| José González – Far Away Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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A simple, beautiful, and existential song about hope and hopelessness, and questioning the life you lead. "Step in front of a runaway train, just to feel alive again." The classic numbness felt by many in the darkest moments; some get purpose from taking risks, anything to replace no emotion with an emotion — even if that emotion is hurting. This is the wild west outlaw life, with nowhere else to turn they take on a criminal livelihood to feel a part of something. - A runaway train won't stop because it's escaping something, no honour among thieves. By stepping in front of this you will quickly know if you want to continue or not in life because the train isn't stopping. You are forced to make a split second decision, this is the outlaw's decision every day. - A train track is fixed in place, this is likely a metaphor for the path they have chosen and how they feel they cannot repent or change their ways. "Pushing forward through the night, aching chest and blurry sight." It does the individual no good living this way but they have no choice. They think they are pushing towards "something", but in the night there isn't an end in sight, or a destination, like the runaway train they are running away from themselves, the law, and the world all the time, sooner or later they'll run out of places to run to: the end of the line. Their days are numbered. "It's so far, so far away" What is far away? The audience is deliberately never told what it is, it's an open-ended statement. A gesture of longing for some fulfillment that is not tangible or describable, they don't know what they want. This is the paradigm for many, what is the purpose of all this? "Who are you trying to impress, steadily creating a mess." Addresses the human ego and the need to impress, this is ultimately an empty pursuit. What seems steady and reliable ultimately is just creating chaos, a "mess". They think their life has stability and purpose, but reality is chaos, entropy only increases. (Aching chest and blurry sight X2) The focus shifts back to what is real, the pain they feel, their body, that is all they can cling onto as opposed to being "Far Away". They feel a deep sense of detachment from reality, but the pain keeps them grounded. |
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| Joy Division – Transmission Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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Seems to draw from the philosopher Plato's 'Cave' analogy, "Listen to the silence, let it ring on" Most of the media and music we choose to listen to tells us nothing, we are listening to nothing of importance so it may as well just be "silence". "Eyes, dark grey lenses frightened of the sun We would have a fine time living in the night Left to blind destruction, waiting for our sight" These lyrics easily refer to people frightened of reality, dwelling in Plato's 'cave'. Another Joy Division song, 'Shadowplay' leads on from this, as in the 'Cave' analogy, people believe the dancing shadows cast against the cave wall are real people. It's people falling for the illusions of those that choose to manipulate us in society, i.e. the mainstream media. "We would go on as though nothing was wrong Hide from these days, we remained all alone Staying in the same place, just staying out the time Touching from a distance, further all the time" Staying in the same place is very much the 'Cave' analogy, where the victims are tied up and held in the cave, the "same place". "Well I could call out when the going gets tough The things that we've learnt are no longer enough No language, just sound, that's all we need know To synchronize love to the beat of the show" How a departure from logic and rationality is widespread among most people, most people are like the dancing shadows on the cave wall, they live an illusion, they are the puppets of those who manipulate us all. Even love itself has been claimed by the manipulators, "to the beat of the show". |
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| The Hotelier – Your Deep Rest Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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The song is about a close friend that commits suicide and the friend is making sense of why it happened after it happened. They didn't see it coming even though they were close friends, "I couldn't recognize your shell." It's about how society often sees what it wants to see in people, nobody wants to see the dark side of life, we ignore what we don't want to see because most people are selfish. The song confronts how we sometimes don't see things or appreciate things until it's too late. "You said you're trapped in your body, getting deeper everyday." The feeling of being trapped/imprisoned in your flesh, whether it's a debilitating mental illness, or a physical illness. That's up for you to interpret. Also how a body can be deceptive, it's not obviously a prison, in society we associate suffering with the tangible, the obvious. Nobody realizes a body can be a prison. "Might have learned how to swim But never taught how to drown" How society is all about staying above the water, being at a certain standard all the time. If you go under, you're by yourself. "I called in sick from your funeral." Confronts how we treat personal, emotional events like soulless work obligations, how society is so numb to reality that you 'call in sick' like it's a job, rather than a funeral for a close friend. “Your lack of love for your dear self is sapping all of us here out! Trace your roots back to the ground, work out the knotholes for yourself” How sometimes those that we think love us most leave us to figure ourselves out, we become isolated when we least expect it. |
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