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Regina Spektor – Be Like a Cloud Lyrics	13 years ago
I think this song is about how stupid it is that people try to stop us from doing the things we love, by telling us we're not allowed or that we're not good enough, because in reality it's not their decision.

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Regina Spektor – Back of a Truck Lyrics

13 years ago

There might be a political message in this song, I'm not going to take a position on that. But I did notice something that I thought was interesting: When the girl's porch collapsed and she died, her gym teacher and her geraniums were each kind of living in their own reality. Also, the immigrants working in the sweatshop didn't get any attention from the police until they'd turned into pumpkins. There seems to be this theme of people not noticing other people's problems until it's too late, because they're too busy living their own fantasies.

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Regina Spektor – Prisoners Lyrics

14 years ago

Here are my thoughts: Everyone is trying to figure out a way to "fix" the prisoners. For the prisoners, fixing their situation means somehow being released from prison. For society, it means forcibly changing them in the hopes that they won't do bad things anymore ("There's nothing wrong with them that a thousand bucks can't fix, that a thousand arms can't hold down") And I think what she's trying to say is that they need to "start over", that their problems began when they were children and we can't just magically reverse them now with money or physical force (the whole "Hans Christian Andersen" thing), we need to fill the voids that were created a long time ago, which isn't easy. I could be completely wrong about this, though...

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Regina Spektor – Mermaid Lyrics

14 years ago

The first few lines of the song just talk about the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, but then it takes us to a more modern setting, to show us how a story like that is still relevant today, even to adults. How we want things so badly we'll give anything to get them (the mermaid gave her voice) only to find out there's some terrible catch (the feet always bleed, she can't talk to the man she loves) which defeats the purpose of us having it in the first place.

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Regina Spektor – Open Lyrics	14 years ago
I think this song is about how some people never find their "soul mates" and waste their whole lives waiting for each other. I think this is a girl talking to a soul mate that she knows exists but has never met, and is telling him "open your heart" in the hopes that they meet each other one day.

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Regina Spektor – School Is Out Lyrics	14 years ago
I think this song is about a person who just doesn't feel ready to grow up. They're trying to take on the responsibilities of being an adult, but really, they want to be a child again and they envy those who are still young, (the "lucky people")

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Regina Spektor – The Sword and the Pen Lyrics	14 years ago
I'm not so sure what this song is about, but I have an idea about "So what if nothing is safe So what if no one is saved No matter how sweet No matter how brave What if each to his own lonely grave" I think this expresses the fear that what we believe to be kind or brave is really despicable in the eyes of some higher power, and our idea of good is really evil.

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Regina Spektor – Music Box Lyrics

14 years ago

I have two ideas as to what this song is about. The first one is that the music box, representing routine/monotony drives her to insanity, hence causing her to drink soap. Second idea: That in an attempt to get out of this boring routine, she tries to do something fun/creative, but it backfires, as indicated by the vomiting noises at the end of the song. So, maybe she's saying even though we may think we want a break in our routines, a lot of people can't handle the change.

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Regina Spektor – Bartender Lyrics	14 years ago
I know this may sound random, but she also mentions a bartender in the song "Cinderella". In movies, the stereotypical bartender is one that gives you advice for all your problems. In "Cinderella", he has more problems than anyone else in the song. I wonder if there's a connection between that and this.

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Regina Spektor – The Devil Came to Bethlehem Lyrics

14 years ago

Here's my opinion of the song: It depicts Biblical figures as completely average people, which is not the way most people think of them. Then, there's the devil going to Bethlehem, a place that people say is holy. The Bible and the alarm clock represent the familiar idea that G-d is bringing the whole world to an end soon, an idea that we hear about a lot. The conflict between light and dark represents the conflict between the familiar yet depressing idea that the world is coming to an end or the unfamiliar yet more uplifting idea that Joseph, Mary, Jesus, etc. were all just average people.

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Automatic Loveletter – The Answer Lyrics	14 years ago
I just think this song is about life in general, and how people sit and discuss the meaning of life when really the meaning of life is different for everyone. I think she's talking about all her experiences, and then turns away someone trying to tell her "the answer" because she feels she's found out herself through experience.

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Regina Spektor – Buildings Lyrics	14 years ago
I think the "buildings" metaphor is meant to be something completely pointless, a mundane thing they talk about to distract themselves from the serious problem they're facing. The rest of the song is pretty straightforward.

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Disney – Heaven's Light/Hellfire (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) Lyrics	14 years ago
This is one of my favorite songs from a Disney movie :) I think that he just feels conflicted because he's used to having so much power, but loving Esmerelda makes him feel vulnerable, and since he hates that, he either wants to control her as well, or destroy her. Just my thoughts.

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Vanessa Carlton – Twilight Lyrics	14 years ago
I think this song is about a life-changing experience that someone has that will leave them dissatisfied with ordinary life. I just hope people don't download this song hoping it's about sparkly vampires :)

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Amy Kuney – Rocket Surgery Lyrics	14 years ago
The instrumentals and words in this song are so awkward, but it works because it's about being awkward. I think what she's trying to say is people that are book smart sometimes don't know how to handle personal relationships, and vice versa.

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Tegan and Sara – I Won't Be Left Lyrics

14 years ago

I don't know why, but this song makes me think of people exchanging vows at a wedding, starting a new chapter of their life and talking about their hopes/fears. The lyrics are sort of conflicting, at some points, they ask someone to keep their memories "warm", but in others, they say they "won't be left dancing alone to songs from the past", meaning they'll let go of the past. Not quite sure what it means, but lovely song :)

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Charlotte Sometimes – Losing Sleep Lyrics

14 years ago

When I first heard this song, it reminded me of high school and all the pressure there was to achieve, and how it felt to try and find out you couldn't live up to other people's standards. I think it's about how we develop such high expectations for ourselves, mostly because we're surrounded by people who either have high expectations or whom we believe have high expectations. In the end, she essentially says, "I know I can't do this, so I shouldn't even try".

