| Patrick Wolf – Armistice Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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From a live session where Patrick played this song live: Chomreedhoo is blackbird in Manx Gaelic. The song was inspired by a Manx Gaelic folk song called the Blackbird. Patrick was inspired by the story which was about a lover yearning for their loved one to come home in the metaphor of Blackbird. Patrick said that he however updated the song to London and that it is about "love existing in a hard tough society". |
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| Bright Eyes – Singularity Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Conor explains this song in an interview which you can find here: http://www.spinner.com/2010/12/21/conor-oberst-bright-eyes-peoples-key/ "Also, I don't know if you're familiar with the theory of singularity. This guy, Ray Kurzweil, who was the inventor of early synthesizers, he has this theory -- a few other people write about it too -- but essentially there's a point where artificial intelligence reaches beyond human intelligence and we fuse in with the internet and become what he calls "spiritual machines." Essentially, you stop having to die and stop having to eat. Our physical form is no longer important because you're able to maintain your consciousness by uploading it to the next frame, which sounds spooky and weird but I think it's 100% achievable, especially when you think about how fast new machines invent newer machines, which invent the newer machines. It's exponential growth. A person doesn't have to sit down and invent every one of these steps. His vision is really utopian, like this is the way forward. Humans, we're obviously going to destroy our planet and destroy our physical form, but we'll continue in this way." |
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| Bright Eyes – Jejune Stars Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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As I interpret it, this song is about FEAR OF DEATH. The first verse is a reference to christianity and the christian view on death. In order to get to heaven, you should be thankful for every day and love and forgive. "Every new day is a gift, it's a song of redemption, Any expression of love is the way to return" The place he is then talking about is heaven. He feels guilt, and that he has lived his life in a sinful way (not as a christian should). The next verse is a reference to Buddhism and the buddhist view of death and the meaning of life. This is then tied together with the scientific outlook on the meaning of life and death. "The wheel I'm becoming erases the physical mind" Basically he is talking about how according to science, the mind is only physical, and according to buddhism we have some sort of spirit or immaterial soul. The "staircase of misinformation and the code we inherit" is of course DNA, and how according to science the meaning of life is to reproduce and make sure our genes are passed on, because after we die, our offspring is all that remains. If you're an atheist, DNA really is "the basis, the essence of life." Then comes the slightly more obscure chorus which is more open to interpretation. Personally I think he is using the forecast of rain ("the green of the radar") as a metaphor for the anticipation of death. We all know it is coming. We can't change the weather, and we can't change the fact that we are going to die. The umbrella symbolizes our futile or jejune attempts to escape death. He then goes on to suggest that it is "bizarre" that we are afraid of death, if it is "true what we're made of". Because if we are no more than atoms and molecules, we really do not have anything to fear. So why do we hide from the rain? The next verse reflects upon love or perhaps life itself as the meaning of life. "Inside's so cloudy, nostalgia [...] Look at ourselves through a porthole" is about him looking back and remembering his life. Although we live for quite a long time we forget most of it. "Cloudy" has a double meaning since it both means obscure and how the clouds, or the decay of our memory anticipates rain or death. Likewise "sunny" gets a double meaning in the next few lines as it both means that the weather was sunny and that he was young and alive. When we're young love usually seems like the meaning of life and it is what our lives revolve around. ("Kissed as the band marched, Everything fell into line") In the last verse he finally concludes, based on all of these different perspectives on the meaning of life and death that we are "Jejune stars". Exactly what he Conor means with that I am not sure. As someone already pointed out it is an oxymoron, which I think highlights Conors conflicted view on the meaning of life. At the same time as the human life is jejune; insignificant, naive and oblivious to the great mysteries of the universe, our lives still have the beauty and light associated with stars. I really love this song. |
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| Conor Oberst – White Shoes Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| It's definitely not "Sure, anything you want to do", I've listened to that part a few times now and I believe it should be "Sheila, anything you want to do" like Bacio24 suggested. | |
| Conor Oberst – Danny Callahan Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| I love the little laugh right at the beginning of the song, and how Conor says "great." Great song, like so many other of his songs. Very touching story. | |
| Conor Oberst – Moab Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I interpret this bit as being about the relationship which this song might be about, how they said it would last forever, but it ended. "They say the sun won't burn forever That's a science too exact" The sun burning could be a metaphor for love. "I can prove it, watch, we're crossing the state line See those headlights coming towards us? That's someone going back To a town they said they'd never" You may say you'll never go back to a town, or that you'll never stop loving someone, but in the end that's beyond your control. And science is useless when it comes to human relationship. Even claiming that love doesn't last forever is a way too accurate prediction. Still, I do believe Conor thinks it is accurate, and that he is being slightly ironic in that line, or maybe refering to the irony of life... |
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| Arcade Fire – My Body Is a Cage Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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That is just what I thought! Makes a lot of sense, and it fits with the "I'm living in an age..." parts, as homosexuality isn't really fully accepted. And even though a lot of people say they have full respect for homosexuals, in reality they don't, instead there's a whole lot of prejudice. If people don't mind homosexuals, how come they don't wanna know and rather have them keep quiet about their sexuality? "I'm living in an age That calls darkness light" Probably refers to hypocrisy. |
