Signs

It's obviously about a lover who committed suicide.

'The last time we slept together, there was something that was not there You never wanted to alarm me but I'm the one that's drowning now'

The person was 'not there', he didn't want to 'alarm' him with his pain. He was drowning and now Kele is drowning.

People who are depressed often lose weight, hence the reference to seeing him ' fleshed out' probably the way he used to be before he got in this mental state.

It's a beautiful song and eventhough I've never lost anyone to suicide I can still find some form of grief in it. It doesn't matter how someone died. It's absolutely beautiful.

I think it's just too easy to write this off as "it's a song about death". If we're to believe this song is in keeping with the album's theme (Intimacy) then perhaps it's more figurative. Sure, there are songs like Ares on Intimacy that aren't about relationships or romance, but the majority certainly are (Trojan Horse, One Month Off, you get the idea).

My interpretation of this song is that it's about a man hung up on a recently crumbled relationship. When Kele sings 'At your funeral, I was so upset... in your life, you were larger than this, statuesque", I'm reminded of the break-up, and he wonders how she could be so uncaring and cold when breaking up with him, as if nothing previous mattered. The "So like you to visit me, to let me know you were okay" section suggests to me that the girl came back for one night of passion out of her guilt for the emotional pain she's inflicted on him. When he's saying "I see signs now all the time that you're not dead, you're sleeping", he's referring to the little things that he sees his ex do that suggest that the relationship can, in fact, be salvaged: that the relationship is not dead, it's sleeping.

For any fellow Bloc Party fans, I think the song is quite similar to Biko in the sense that it deals with the end of a relationship metaphorically with death.

definitely one of my faves from the album sighs this is just beautiful the glockenspiels seem so dreamy and sound like a music box

ok i think this song is about the suicide of a friend. bluebells in december may be the flowers they want on the grave. 'the last time we slept together/there was something that was not there' - the problem that was troubling them that pushed them over the edge? ravens, obviously a reference to death, but 'one for you and one for me', together with 'i can sleep forever these days' and the last two lines of the song, maybe he's contemplating it too?

I see signs now all the time

i think he says 'you're not dead you're sleeping', i hear it better the second time he sings it. i think its him being 'optimistic' instead of giving in to the fact that they're really dead

i think it's autobiographical, or part of a series of songs that fit together about the loss of someone to cancer, see also "biko". i also think it's about the grief that comes after a death, and about being in denial.

do you think the ravens have anything to do with plans? i think i'm just obsessed with that kinda thing now though. but i see signs now all the time! oh hardy har har.

A very personal song I think.... I think it's obviously sbout someone dying/dead. However, i also think it's about struggling with faith/religion. He wants to believe in anything that will bring this person back, and he imagines he sees signs that there is an afterlife or she will come back.

Also, I think in catholisism, you get buried in what's known as a confirmation dress, a white frilly thing. So he says he sees her/him in his dreams, but then sees her for real at an open casket funeral, and also at the same time how she/he looks small and statue-like.

Truly a brilliant song....

Thanks again for the confirmation on the lyrics!

Also Kele has a very religious mother, who he doesn't talk about much... I think the whole album represents struggle with religion.

Ares, Mercury, Zephyrus, Trojan Horse.... Greek gods/myths. "Are these the real gods? Is what i should believe in?"

Halo, Better than heaven.... Christian symbolism. Again "is this what to believe?"

I dunno, but would seem very well planned.