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Charlotte Sometimes – How I Could Kill A Man Lyrics

14 years ago

I think she's talking to two people in this song: both a guy who cheated on her and the girl who he cheated with. In most of the song, she's talking to the girl. Telling her to get her things and leave. The thing about spiders, sleeping eyes, etc. never lying is trying to make her feel guilty, I think. The song has this kind of smug tone to it, since the singer has finally taken her revenge. The refrain is her trying to explain to the girl why she killed her boyfriend, essentially saying "If you had felt the pain of being betrayed you would know why I did it". In the end, the "And if I wanted to stay..." it's her trying to leave the memory of the boy behind.

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The Meg And Dia Band – Going Away Lyrics

14 years ago

I think it's about someone who leaves home thinking they're going to have this life-changing experience, but knows deep down they are deluding themselves (hence the "skeletons in my way") When they talk about it being their time "to be lonely, lost, unloved" I think the person views these as conventional experience that they have to have at some point in their life, and they're going away in order to do that. Then there's this other voice in the song, almost like the voice of reason, telling them that this isn't smart and that they're being reckless. But in the end, the person decides to leave anyway.

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Mirah – Don't Die In Me Lyrics

14 years ago

I think this song is about the choice between being free, or accepting the responsibility of having the person who completes you. She talks about how the continents are floating and no longer have any responsibilities, and also about how some fruits evolve, but aren't whole. In the second verse, she also talks about someone feeling free, but this makes her feel forgotten. It again shows the conflict between being free and being whole. She says that she understands the allure of abandoning the people you love in order to feel that kind of freedom, and she forgives the person, and doesn't want to lose them.

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Regina Spektor – Making Records Lyrics	14 years ago
One thing is pretty clear from this song: Regina Spektor wishes she had a band. I also think the reason is pretty clear: people love her for her music, but once the music is recorded, they can listen to it whenever they want and it doesn't matter to them what happens to her. She wants a band because she wants people who care about her for reasons other than her music.

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Regina Spektor – Bobbing for Apples Lyrics

14 years ago

I think this song is just about trying to get away from the things that bother you... and failing. A person is trying to forget someone they used to be in a relationship with, and they try a lot of things: traveling (hence the "Bobbing for apples in Somalia") religion (No one's coming for tea time except my own holy ghost") alcohol ("I'm dating Jack Daniels") And they are so absorbed with trying to forget this person that they kind of stop caring about other people in general, that's why they're eating "nachos with cocoa" in attempt to be non-conformist and talking to light fixtures. But in the end, they come to terms with the fact that they are still in love with this person ("I'll always opt to fall down these stairs in the end"). Everything they've done to forget this person ends up not mattering, "I can't remember names and I can't remember faces" indicates in a way that everything they've done in their travels is a blur. Just my opinion, though.

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Regina Spektor – Scarecrow and Fungus Lyrics

14 years ago

I think this song is about this elevated view society has of the wealthy. In the song, the speaker sounds like someone who believes that rich people are somehow better than everyone else regardless of what they do, which I think is the viewpoint Ms. Spektor disagrees with. She knows he's "maladapted" and "corrupted" but then says "He's got lots of money, we all really like him" as though his money were all that mattered. I think the song absolutely has to do with marriage, and how a girl is expected to like a guy because he has money. He's a horrible person, but the girl who is expected to marry him is the only one who realizes it, and everyone else is making excuses for the way he behaves. For example, "He ran through a stoplight, but it didn't matter, 'cause no one was hurt". I think the whole scarecrow and fungus thing is meant to be about the relationship between the girl and the boy everyone wants her to marry. A scarecrow is something that's made to look like a threat when in reality it's not. Fungus is an unseen threat that people don't notice until it's too late. We get a strong sense of who the real threat or bad thing is (the guy) and who the perceived threat is (the girl) but we also get the sense that the person telling the story thinks it's the other way around. That's just my opinion, though.

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Regina Spektor – BYOS Lyrics

14 years ago

I think that this song is about conformity and the things that it makes people do. I think this is supported by the melody, where she adopts parts from other people's songs, and of course, the lyrics. First she talks about Mata Hari, who is falsely accused of being a spy. Falsely accusing someone is not something a person would be proud of, and I think that is meant to symbolize the reprehensible things people sometimes do. Then, she talks about all her friends clipping their teeth. Sometimes, when you see all your friends doing something, you want to be a part of it, regardless of what it is. So, she's surrounded by people doing horrible things, so she wants to do something horrible, too, hence the shoveling.

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Regina Spektor – Cinderella Lyrics

14 years ago

Here's what I think this song means: I think it's supposed to be a sort of reverse Cinderella story, or a story about how someone realizes those sorts of things don't happen in real life. For example, it says "In this little cellar, we grow like weeds" growing like weeds indicates thriving, and since Cinderella was miserable in the cellar, this indicates that the people mentioned in the song aren't like Cinderella in the sense that they're happy with poverty/simplicity. Next, there's the whole not blending in part. Wherever these people are going, they obviously feel out of place. Then there's the part about the bartender. When she says "lies and lies and lies" her tone changes each time. At first it sounds optimistic and confident, as though she's sure the bartender is lying. But then, it sounds like she starts to doubt herself. Then the bartender starts talking about his girlfriend, about how they humiliated themselves (probably for money) I was led to believe that this is a sort of eye-opening experience for the speaker (whatever persona she's adopting in the song). I really like this song. I wish it were on a CD :)

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