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| Bright Eyes – Four Winds Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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By the wway, this is what Conor said about his religious beliefs in an interview which you can find here: http://www.pastemagazine.com/high_gravity/2008/07/conor-oberst-on-religion-and-politics.html This really makes it all very clear imo. "I guess I’m just conflicted. I mean, I want to find something like that. Badly. But in all the forms where it’s been offered to me, they seem fraudulent, you know? And so, yeah, I guess it’s one of those topics that keeps coming up. My family is Catholic. I went to a Catholic school, that kind of thing, so that was my childhood for sure. And not that I’m an expert on all these religions, but what I know about all the other major religions kind of all just fall a little flat in their–I guess, just in their kind of narrowmindedness. I feel like there’s something much more basic than what all these people are worried about. I find it really shocking that two groups that are, from an outsider’s perspective, almost identical–you know, Shiites and Sunnis, or Catholics and Protestants–can actually kill each other over these minor details. And dogma and all that stuff, to me it’s anti- whatever I would consider god-like. Which is, I think, a connectedness and an all-encompassing sort of love for things. I suppose that’s a lot of what Buddhism is, but I haven’t found anything that really hits the mark for me. But it’s fascinating–what people believe in.” |
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| Bright Eyes – Four Winds Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Wow. This track is just amazing and allows for so many different interpretations I could sit here for hours and just read through all comments but I still wouldn't be able to know exactly what he meant. For me, this song is not anti-religion or pro religion, it is about religious doubt, which is something I can very much relate to. Connor often writes about the theme religion vs science and I therefore think this is about his own religious doubts and the role of religion in our world today, and not about the conflicts in middle east; he rarely writes about politics. I think this is about him seeking comfort in religion, but he only finds doubt. However, he needs peace, so he keeps coming back again and again to different philosophies of life but he's unable to find an answer. "Your class, your caste, your country, sect, your name or your tribe There's people always dying trying to keep them alive There are bodies decomposing in containers tonight" This is fairly self-explanatory, but they're very important for the song as a whole. As these are the opening lines of the song, they pretty much introduce to us what the entire song is about - All these different things people hold on to and believe in. Religion and culture defines people and they way they live their lives, and a lot of people are willing to die for these values. There are so many different philosophies of life and everybody is so convinced that they and nobody else is right. The bodies decomposing are the ones who have sacrificed their life for their religion and are now lying a container, such as a coffin, according to the christian ritual for example. Connor then tries to reason with himself and the world. At the same time as he despises religions and the scriptures "The Bible's blind, the Torah's deaf, the Qur'an is mute If you burned them all together you'd be close to the truth still" he, or possibly just the rest of the world, can't live without their religious belief "A heart just can't contain all of that empty space It breaks, it breaks, it breaks". I think he's talking about how a lot of people are religious because they need something to fill their hearts with and something to hold on to. They need meaning to be able to keep on living, and they find it in religion. This song is about the struggle to find that meaning. "Well, I went back to my rented Cadillac and company jet" In these lines I think he is trying to describe how he gives up his religious beliefs as a result as his reasoning in the previous verses. So he goes back to materialism, which is almost like a religion for a lot of people in the west. If you can't find a spiritual meaning, then buy yourself a material one. He feels "Like a newly orphaned refugee, retracing my steps". We often talk about God as our "father", he is now without a father and he is on the run from religion and the chaos/conflicts created by it, going back to square one. I could have made this analysis a lot more elaborate by analyzing the song line by line by I pretty much believe this is the essence of this song - the role of religion in our contemporary world and his own doubts. |
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| OK Go – Last Leaf Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Wow, I just instantly fell in love with this song when I first heard it. So simple, so perfect. Love the metaphors. Obviously it's about waiting for someone you love, for one reason or another. | |
| The Radio Dept. – The Worst Taste In Music Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I think this song is about jealousy. The narrator of the song is in a relationship with a girl who is seeing her ex boyfriend. "He can't forget you, you're quite a find" speaks about how her ex boyfriend wants her back, and even though the narrator knows that the girl does not want her ex boyfriend back, he feels jealous and can't help thinking about the two of them together. "In my mind I see how he gets you to close your eyes" "A kiss is half promise, half warning" I think this is about how the girl tries to reassure him that she does not want her ex back, as in, she is giving him a kiss to promise him nothing is going to happen but also to warn him not to become jealous. The narrator is asking himself why his girlfriend is seeing her ex, "Why would you bother to hang around?" Because to him, she could hang out with any other guy "There will be others to frown upon, if it turns you on", but the fact that she is seeing her ex is killing him. The narrator feels inferior to her ex boyfriend and is afraid that she might go back to him, but to console himself he is thinking of the little things that makes him feel better "But he's got the worst taste in music If I didn't know this I'd lose it". |
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