Lyrics for Lightness as interpreted by heartattack

Lightness Lyrics
There's a tear in the fabric of your favorite dress
And I'm sneaking glances
Looking for the patterns in static
They start to make sense
The longer I'm at it

Ivory lines lead
Oh wha-ho, oh wha-ho

Your heart is a river that flows from your chest
Through every organ
Your brain is the dam
And I am the fish
Who can't reach the core

Ivory lines lead
Oh wha-ho, oh wha-ho

Oh, instincts are misleading
You shouldn't think what you're feeling
They don't tell you what
You know you should want

Ivory lines lead
Oh wha-ho, oh wha-ho
Ivory lines lead
Oh wha-ho, oh wha-ho

Oh, instincts are misleading
You shouldn't think what you're feeling
They don't tell you what
You know you should want

Ivory lines lead
Oh wha-ho, oh wha-ho
Ivory lines lead
Oh wha-ho, oh wha-ho

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  • 87 Comments
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springheeledCJ
04-14-2004

Rated 0 
For the love of god... this song is... really... really... good...

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taylor8285
04-17-2004

Rated 0 
instints are misleading
you shouldn't think what you're feeling
they don't tell you what you know you should want
-that is one of the most beautiful lyrics I have ever heard

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AmericanSuperHeros
05-10-2004

Rated 0 
"ivory lines lead"

????

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orionzite
05-19-2004

Rated 0 
The lines of skin= "ivory lines" leading the deception of lust..."instincts." At least, that's my $.02

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farfronorm
05-31-2004

Rated 0 
The song is about lust yes but more than that it's about trying to control and reject that lust thanks to societal teachings. "Ivory lines lead" refers to the tears in the fabric, he's watching them lead up her legs to oo wha-ho for a lack of better terms.

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music_man122
06-09-2004

Rated 0 
it is about lust. "ivory lines" are bra/panty straps

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Emerican
06-15-2004

Rated -1 
when a girl sings this song to you...it just makes the song even more fucking good

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rushestoyou
06-21-2004

Rated 0 
i think ivory lines mean something to do with a piano...ivory keys?? even though there arent any piano in the song

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FallingFell
10-22-2004

Rated 0 
ooo, I love it!!!

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sighs
12-05-2004

Rated 0 
the thing that makes me love it five hundred times more than any other is that it was playing while i was getting ready to sneak out to go have sex for the first time. i knew that i wouldnt regret it cause this song.

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ihavethesedreams
12-08-2004

Rated 0 
this song is ridiculously gorgeous. if you think about it, it is perverted: he's looking through the tears of her dress to see her body... but the way the sings it, it sounds sensual instead of gross. and "ivory lines lead" is one of the most provocative lines ever.

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Desaparecida
12-23-2004

Rated 0 
ivory lines - bra straps!

why not?

anyway, this was the song that totally made me fall in love with DCFC.

this song... i don't know... i kind of figured something out... it's about this guy...who wants to be with this girl...but this girl doesn't know if she wants to be with him... cause even though maybe she does like him...her mind is telling her she shouldn't...

Oh, instincts are misleading
You shouldn't think what you're feeling
They don't tell you what
You know you should want

it's all about the difference between what your heart wants and what your mind thinks is the best for you...

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littlexdevotional
12-30-2004

Rated 0 
instincts are misleading- the guy gets feelings for the girl, thinking he wants her, realizing it wouldn't be write. it seems like he was oblivious to what he was getting himself into.. and wants he does hes screwed.. this song was the first song by death cab that i could really relate to.. the first 20 times i listened to it, it really made me cry..

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EatAtJoes121
01-18-2005

Rated 0 
The song is kind of contradictory to me. I think (of course) that the hook is about lust. (I took 'ivory lines lead' to mean the skin exposed fromthe torn dress) . The second verse is the opposite however. Her heart wants to love him but she fights her feelings with her brain. And 'you shouldn't think what you are feeling' means that you should go with your heart.

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XswissarmyromanceX
02-24-2005

Rated 0 
This song is so beautiful...from what I can tell (as some have mentioned before), the guy loves the girl but she feels like she doesn't want to be with him. The song says:

Your heart is a river
that flows from your chest
through every organ
your brain is the dam
and I am the fish who cant reach the cord

It's like the girl's thoughts are stopping her from giving in to her heart, and the singer is trying to reach her brain and make her realize it is what's in her heart that matters.

Oh, instincts are misleading
you shouldn't think what you're feeling
they don't tell you what
you know you should want

That part is basically saying how thoughts cannot decide how you feel about a person--so-called "instincts" only misdirect people from what they know is meant to be. As for "ivory lines lead", I thought that one possible meaning could be bones...it's a little grisly, but since the song talks about the singer being a fish searching inside the girl's body (so to speak), bones could be leading in all directions, representing the confusion she feels about her emotions, misguiding the singer as he tries to uncover her true feelings. Overall, I think the message of the song is that your heart always knows what is best. But those are just my interpretations..

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sparkling_pavement
02-25-2005

Rated 0 
"I am the fish who can't reach the cord"
meaning he can't reach the cord to release the dam so that he can get into her heart...her brain is the "dam" that is stopping her from loving him

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dictionarygirl
03-16-2005

Rated 0 
i read that every song on transatlanticism is about long-distance relationships, so i thought the ivory lines could be roads on a map, or something having to do with roads. but when i first heard it, i thought about static on tv, i dont know why, but that image has stuck with me.

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BgirlSparky
03-19-2005

Rated 0 
It is about drugs. Ivory Lines! Ivory is white... and Lines! so that is my interpretation... O yes, It is "I am the fish who can't reach the COY". I have this cd, and the lyrics are in it. I love Death cab for cutie....

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promisexkept
03-20-2005

Rated 0 
ivory lines-I thought of cocaine.
But I don't know anything.

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NQArbuckle
03-27-2005

Rated 0 
before i read this
i always thought 'ivory lines' referred to bone.
he talks about the brain, the heart, etc. i thought 'ivory lines lead' meant that bones form a map leading around the body.

but i'm pretty sure now that the ivory lines are fabric, or bra/panties/etc.. idunno.

art is subject to interpretation

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_cardigan
04-02-2005

Rated 0 
I always "ivory lines" was refering to the the clothing she was wearing.

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midnitevultures
05-07-2005

Rated 0 
I think the first thing that struck me abou this song is that they introduce the image of a woman in her favorite dress, and promptly pervert it by mentioning some guy who's peeking through a tear in the fabric. The way that innocence of the image is perverted makes it seem sick in an unashamed way, and it works very fucking well.

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bowl_of_oranges
05-31-2005

Rated 0 
God, I love this song. Everytime I hear it i just love it more. The last time I heard it was last night on my bed, I had just gotten home from an amazing weekend with the love of my life whom I probably won't see until August....I'm scared to listen to it anymore for fear of breaking down like that again.

oh, instincts are misleading
you shouldn't think what you're feeling
they don't tell you what you know you should want

That, to me, was like, "Whoa, I've found myself vulnerable and in love....in a place I never thought I would let myself be, feeding every feeling and emotion I could possibly have for someone and thoughts of him just won't SHUT UP!!!" And then everything turns into a run on sentence. Like that. ha.

I love it.

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antipunt1
07-11-2005

Rated 0 
at the end of the song, there's like a cuckoo kinda song. kinda like, "wow, my brain is messed up; she's too pretty goddamit"

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likeabadhabit
07-31-2005

Rated 0 
I always thought that the "ivory lines" were the lines on a road...but I guess the bra/panties make more sense...

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