Lykke Li – Tonight

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  General Comment:I saw a dance to this song once, that was a senior farewell piece. The theme of the dance defines the song for me. Sometimes, people have to grow apart or leave each other. When that time comes, the person who's left behind tries to be strong for the person who's leaving, and vice versa. Even though they haven't been separated yet, everyone knows it's coming, and this song is a plea to hold on for a little while longer. Don't let me go yet. That's how I interpret it, at least. But any way you see it, it's a beautiful song.

  Flag superfedoraon October 06, 2011   Link

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• -3
  General Comment:This song is about oral sex. She is saying that he must not let her go that night as she longs to perform oral sex on him, but unfortunately he is an inexperienced lover and it ends very quickly and unexpectedly and it goes in her eye, prompting her to demand he "dry my eye, dry my eye"
  
  

  Flagged russycarpson August 17, 2011   Link

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    God, you're a lousy troll.
    
    Shame on you.

    Flag jd2416on May 20, 2012  
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  My Interpretation:Personally, I feel that this song is about the thrill and the calmness of walking a line with the person you are deeply in love with. However, deep within, she realizes the people who would know about this secret relationship so she wants him to hold her both literally and metaphorically and dry her eyes so she won't know of all of these turmoils she had with past friendships. Maybe she lost a friend due to a relationship-related problem, but this wouldn't encounter her as a person today except for the fact that she wanted to be with him--she was looking for her friend as she said in the song and found you...instead of her. Maybe the friend is him but that is besides the point. It's about the thrills and fervor of love that create their deep entanglement more meaningful than the tears she cries---
  
  As for the tears, I also get a feeling of crying for him as if she was sad, but her mind is tripped out by the fact that the tears are representations of those feelings so he tries to wipe them away to protect her so she will not drown in those tears and only in him. If she cries, it will be for him to protect her throughout the darkness. I think it is more of a protection song than a self-tumultuous song. It really isn't a raucous song. It isn't vehement in the need for others to leave--and to find friendship, but more in the fact that she wants to share deeper emotions with him.

  Flag ChasingChinaRainbowson August 07, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:Beautiful song!
  To me this song seems to be about a friendship on the
  edge of becoming a relationship, but none of them takes
  the step. Thus also dealing with the lack of communication
  in their friend/relationship.
  
  Sometimes we hurt the ones we love the most by saying something
  thoughtless, and sometimes by saying nothing at all.
  
  The verses deals with her unability to open up about her
  insecurities and feelings. And the chorus seems to be her
  pleading for (him) to hold her put for tonight.
  Which in other words would make him take a stance.
  
  We always want the other part to take the first step.
  But sometimes we have to be able to show ourselves fragile and
  swallow our pride.
  
  Conclusion: nothing ventured, nothing gained.
  

  Flag hwhyon December 07, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:This song also hit sooo close to home.
  My boyfriend just broke up with me and I very much feel like franciscodanconia's comment made the most sense to it.
  I also felt like the Christian Haag video was so special because of her sad, heart broken look...I feel like that was the look I gave to my ex as I was trying to figure out the words I couldn't think of.
  
  Thank you, Lykke Li!

  Flag AlexaJayon October 17, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:whoa..this hits home too much for me..beautiful...

  Flag gunner-chicaon October 01, 2010   Link

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  My Interpretation:she is in love with someone that she wants to let go of but she is affraid of the pain that would come with leaving him.
  
  so she says let me go( so the he will let her leave, get out of her head) and dont let me go (because she still loves him and wants to be with him)
  
  second verse i was thinking that they tried to just be friends but they still know they love each other but they know its best to stay friends
  
  second chorus is referring to him being in her head now. even though they are friends and logically they should be her heart still wants to be with him.
  
  dry my eye/falling deeper part is about the grief/depression of losing him.
  
  

  Flag charlieeknoon August 13, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:such a beautiful song...
  
  to me it is as if she were leaving for some reason but she still wants him to fight for her "don't you let me tonight" to possibly give her hope that they could work it out

  Flag idlekindon March 15, 2010   Link

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• +2
  My Interpretation:ok. this is the song that got me to register so I could write a comment. Love this song especially the video filmed by Christian Haag. If you haven't seen it check it out vimeo.com/….
  
  What I love about this song is how Lykke Li captures that turmoil between not wanting to be let go and wanting to be let go of. "don't you let me go, let me go tonight." That point of internal struggle between two simultaneous but conflicting desires.
  
  Lykke Li also does something interesting in the first verse. She creates this spatial and temporal confusion with alternating directions and double meanings. I'll explain what I mean. In the second line "you're right behind me as before" 'behind' and 'before' are locations like 'behind' and 'in front of', but 'before' is also a time word, so 'behind' becomes imbued with its temporal meaning. This sense of temporal slipperiness is further greased with the next line "yesterday the night before tomorrow." It takes you a moment to figure out what she is trying to say about time. When you do, the narrator is sandwiched between yesterday and tomorrow; just like the narrator is snuggled between 'behind and 'before', spatially and temporally. It almost gives the sense the narrator is blind, feeling behind and in front of herself. And the following line "dry my eyes so you won't know/dry my eyes so I won't show" reveals the narrator is crying and blinded with her tears, wanting those who might see her to be blind to her crying as well. The final line "I know you're right behind me" is a repeat of the second line, but with the alternating opposites in space and time created by the previous 4 lines, the effect is less than the certainty expressed in the first lines "watch my back so I make sure/you're right behind me as before." You're not really sure any more whether that person who has been entrusted with watching her back is really there. Line two reads "you're right behind me as before," but the last line of the first verse drops the 'as before' and the effect seems like something has been lost. A certainty replaced now with blind hope.
  
  So when Lykke Li sings the line "don't you let me go, let me go tonight" the listener feels the narrator's confusion and conflict. With that somber, almost funeral tune, the temporal slipperiness tells a story of confusion, sadness, and pain. Something so lonely; a litany, "he loves me, he loves me not," rocking back and forth to calm. Within that echo ". . .let me go, let me go tonight" there is the opposite desire for freedom and the cessation of pain. In Lykke Li's voice is the intensest longing of wanting to be held. The accompanying piano notes like a child left alone in a house.
  
  By the third verse, the barest sketch of a love affair. Something seemingly long ago with too much pain to hold on to for very long. A sense of love lifting the narrator "above the ground", higher than high heels and higher still, onto high horses, "keeping us safe into the night." A sense of security, "we know them all" and hubris "i know it all." and a game like tag, "now i got you, got you."
  
  two more things of note. "falling deeper by the hour" both falling in love and falling into melancholy. Love how Lykke Li's voice expresses this falling with her descending note. and then a brief struggle as the music and her voice swell for the fourth line "dry my eye, dry my eye." like drying eyes to stop crying.
  
  I'll write more later. got to go for now.
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Flag RayLaion May 15, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:I think this song is about a very paranoid person in a relationship eg; "watch my back so I make sure, you're right behind me as before"
  -just making sure the partner is still there-
  Then "dry me eyes so you won't know", they're stressed and as franciscodanconia said, bipolar?
  "I know you're right behind me"
  It seems to me that they're very very worried about being left alone.

  Flag millroyon May 09, 2009   Link

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