's the general idea I think it tries to capture. |
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| Radiohead – Backdrifts (Honeymoon Is Over) Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Are these lyrics for sure? The lyrics I got from it are "You fell into the hollows/You fell into the hollows". I like it WAY better. It sounds more like Radiohead to me, mainly from these three songs: Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors (Then there are trapdoors/That you can't come back from) 15 Step (15 Steps/Then a sheer drop) In Limbo (Trapdoors that open/I spiral down) |
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| Radiohead – 2 + 2 = 5 (The Lukewarm) Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| So, has nobody brought up that "January has April showers" could be a reference to global warming? And that we don't do anything about it because we find it "normal" now, even though it's completely twisting the Earth's climate | |
| Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #2 (Laika) Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| The drugs thing makes COMPLETE sense and basically explained the entire song for me. It fits in completely with the rest of the album: While the family puts on a facade for the neighbors, they are actually falling apart from the inside. It's told from the perspective of a young child growing up with that, which leads up to Neighborhood #3 and the death of childhood innocence. | |
| Radiohead – Optimistic Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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The first three lines set up a vision of a desert, where nature is merciless. The guitar sort of adds to this: it has the exact right kind of distortion to make it sound dry, arid and desert-like to me. The next three are moralistic - or really, completely without any morality whatsoever. I always take this as Radiohead's attempt to capture what it's like to live in a thriving economy that's really a moral desert. "Optimistic" is how the owners of successful businesses feel when they are able to take down their competitors and "pick up every last crumb" of money to be made. At the end, when the song speeds up for about twenty seconds, it becomes ambient background music, almost like what you'd expect to hear in a store. This sort of represents the "front" that businesses put on for their customers. You can hear echoes of the rest of the song, but mostly it just seems luxurious. Amazing Radiohead song. |
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| Arcade Fire – The Suburbs Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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A pretty serious lyric correction that I'm surprised hasn't been made yet: "In a suburban world" should be "In the suburban war", and "gets minor" should be "against mine". I also think "So your standing" should be "I saw you standing". This makes a lot more sense and also perfectly sets up Suburban War, song number 9 on the album. Seriously, somebody change this. |
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| Arcade Fire – The Suburbs Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| I agree that WTC is not at all relevant (although NTT you did kinda freak out). But even though it doesn't make any sense with the rest of the album, if you replace "the yard" with "New York" the song takes on a totally new meaning. I just noticed it now, it's worth trying sometime. | |
| Radiohead – The National Anthem Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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2 things: First, I'm pretty sure "what's going on" is supposed to be "and so alone". I'm not a Radiohead expert or anything but the contradiction would be very cool. Also, I'm kinda confused about how none of the meanings proposed here have to do with the internet. So far a lot of the stuff I've read about the album (I got it a month ago) has to do with how it sounds computery (e.g. Idioteque, Everything in its Right Place, Kid A) and builds of the 2000, y2k hysteria. The song totally makes sense in terms of internet paranoia. It brings people closer together - but at the same time drives them apart, and takes over our lives and our nations. As in, chaos is the new national anthem. Anyway, great song. |
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| Sweet Thing – Change of Seasons Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Prediction: This is going to be the next Sweet Disposition (a Temper Trap song that's stayed on the top charts for around 2 years). The singer has attitude, the lyrics are clever, the instrumentals are first rate and it is brimming with "spark". This is the ideal song. Remember. You heard it from me first. |
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| Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles) Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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"My eyes are covered by the hands of my unborn kids But my heart keeps watching through the skin of my eyelids" And: "Every time you close your eyes - lies, lies!" "If you see a shadow, something's there." And: "Shadows jumping all over the walls, Some of them big, some of them small." "So the neighbors can dance In the police disco lights" And: "All the neighbors are starting up a fire, Burning all the old folks, the witches and the liars." This is why I love this band so much. |
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| Radiohead – Paranoid Android Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| I DEFINITELY think he's saying "what's this". Kind of minor but I think it makes the song a hecka lot better during that part. | |
