Regina Spektor – Fidelity

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  General Comment:I was watching Pop Up video, this song came out. It said that she wrote it about John Cusack's character in the movie High Fidelity.

  Flag gigilee87on November 29, 2011   Link

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    He is so sexy.

    Flag SweetCheeks2on January 07, 2012  

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    He's dorky and cute...or at least he used to be. THAT makes him sexy. I also like his acting...kind of like the boy next door sort of sexiness.

    Flag SweetCheeks2on January 07, 2012  

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    I just realized my last sentence makes no sense. First acting then sexy again. Oops.

    Flag SweetCheeks2on January 07, 2012  

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    You probably don't think many of the guys I think sexy are sexy....Dr. Reid from Criminal Minds; Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory; etc. I have been told I have peculiar taste in men. I tend to gravitate toward thin bright men. Toss in some black glasses; a love for language; and an ability to make me laugh and I'm in Heaven. My girlfriends laugh at me.

    Flag SweetCheeks2on January 07, 2012  
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  General Comment:I think this song means that she never wanted to love anybody because she was too afraid to (I never loved nobody truly, always one foot on the ground) and what she did was loose herself in her music (and by protecting my heart truly I got lost in the sounds I hear in my mind ect.) and she feels she made a mistake cause once she found love and got a hold to see what if felt like she realized what she was missing (and by protecting my heart truly I got lost in the sounds I hear in my mind all these voices I hear in my mind all these words, I hear in my mind all of this music and it breaks my heart, it breaks my heart) also in the music video it shows her in the end happy with a guy so I think it means that she finally learned to let go

  Flag neelllyyysuuunnnon November 27, 2011   Link

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    I agree...thats always been my interperitation of it too.

    Flag Saxatilison August 14, 2012  
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  General Comment:To me, this song is saying that even if you love someone, when you are with them you give up the opportunity to be in other relationships that could also be awesome.
  That's what I think she's getting at when she says "suppose I never ever met you, suppose we never fell in love."
  what would have happened if we had never been together? Would I be with someone else?
  I think these questions are the voices and the sounds she hears in her head.

  Flag RedNosedBaboonon October 14, 2011   Link

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  My Interpretation:For me, the tone of this song comes across as oblique, implied, understated and this captures my imagination. It's like a puzzle for me. Earlier this evening, I was watching an old episode of Secret Diary of a Call Girl, and this song was sound-card to one of the key scenes of the show. I'd forgotten this tune, even though it's a bit of an earworm. Anyhow, youTube.. Songmeanings.. here goes..
  
  Fidelity feels like an irony in how it's used as the title, as so often we are NOT faithful to our true nature, by-passing really showing up in life, NOT living in conscious awareness.
  
  Getting lost in all the sounds and inner voices has an undertone, something like how, if rehearsed often enough, we begin to believe the folklore we script for ourselves. We drift so reflexively into unexamined held-beliefs, and by keeping our world small, its smallness might serve to make it all the more controllable, as in protecting her heart truly, rather than truly letting it beat to its own rhythm.
  
  Hearing all these words and music in the mind - it doesn't sound like she's speaking about a felt sense of something lyrical or harmonious - rather, it feels to music what a life lived in the head, is to living.. it's imaginary life.
  
  The conditional flavour of the song is amplified by her list of what-ifs which stand contrary to fact. She submits that suppose none of these things had happened.. but implicitly they seem to have taken place, in spite of her circumstances. At the same time, we don't really know if she's suffering from loss or heartache. She does seem to acknowledge the unpredictibility of loving; that the willingness to risk is more complex than any ability to engineer desired outcomes. We just can never know how things are going to turn out and sometimes it's easier not to find out due to fear. I garner this from the line, "Suppose I kept on singing love songs just to break my fall.."
  
  The fact that her friends say that it's going to get better, again, it harkens to my impressions of the title, Fidelity, and its ironic usage; that we are often unfaithful to our true nature, abandonning our own wisdom, in favour of the voice of others.
  
  The video for this song has a kind of literal quality, starts off all black and white, with an imaginary lover. Then through an apparent willingness to risk, he takes true form, and life suddenly gets very colourful as the couple are seen to opt to experience life freely, rather than simply think about it.
  
