All Time Low – My Only One

My Interpretation:I'm a huge fan of All Time Low, have been for a few years, and I feel I have a sense of how Alex operates in terms of lyrics. Reading some of the other comments, I'm actually pretty positive I'm wrong lol. Nonetheless, I'll throw this out there.

So, I feel like this is from the writer's point of view. It's about his relationship with a self harmer.
"Paint yourself a picture/Something perfectly obscure/To hide away the messes/Behind your manicure/In all of my obsessing/To find the perfect words/Sick of second-guessing/I didn't mean to make you hurt." Is about how the self harmer acts as if nothing is wrong, and tries to be happy for the rest of the world so people aren't worried about her. And the writer knows that there's something up, and he tries and tries to help her, but in the end it's just causing her more pain.

"What do say when your heart's not in it/Your heart's not in it?/What do you do when you just don't get it/You just don't get it?/Where do you go when you reach your limit/You reach your limit?/Cause all I know, all I know is/You are my only one/That's all I know" Here we see denial. The writer has been trying for so long to help her that in the end, he's thinking it's just not worth it. On the other hand, he is truly in love with her. But he is just not sure he can handle all this work and disappointment.

"Break another mirror/To keep away the stares/Of another guilty reflex/A reflection left in tears" Is about her self harm.

"In all of my obsessing/Tell me what was it worth/Cause I should've learned my lesson/I didn't mean to make you hurt/Didn't mean to make you hurt." The writer is always trying to make her happy, trying to make her stop hurting, but in reality it only causes more pain for her because she doesn't want him worrying about her. She believes she can handle it herself.

"Wake me early/I've been dreaming/Dreaming that I'm only/Good enough for me and no one else." The writer is worried that by helping, he's really screwing it all up because it's hurting her. He's trying to decide whether he's the good guy or the bad guy. His dreams tell him he's bad, but the self harmer tells him he's good.

I don't know. I'm probably wrong. But that's how I look at it.

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Song Meaning:I think this song is very open to interpretation, but personally I think this is a break up song. And in particular the lost of first love. I feel like I am going through the same situation now. You find a very special person very early in your life and you feel that this person will be your "only one". As time moves on you fall deeply in love with that person, and you don't want them to leave, and they become a part of you. The only problem with this is that at such a young age people are still growing and learning. After a long and strong relationship, both parties start to realize that this was great, but maybe spending forever together really isn't a reality, and the whole thing becomes too much work ("All of my obsessing..."). When the person is your first, you try so hard to make it work because you think they are your "only one", but maybe they aren't.

The actual name of the song "My Only One" is in itself a representation of this situation. She has been his "only one", so how do you know what else is out there. The line is " You are my only one, That's all i know, You're all I know", he wants to stay with her because it is all he has ever known, and being alone is a scary thought, but how do you stay when "your heart's not in it". He is having trouble deciding if he wants to throw away the only thing he knows, or hold on to it and try to make it work, even though his heart may not be there anymore.

This interpretation comes from, as i said before, my own situation. My girlfriend of almost 3 years (from age 16-19, so it was a long time for people as young as we are) and I recently broke up. It was her decision, but it was semi mutual. When I first heard this song, it put a pit in the base of my stomach, because it make me question our relationship. I began to wonder if we both only stayed because it was comfortable to know we had each other, and wondering if the love was still there. We still loved each other, but was that spark that made us work starting to fade? I ignored my doubts, and started to feel the old connection from before, but she did not, and decided to end things. Our mistake was never talking about it, even though we both felt it, and we pretended that everything was ok. In a lot of ways, I feel that is exactly what this song is talking about, what to do when the love starts to fade with someone you thought was going to be "the one".

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  Oh, one other thing i forgot. For me "Time-Bomb" is very closely related to this song. Diving head first into the situation and holding on to the person as much as possible, even though things aren't going smooth. "no way out of this, so let's stay in. You fight and disagree, and make up after every fight, instead of being serious about if it is going to work because you are young, reckless, and in love. All of these things are mistakes we all must make in early relationships to make the later ones even better.

  Flag fxlxyxnxn503on August 17, 2011  

My Interpretation:I think he wrote this song after an argument with his girlfriend.
It seems he really hurt her. "hide away the messes", "reflection left in tears" shows that she isn't very happy with herself.
In the chorus he seems overload and exhausted. And too tired to hold on.
"And all of my obsessing, to find the perfect words/tell me what was it worth." shows he tries to help her to feel better but it doesn't work.
He understands that hurting her makes her feel sick and also him.
I guess at "Guess I should have learned my lesson ..." he really realized that although the drama she is the only one for him.
"Wake me early, I've been dreaming. Dreaming that I'm only, only good enough for me and no one else" he realized he was wrong, be mad with her, and she is the only one no matter what.
I can imagine that his feelings changed a lot as he wrote this song. For me it really seems he realized that she is the the only one while he wrote that song.

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General Comment:i think this song is about a guy who has a girl friend but hes in love with someone else and he's realising that she is his 'only one' and that he doesnt love his girlfriend anymore. "what do you say when your hearts not in it" this is saying that he hasnt got the feelings for his girlfriend that he has for this other girl and hes asking himself what hes going to do and how he's going to tell his girlfriend he doesnt like her anymore and that hes in love with the other girl and always has been.

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General Comment:He is so tired of the bullshit, so tired of the drama but damn it, she IS the only one. No matter how tired he is, he just can't walk away, he tries, he thinks, but damn it, in the end of the day there he is by her, no matter how much drama she makes because, in the end, she is his only one.

I know just how it feels, and yep, I love this song.

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General Comment:I think this song is probably about someone realizing that that person is their only one. Not just saying it. He realizes it's true.

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General Comment:I think this song is about him being in a relationship with someone, but he thinks he is falling out of love with the person he has loved for so long. He knows he belongs with this person, he's just not feeling it anymore.

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