| Arcade Fire – Haiti Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Honestly, I think this song is key to Funeral. I got it in May, but for some reason it became my favorite on the album just three days ago. Rebellion (Lies) on its own sounds like it's trying to solve all the problems on Funeral. There will be no more oppressed kids and no more lies if we break free of society. But RL doesn't acknowledge this song at all. Haiti sort of expands the scope of Funeral so that it doesn't get "trapped in its own neighborhood". It acknowledges that there is suffering all around the world. And it makes all the rest of the album seem completely futile, creating a Funeral in its truest sense. Neon Bible wouldn't be the same without No Cars Go. It's the same sort of thing. It expands the albums horizons. I'm not exactly a concise person but you get the idea. |
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| Radiohead – All I Need Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| The lyrics work, but the song's way too personal. A country can't feel complex emotion... but that's just me. | |
| Radiohead – Nude Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Fun fact: I reversed the beginning of this song on a program called Audacity. I was literally listening to a slight variation on the end. There are a few instrumentals going forwards, and the rhythm is a bit different, but other than that it's EXACTLY the same thing. | |
| Arcade Fire – Black Mirror Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Scrap my last comment. This makes a lot more sense: I looked it up, and the two main motifs of Neon Bible according to Arcade Fire are the ocean (it's chaotic) and the television (it tends to brainwash). The only song that's explicitly about the TV is Antichrist Television Blues, but to be a central motif there has to be at least one more song. That's what I think "Black Mirror" is. A lot of the song makes vague sense after that: "I walk down to the ocean" (the chaos of TV programming) "Black mirror knows no reflection" (when it's playing) "Knows not about your dreams" (it's an inanimate object in disguise) "Their names are never spoken/The curse is never broken" That one's less clear - Arcade Fire thinks that when you watch TV, you are unconsciously picking up a worldview. It's never acknowledged ("never spoken") so it never really stops ("never broken"). "Show me where their bombs will fall" (most news tends to be about tragedy) This is a pretty classic example of AF building up a seemingly normal thing into something terrifying or tragic (e.g. driving in "In the Backseat"). |
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| Arcade Fire – Half Light I Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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The "night" is sort of a recurring symbol. In The Suburbs and Ready to Start there are references to stepping into the dark/night, which basically means being totally uncertain. Since the HL's are both about leaving home ("In the half light we're free"), I think this just tries to capture a romantic walk at sunset, which is how most incoming adults feel. Everything is beautiful and full of possibilities and a bit mysterious. The ocean in a shell line shows how everything is full of life because any of these houses might be important to you someday, now that anything is possible. I actually like this better than HLII. It definitely makes more sense anyway. |
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| Radiohead – Jigsaw Falling into Place Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I didn't fully appreciate this song (meaning I went "wow, awesome" rather than "holy f***ing god") until I noticed how subtle it was. This is Radiohead's best example of taking a theme at the beginning and blowing it up for the rest of the song. If you listen for the voices at the beginning going "mmmmmm" and such, and the chords surrounding the voices, you can see that they never stop. The background singers just keep singing them over and over again throughout the song. It's what makes it so amazing - it all functions as a cohesive whole. Just thought this should be out there. If you're not listening for stuff like this, you're not listening to Radiohead. |
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| Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles) Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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There was a special on AF one time where an interviewee compared listening to Funeral to walking through a series of fairy tales. After that the album made more sense. Since it's about childhood in the first place, I love the interpretation. Anyway, I see this as happening after the "power out" of Neighborhood 3. It's the sorrow of an old man sitting on a porch. Like all porch-sitting old men, he is misunderstood by his neighbors. He is willing to talk about all the things he's experienced, but nobody wants to listen. AF drew from his perspective about what's wrong with the world today. All the futility (I closed my eyes and nothing changed), regret (my unborn kids) and sad acceptance that the older part of today's population feels is in this song. At least, that's how I like to think about it. |
