Amanda Palmer – Another Year

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  General Comment:"i have my new bill hicks cd
  i have my friends and my career"
  
  it's winter, she's depressed and trying to find reasons to live.

  Flag jessicaevon March 05, 2013   Link

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  General Comment:I took it to mean suicide, but that's just me

  Flag jessicaevon March 05, 2013   Link

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  General Comment:to me this song is not about being afraid of intimacy, and not about suicide, it's about being inlove with someone who's married or in a relationship with someone else, about being "the other woman" and waiting for that person to leave and be with her instead.
  
  plus i'm only twenty-six years old
  my grandma died at eighty-three
  that's lots of time if i don't smoke
  i think i'll wait another year
  
  could be about how much time they'll have together even if she has to wait another year, and I think the whole lyric fits this theory and I am surpsrised that I'm the first to add it to this discussion

  Flag kickfooton January 18, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:To me, this song is about not only emotional intimacy, but also sexual intimacy. The last verse, especially, strikes me this way. It reminds me of not being ready to have sex with your significant other yet, and he/she is becoming impatient with you, so you plead, "If we love each other, can't we just wait together?" Then, when you're approaching readiness, or you're afraid that he/she is going to leave you, you decide you'll just make yourself do it, and might as well do it with some beer, and hopefully have a good smoke afterwards.

  Flag Cricketteon November 23, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:I think it's kind of both suicide and love. She wants someone, but for various reasons, real or imagined, she can never quite be with them ("I tried to fall in it again"). Her friends are used to her pulling this stunt, getting so close to being with this person but her "nervous systems interfere" (which could be interpreted to mean she is too nervous, or possibly the system could be the constrictions of society) never quite making it that they have lost all sympathy. She is fooling herself that in a year she will be in a better position to be with this person, but really she knows it's not true. Hence, "another year", not just one year, as if this has been going on a long time. However in the meantime she hopes just to gain their friendship, so that she can be near to them at least ("Can't we just wait together?"), and that is as close as she can get to happy. She is trying to deny how depressed she is and think that she just has to get through this one year - hope for the future is all she has. I always thought it might be about coming out as well - that she loves this one person, and maybe doesn't know how they feel. She thinks that if she comes out and still doesn't have this person she'll have nothing, so she puts it off again and again, hoping that maybe they'll make the first move or something will force her out in some way.

  Flag Jme333on October 03, 2010   Link

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  Song Meaning:I hate to burst everyone's bubble... but Amanda is quite un-suicidal...
  
  "I tried to fall in it again" "it" is love. And her friends bet on whether it would work out and then faked sympathy when it didn't.
  
  The lines "I want your chest pressed to my chest / my nervous systems interfere" are pretty telling. This song is about wanting someone, but not being able to work up the courage to do it. It's a very vulnerable place. Rather than a fear of talking to them though, I think it's a fear of letting someone in. She tries to focus on everything else she has, and how much time she has left, but she knows it's dwindling and she wants something more.
  
  There may be a specific person in mind, she seems to be asking him/her to wait another year with her before she commits, etc. It's heartbreaking because it seems to be a repeating cycle with her in the song.

  Flag Karma policemanon February 27, 2010   Link

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    On another note, I think the smoking imagery is definitely a double meaning, she keeps that running through the lyrics. But the main focus of it I think is relationships.

    Flag Karma policemanon February 27, 2010  
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  General Comment:I think this is about smoking, firstly her friends taking bets on wether or not she will give up, the references to the chest and nervous system, smoking impacts on both these things. The winter can often bring about 'winter blues' which could potentially lead to smoking more, because you/she feels like shit. The next verse is more obvious, she has plenty of time to give up smoking. I barely breathe when you are near, definitely could be about smoking and then 'its not as bad if I don't drink' lots of people smoke more when they are drunk.

  Flag laurenriotson December 18, 2009   Link

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    The winter can often bring about 'winter blues'
    
    
    Yea this is why I think the song is about suicide. If she waits another year and still feels like dying she'll do it.
    
    The depression isn't as bad as when she drinks. For example the day after drinking it tends to make depressed people really depressed, it can interfere with anti-depressants.

    Flag jessicaevon March 05, 2013  
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  General Comment:it would be seen as a depressing/suicidal song because of the "i think i'll wait another year" line, which suggests she'll give life one more shot for just one more year. she lists these very shallow, flimsy reasons of why she shouldn't die, without sounding very enthusiastic about it.
  
  twin peaks
  bill hicks cd
  "i have my friends and my career
  i'm getting smaller by degrees
  you said you'd help me disappear"
  
  she already established that her friends don't think much of her ("mime their sighing violins"), thus this whole song is basically saying "i'll wait another year to see how things work out--if they don't, i'll do it." it being suicide.
  
  that's how i've always heard this song.

  Flag alrauneon October 14, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:I never thought of this as being about suicide. Wow you guys are dark.
  I always thought of it in relation to her career or just things she wanted to do in life. I agree with Raphe, I thought of love as being the thing she tried to fall in again, but I always think of something she said I think on her blog about beating herself up throughout her twenties for having not "achieved" anything, written a blockbuster play or whatever.
  This to me is about putting off trying.

  Flag wkapon June 24, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:I definitely agree with ephtee about her choosing not to get over a broken heart yet, definitely. This song isn't about suicide, otherwise why would she be saying she has a long life ahead of her, why would that matter if she's thinking about committing suicide?

  Flag missmeon April 11, 2009   Link

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    she's trying to talk herself into not committing suicide. She's going to wait another year

    Flag jessicaevon March 05, 2013  

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