I found a letter that said:
"I'm sorry that you were asleep when I wrote these words down,"
You'd think I'd ought to be used to that by now.
But save for a few of those late night episodes,
Missed opportunities, and "I Don't Cares,"
There's not a lot that I feel obliged to share or talk about.

I'll have my brother stop by this Saturday to pick up my things,
Just make sure you're not there.
This may sound bad, don't take it the wrong way..
I love you, however, you hold me down.

You're the echoes of my everything,
You're the emptiness the whole world sings at night.
You're the laziness of afternoon,
You're the reason why I burst and why I bloomed..
How will I break the news to you?

[repeated]

You're the leaky sink of sentiment,
You're the failed attempts I never could forget.
You're the metaphors I can't create to contemplate this curse that I call love..
How will I break the news to you?



Lyrics submitted by AllStarMe, edited by DarkwingDan

Track duration: 05:24

"Hold Me Down" as written by Daniel Pierre, Rayietta Hill

Lyrics © EMI Music Publishing, CHRYSALIS MUSIC GROUP

Lyrics powered by LyricFind


Hold Me Down song meanings
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85 Comments

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  • +1
    Lyric Correction:I don't think there should be a close quotation mark at the end of the second line, almost the whole rest of it is the continuation of the letter, right? it's barely a correction, but I am up pretty late just bugging the internet.
    Flag ibleachtheskyon April 12, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:this happened to me, it just sucks, rips my heart, fuck.
    but anyway, love the concept. understand this song completely since the day I got the album, a beautiful ending to the album, btw.
    it's about how sometimes, Love just is not enough for things to work, you know, no matter how much you love each other, THAT love just won't matter.
    but maybe someday, it will. fuck.
    Flag whatth3h3llon August 15, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:The entire song is a letter from his girlfriend. She wants a break from the relationship. She still loves him, but can't stay with him. Hes her happiness and her pain, and she can't find a way to tell him its over.

    "How will I break the news to you?"

    Its a break-up song.

    Flag tempaznxon May 09, 2011   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:It's feed jackie's gerbil and try to stay clean not drive safely
    Flagged chasegowanon December 10, 2010   Link
  • -1
    General Comment:I think it's about being in a wonderful relationship, but realising that you could be doing so much more. Sort of like being caught between love and what you want to do with your life. "She" wrote a letter for him, because shse just couldn't do it in person, and told him this. She still loves him, but she feels held back, and she can't live with herself.

    Personally, I think the last few verses: "You're the echoes of my everything..." are what she wrote him. And the middle verses (that are classic Pierre, by the way) are about him coping with what's happening; with each verse ending in "You hold me down' showing how he can't stop thinking about what she said.

    ....Yeah, that's what I figured it was...or maybe I'm just reflecting some personal experience onto it. Who the hell knows? *Insert shrug here*
    Flag UsuallyTinyon June 27, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I was obsessed with this song many many years ago and just heard it again today. Talk about nostalgia. But its weird when i listened to it back then, and even when i listen to it now, i felt like both the girl who wrote the letter and also at the same time i felt like the guy who received the letter. Deep deep deep. Glad I got to run into something i forgot i loved.
    Flag skijornon November 09, 2009   Link
  • +1
    My Interpretation:beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. there's a kind of melancholy regret in the lyrics to this song that makes me feel hollow every time I hear it.
    I see this song as someone looking back at their relationship, reflecting on the love shared and lost and finally saying goodbye. they can't fully comprehend love, or their lover [ you're the metaphors I can't create, to comprehend this curse that I call love ] but they will still miss them.
    xo
    Flag Irisiaon July 26, 2009   Link
  • +3
    General Comment:god i love the metaphors he uses, they're brilliant.
    They use something seemingly good and twist it to make it bad.

    "You're the echoes of my everything"--she was his everything, but its only an echo, something distant and out of reach

    "You're the emptiness the whole world sings at night"--emptiness is lonely, but then he parallels that with the whole world singing together. This is such a hopeless image because singing together is supposed to be something happy, but the singing is empty.

    "You're the laziness of afternoon"--a lazy afternoon is relaxing, but it doesnt move your forward (maybe like their relationship)

    "You're the reason why I burst and why I bloom"--she does these two extreme things to him, but there can't be a medium

    "you're the leaky sink of sentiment"--the image is of a broken sink, and the broken sink is symbolic of his feelings. His feelings towards her are breaking.

    "You're the failed attempts I never will forget"--An experince you'll never forget is usually something good. He twists that perception and pairs it with failed attempts. Who wants to keep revisiting failed attempts in their thoughts?

    "You're the metaphors I can't create to comprehend this curse that I call love" -- this line is really interesting rhetorically because it basically negates all the metaphors he had just previously listed. Those metaphors are so heart-wrenching and chilling, but he says that they don't even come close to showing how he feels. I also like how he calls love a curse; the commonplace is that love is wonderful, but he shows how she twisted this perception for him so horribly that it is now a curse to him.

    Overall, a very powerful song if you listen to it closely. Pure genius.
    Flag ashmoeon January 07, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I had to pick a song I could relate to for an assignment in Psychology and write a breif summary over it. Here is what I think of the song:



    I picked Hold Me Down by the band Motion City Soundtrack for a number of reasons. First, they have always been one of my favorite bands since I was younger and the experience of seeing them live made me like them a whole lot more. Their sound is very unique and I can tell them apart from any band. All of their lyrics to almost every song are creative and filled with a lot of things that I could relate to. This song is about this guy finding a “letter” from his girlfriend that she wrote him while he was asleep, basically stating the reasons why he “held her down” and why she had to leave and couldn’t be there with him at the time, saying she needed some time “alone to sort it out.” She didn’t know how to “break the news” to him, someone so close to her. This song relates to me in the way of having to let go of someone close to you that you love. I think it could be about any type of relationship. For me, it pertains to two people that I used to be very close to, but have been having to slowly let go, for the sake of being “held down” in life. Like in the song, I don’t want them to “take it the wrong way,” it is just something I have to do. It is really hard because they had such a huge impact in my life, both in a very different way. Like in the song, they were “the reason why I burst and why I bloom,” and especially in the last few lines of the song, “the leaky sink of sentiment,” “the failed attempts I never could forget,” and the “metaphors I can't create.” And I’m still trying to figure out how to completely break the news to them.
    Flag ashleysalazaron December 15, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:this song. oh my goodness. i think its about how they were in love and he relied on her so much and tried so hard " you're the failed attempts
    i never could forget" but now she's telling him that she can't do it anymore he has held her down and she wants to move on and do bigger and better things but it makes him feel so sad and lonely.
    Flag burtonchick26on October 02, 2008   Link

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