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| Arcade Fire – Wake Up Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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This is coming from probably the only die-hard fan of AF who didn't like Wake Up on the album. But the live music video for this song is SO MUCH BETTER. Definitely worth $1.50. Anyway. If Crown of Love is about discovering your feminine side, this is the exact opposite. It's the most pessimistic song because it's about bottling up emotions forever, until finally they make you want to tear the world apart. I feel like this song takes place when someone is finally driven to tears by it. It escalates and escalates until the band is figuratively shouting expletives at no one in particular. The coolest thing about it is that they center it around the faults of the "I" person, not the faults of other people - that's the signal for depression. Since there's no target for the anger, it never ends. |
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| Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #2 (Laika) Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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One of my favorites of the album. I think the Alex Supertramp idea is right, but people are taking it too far when they try to fit EVERYTHING in. For instance, "Our older brother/Bit by a vampire" is just a trip down the rabbit hole. It's symbolism -- Alex dealt with threats we couldn't imagine here in society. There is really no better way to say it. Win said in an interview he doesn't think about the meaning of the song very hard when he's singing. The poetry gives us things to think about, but it's really just poetry, not a code. |
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| Arcade Fire – Modern Man Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| It's like they took the main guy in Neon Bible and medicated him to oblivion. Arcade Fire has never written this mellow before, but I actually really like it. | |
| Arcade Fire – Rococo Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I have to disagree with the "hipster theory". "Using great big words that they don't understand" definitely does scream pretentious. But I think that's just a growing trend, and the song is about all kids today. It says kids are too cooped up and "tame". We find twisted ways to express ourselves, hence our joy at watching ashes blow away -- we're just that bored. Win even said after Funeral that this generation is being suffocated inside our own neighborhoods, like these kids. And all the music peaking the charts right now (except this) takes care of the "horrible song" idea. Just today my suburban friend took me for a drive and BLASTED Rihanna, saying it was "ghetto". So I think it's about all modern kids, even though hipsters are alluded to. Final note: these kids show up again in Month of May, with "their arms folded tight". At least I think so. |
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| Arcade Fire – Rococo Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Exactly what you said. | |
| Arcade Fire – Black Mirror Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Looking at ALL the different suggestions for the meaning of the black mirror, I don't think it's supposed to make sense. Black mirror just refers to all the evils of modern day society - there is no interpretation that actually fits it perfectly. That's as far as I can get along that line of reasoning with any certainty. When he looks into the black mirror, though, he sees everything reflected back exactly how it is, with an accuracy and computerized coldness that drives him insane - maybe the "black" is just a label affixed by him to describe the bleak picture the mirror shows. Basic idea of the song (and the album as a whole): the truth is nothing but pain, and can't be fully comprehended. So, self-deception is the only way to survive. | |
| Arcade Fire – Crown of Love Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| In the words of all those wierd new agey people, this song is about the protagonist docovering his "femenine side", the side that can express emotions and is self-aware, unafraid of humility. The line "I shrugged them off before my mom walked in my bedroom" demonstrates that most clearly. He used to be afraid of looking overemotional, so he denied his emotions altogether. Now he accepts them for what they are. This fits in perfectly next to "Wake Up" on the album. This is the most (only) optimistic song on the album, whereas Wake Up, which is about all his emotions being trapped inside, is one of the most pessimistic. | |
| Arcade Fire – Rebellion (Lies) Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Not to be repetitive, since everybody else seems to have the mainstream stuff covered, here are some things I thought about. Number one, this song is summery, as opposed to much of the rest of the album which is very wintery. It gives a vision of driving or just exploring a bustling city in the summer (see Haiti, adds to this effect). Also, it's told from an adult's point of view, and at the end of the album. This in my opinion is the struggling desensitized generation in its later years, after having settled down and assimilated with most of society. Now he finds himself happy to be free of society and a member of the Rebellion: Finally, after all these years, the hypocrisy and oppression he has lived with (the Neighborhoods) is being addressed. What was once hidden "under the covers" is now out in the open and can be fixed. So why does it end on a sad note? "Every time you close your eyes", you are alone with your thoughts and memories. This is the protagonist realizing that, despite all that's being done to uncover hypocrisy, it is too late to save the desensitized generation. This might be him recalling the dark times of his youth during the neighborhoods, a time that was stolen from him. There is no replacing one's childhood - that part of his soul can never be replaced. In short, nobody can live through such an oppressive environt as the Neighborhoods and come out unscathed. Even when all the mistakes society has made are righted, a generation is still psychologically robbed. |
