This song is def a twin to "Unfair" (a song she has been quoted as saying is about falling in love with someone who is already in a relationship) so it is presumably about the same person. Given the references to buying an apartment and not being able to see her love interest "after tonight," it's most likely that she's moving away and she'll "wait a day to break the bad news" (i.e. notifying him that she's leaving once she's already gone).
And, of course, the fact that she sees in him a fellow "idealist" and "dreamer" (terms commonly given to people with the INFP personality on the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)) portends that she'll always be left wondering if they would've been perfect together.
I'll be the grapes fermented
Bottled and served with the table set in my finest suit
Like a perfect gentlemen
I'll be the fire escape that's bolted to the ancient brick
Where you will sit and contemplate your day
I'll be the water wings that save you if you start drowning in an open tab
When your judgment's on the brink
I'll be the phonograph that plays your favorite albums back
As your lying there drifting off to sleep
I'll be the platform shoes and undo what heredity's done to you
You won't have to strain to look into my eyes
I'll be your winter coat buttoned and zipped straight to the throat
With the collar up so you won't catch a cold
I want to take you far from the cynics in his town
And kiss you on the mouth
We'll cut out bodies free from the tethers of this scene
Start a brand new colony
Where everything will change
We'll give ourselves new names, identities erased
The sun will hear the grounds
Under our bare feet in this brand new colony (this brand new colony)
Everything will change, ooh, ooh
Everything will change, ooh, ooh
Everything will change, ooh, ooh
Bottled and served with the table set in my finest suit
Like a perfect gentlemen
I'll be the fire escape that's bolted to the ancient brick
Where you will sit and contemplate your day
I'll be the water wings that save you if you start drowning in an open tab
When your judgment's on the brink
I'll be the phonograph that plays your favorite albums back
As your lying there drifting off to sleep
I'll be the platform shoes and undo what heredity's done to you
You won't have to strain to look into my eyes
I'll be your winter coat buttoned and zipped straight to the throat
With the collar up so you won't catch a cold
I want to take you far from the cynics in his town
And kiss you on the mouth
We'll cut out bodies free from the tethers of this scene
Start a brand new colony
Where everything will change
We'll give ourselves new names, identities erased
The sun will hear the grounds
Under our bare feet in this brand new colony (this brand new colony)
Everything will change, ooh, ooh
Everything will change, ooh, ooh
Everything will change, ooh, ooh
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Battle Royale
Word Alive, The
Word Alive, The
Fortnight
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift
The song 'Fortnight' by Taylor Swift and Post Malone tells a story about strong feelings, complicated relationships, and secret wishes. It talks about love, betrayal, and wanting someone who doesn't feel the same. The word 'fortnight' shows short-lived happiness and guilty pleasures, leading to sadness. It shows how messy relationships can be and the results of hiding emotions. “I was supposed to be sent away / But they forgot to come and get me,” she kickstarts the song in the first verse with lines suggesting an admission to a hospital for people with mental illnesses. She goes in the verse admitting her lover is the reason why she is like this. In the chorus, she sings about their time in love and reflects on how he has now settled with someone else. “I took the miracle move-on drug, the effects were temporary / And I love you, it’s ruining my life,” on the second verse she details her struggles to forget about him and the negative effects of her failure. “Thought of callin’ ya, but you won’t pick up / ‘Nother fortnight lost in America,” Post Malone sings in the outro.
Light Up The Sky
Van Halen
Van Halen
The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
It's a beautiful song but I wonder about its true underlying message and emotional tone. I read on the wikipedia page for this album that Gibbard had proclaimed [Such Great Heights] "the only song he had ever written that was positive about love." If that was true at the time this album came out it can only mean this song [Brand New Colony] is not necessarily a positive love song, unless of course he didn't actually write it.
First of all, I'm not going to say the clicking noise at the beginning is a gun, as many people seem to think. My first thought was a wind up music box or a toy, etc...
Secondly, I'm not so sure there is "suicidal death" involved in the lyrical message as Kenious suggests. That's a little extreme in my opinion, and there are no "overly obvious" ties to this idea besides "cut our bodies free" which seems more likely related to the saying "cut ties" because the singer is suggesting that they cut ties with society or their current lives so they can be together.
The thing that DID stand out to me was the repetition of the words "everything will change" at the end of the song. The pace of the music slows down quite a bit, and just made me think, everything that was happy at the beginning of the song has the potential to fail (or change). When two people fall in love everything changes for the best. As it's repeated, however, maybe we are supposed to be reminded that love can fade and everything can change for the worst. [OR] maybe we are simply meant to think about how things can change for good or for bad in general, not just with love but with anything in life. Those are the thoughts I was left with.
Not as happy, not overwhelmingly sad either, but very deep and good none the less :)