So this is the new year.
And I don't feel any different.
The clanking of crystal
Explosions off in the distance (in the distance).

So this is the new year
And I have no resolutions
For self assigned penance
For problems with easy solutions

So everybody put your best suit or dress on
Let's make believe that we are wealthy for just this once
Lighting firecrackers off on the front lawn
As thirty dialogues bleed into one

I wish the world was flat like the old days
Then I could travel just by folding a map
No more airplanes, or speed trains, or freeways
There'd be no distance that can hold us back.

There'd be no distance that could hold us back [Repeat: x2]

So this is the new year [Repeat: x4]



Lyrics submitted by heartattack

Track duration: 04:06

"The New Year" as written by Christopher Walla, Benjamin Gibbard, Jason Mcgerr, Nicholas Harmer

Lyrics © EMI Music Publishing

Lyrics powered by LyricFind


The New Year song meanings
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  • 0
    My Interpretation:The new year doesn't have to be literal here. It could be a "new year" as in all of a sudden "shit's changing!" but really is it? In the distance....

    SO it's the new year, again! Nothings changed....

    Definitely a depressed person yearning for happiness because before you ever become that way. You were ONCE happy. No distance could hold us back if we could remember that!

    So this is the new YEAR.
    Flag Ahourstoryon July 24, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:@commonswift

    "folding a map," as in unfolding and opening up a map. ie, ben laments the complication of the long distance relationship and remarks that in the old days without airplanes, speedtrains etc... his significant other wouldn't be so far away (because those means of transportation would not have existed). There'd be no distance that could hold us back makes perfect sense in that context.

    anyway this song is a gem. Too many people care about New years, which makes me feel lonely and shit on new years eve even though its just another day.
    Flag l8rmimoon January 08, 2011   Link
  • +4
    General Comment:Since it's the new year, I'll give this a shot:

    I think many people are wrong about the "no distance that can hold us back" lines being about a romantic relationship. The song is consistently referring to more than one person ("clanking of crystal", "thirty dialogues bleed into one", the whole part about resolutions). Gibbard himself revealed that he spends so much time figuring out WHO to spend time with, that I think the "distance" is simply referring to his closest friends, and possibly family.

    I know the overwhelming majority of this PERFECT album is about a relationship, but this song seems much more about his own alienation from society as a whole.
    Flag aidenlipperon January 01, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:when i hear this song I'm reminded of the scene in forest gump where the girls in the bar are talking about how new years is just like starting over and forgiving all the things you've done and forrest says he couldnt help wondering where jenny was and what she was doing then. it covers all the themes he covers in this song
    Flag Starri3yeson November 29, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Great song. If you've ever made a resolution to do or change something in your life, yet didn't, for whatever reason. Feeling stagnant or stuck.
    Flag xmakesherflyxon October 02, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Amen to that sailesh.
    Describes my new year almost perfectly
    Flag b182chicon January 01, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:So this is the new year
    And I don't feel any different.
    Flag saileshon December 31, 2009   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:Only reason I ever look forward to the beginning of another year, I get to play this song over and over again.
    Flag st hannahon December 08, 2009   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:Really depressing, no matter how happy the tune. He says it's a new year and nothing has changed, no problems are solved, so what if it's a new year? The fact that a new year has come doesn't bring hope and joy with it, just more months. He seems miserable because in the last few lines that the road is not flat, that there is so much between them: that keeps him from seeing her. So this is the New Year, and you're not here with me. Only sounds of colorful sparks and flying corks.
    Flag Elusineon July 14, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I think the song says what a lie it's the new year, where people pretend that something in the next year it's gonna change.

    Some people say that they'll stop smoking, or that they'll behave differently .
    But I mean, i see no big thing about that, i think that If we could change anytime without that excuse of a calendar.
    Flag agadoison July 13, 2009   Link

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