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| Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Not to look like one of those annoying people who comments WAY to much but I thought I should mention this. The theme that the guitar keeps playing in the guitar solos (8 notes) keeps going down over and over. In religious music they engineer music to move upwards, to be "closer to God". A few interpretations of what moving down means: 1. Closer to evil/the devil 2. Something serious is "going down" tonight. 3. Feels like you're sinking/drownding - "falling" into trouble/a trap. Anyway, just thought this was really interesting. |
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| Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| I wrote this on my itouch, hence the repetition... got messed up. | |
| Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Some random things I don't think have been mentioned yet. Arcade Fire's trademark skill seems to be in making something that at first seems wierd, ugly or even incoherent, and filling it with such depth and coherence that by the 100th listen it still astounds you. This is no exception. Although it seemed to me at first like an impossibly foreign sound, it turned out to be my favorite song ever, literally. The flow of the song seems like the most genius thing to me. At the start the main guy is scared by the dark, and sets out to discover its cause. As it goes on, he realizes the contrast of his life with power - organized and comfortable, where "nobody's cold, nobody's warm" - and this horrible scene, where every man is for himself and kids are left to die. The idea of "take it from your heart, put it in your hand," changes as the song goes on. It underscores his coviction before the climax that he has to help out to be a good person, but is stopped by the sudden discovery/realization he makes in the middle ("you ain't foolin nobody with the lights out!") By the end, when the lines come again, it seems to me that the meaning is totally different. It is fueled by desperation and anger as he must do something terrible (murder?) to get the power back. So by trying to end the power out, he really just puts out the power in his own heart. In short, this goes into great detail about the death of idealism, in a five minute song. Incredibly well done. Basically, his idealism dies in a five minute song. Incredibly well done. |
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| Radiohead – Weird Fishes/Arpeggi Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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If anyone has read Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut, Radiohead actually bears a lot of similarities. When everything is taken away from someone's life, this is one of the many stages of trying to come to terms with it. Despite all the wierd, unkown yet fascinating and beautiful things surrounding the protagonist guy, he does nothing and remains in a calming state of passivity. This is how he is able to withstand being slowly eaten away - taking a step back into another world. He is fascinated by his own destruction, which throughout the album seems inevitable (eg it ends with Videotape, a suicide song I assume). This is as opposed to Bodysnatchers, where he is so afraid and tries so hard to fight what is happening that he just goes insane. Definately one of my favorite songs ever. |
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| Radiohead – Bodysnatchers Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I don't honestly feel like this needs to be a reference to anything. Obviously this is about total insanity, seeing as the whole song is pretty much total insanity. Insane people think insane thoughts. Hence the wired science fictiony lyrics. He's just searching for a reason for his terror and craziness even when there might be nothing going on. When the song cools down part way through the lyrics get saner and actually make some sense. They talk about the devastation and confusion the... whoever this is written about... feels. The rest of the song is basically the equivalent of being trapped in a burning room. So the song is written about how the future has caused a person to go crazy and try to fight off his own body... something like that anyway. |
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| Arcade Fire – Une Annee Sans Lumiere Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| I think the best fit to #3 is a comparison between the father's blinders and "ice has covered up my parents' hands". Both lyrics imply that parents are powerless; but since the kids chose a path where they thought they were smarter than the adults (blinders are key here), their parents were left in the dust, unable to help them. So UASL shows how the kids' choices themselves turned the childhood dreams of romance into the nightmare of #3. If they hadn't snuck off and made the foolish love drunk choices they did, they might have been able to ask their parents for "a plan". Instead they face the consequences of their actions alone, leading into the aged, weary feelings in #4. It all flows much better like this. | |
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