  I enjoy the paint throwing scene in the vid. It reminds me of the Indian festival of Holi. Holi has a lighthearted quality to it, in the way that Valentines Day has in the West. Curiously it's further interesting and happenstantial that the Festival of Holi derives from the Legend of Prahlada and Holika. The moral-of-the-story to this legend is basically that he who torments the truly faithful, will be soundly defeated. Full circle.. Fidelity.

  Flag Lazulineon May 07, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:This song plays out what I've been dealing with for a while. To me, it's about juggling the thought of opening up to someone you like and want to see more with and closing yourself off for fear of heartbreak. But it's ironic because the heartbreak comes from barring yourself away from emotionally opening up.
  
  "I never loved nobody fully
  always one foot on the ground
  and by protecting my heart truly
  I got lost in the sounds
  I hear in my mind
  all these voices
  I hear in my mind
  all these words
  I hear in mind
  all this music
  and it breaks my heart..."
  
  I've never fully allowed myself to open up intimately. I've dispelled enough to be satisfied, but there's never been that full feeling of letting go and being totally vulnerable. To me, the voices are all the times someone has complimented me and tried to reach me intimately, but I knew that their attempts had no phase on the wall blocking them out (hence the heartbreak).
  
  "suppose I never ever met you
  suppose we never fell in love
  suppose I never ever let you
  kiss me so sweet and so soft
  suppose I never ever saw you
  suppose you never ever called
  suppose I kept on singing love songs
  just to break my own fall"
  
  This part is about juggling your options, mostly about completely shutting this person out intimately. What if we never met? Would I be better off? I can think of so many times where I've thought about this. And to me, the last part is about justifying how maybe things would be better.
  
  "all my friends say
  that of course it's
  gonna get better... "
  
  I think this is just reflection on what friends may have said in moments of past romantic fall-outs.
  
  This is just my two cents on this, not that it's anything new I don't think. (: I just felt the need to post. I'm still waiting for my colorful ending like in the music video..
  
  

  Flag AirinDeeon March 09, 2011   Link

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    I am in the same situation. Divorced parents, family that let me down since I was young... it's hard to trust people. It's even hard for me to trust my friends, but I'm getting better at it. I hope I will have my colourful ending in the future as well.

    Flag Plottoberryon May 29, 2012  
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  General Comment:I absolutly LOVE this song. And i know regina spektor never writes about herself, but does anyone know if she wrote this one about herself? Or who it is about?

  Flag cloudyconceptionson December 09, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:The song starts out talking about a girl and how she has always lived her life with “one foot on the ground” (4). This image shows that she was never able to let herself go and be vulnerable, she couldn’t let go for fear of having a broken heart. She thought that she was protecting herself from a fall (23), but she ended up hurting herself because now she has never fallen in love. While living her safe life she has always imagined herself in love songs, falling in love with a guy, though she never has and is regretful that she never allowed herself to fall in love (6-15). She ends up meeting a guy and starts to fall in love. She is cautious and wonders if she should let herself be vulnerable, even though there is a chance she could get hurt, she wonders what will happen if she continues to try and break her falls (17-26). She knows that its supposed to get better, and hopes that it will for her (28-31). She looks back at her life, always living with “one foot on the ground” and realizes that that has ended up hurting herself (33-37). She realizes that she needs to let go and when she does her heart won’t get broken, but her protected heart will break open, so she can fall in love. This is confusing with the lyrics because of its irony; the same lyrics at the beginning of the song mean what they say, but at the end of the song they don’t. At the beginning the lyrics show infidelity, but at the end they show fidelity.

  Flag margav67on October 24, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:I think this is about a person that is used to intellectualizing/rationalizing their emotions. They live in oblivion because it is easier that way. At the same time they understand they are missing out.

  Flag lokigrlon September 07, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:it is funny to see how personal experience always interfere in interpretation as well
  
  and though it might have been inspired by the movie I believe it also talks about herself. Don´t think Regina would make a song without combining all these things she saw in the movie with her own experience.
  
  It would be great though, to hear from Regina about her songs...

  Flag exhilariatingon August 06, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:and yeah, littlemisslovesong, the commitment here (from his side) is the key for her to let go.
  IT IS AWESOME that she shows that in this video... every girl dreams about a man who will commit fully to them, and then, they will love him for real and surrender.
  
  Girls should be that careful...

  Flag exhilariatingon August 06, 2010   Link

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