Giving up everything
my hungry ghost of hopefulness
Giving up everything
not haunted by wanting this
Giving up everything
the fortune I was saving
Giving up everything
I mercy-killed my craving
Giving up everything
I've opened up my eyes for this
Giving up everything
see the whole magnificent emptiness
Gave what I want for how it is
for the stone inside and the bitterness
for the sweetness at the core of it
Giving up everything
The master plan, the scheming
Giving up everything
my cursed search for meaning
Giving up everything
the compass and the map I was reading.
The hinterlands I'm leaving
I'm finally leaving behind
Giving up everything
the big to-do, the hullabaloo
The tug-of-war for some twisted truth
For the everlasting ache of it
No longer slave, not chained to it
no gate, no guard, no keeper
no guru, master, teacher
See the slow-receding faces
dissolve to black, no traces
my hungry ghost of hopefulness
Giving up everything
not haunted by wanting this
Giving up everything
the fortune I was saving
Giving up everything
I mercy-killed my craving
Giving up everything
I've opened up my eyes for this
Giving up everything
see the whole magnificent emptiness
Gave what I want for how it is
for the stone inside and the bitterness
for the sweetness at the core of it
Giving up everything
The master plan, the scheming
Giving up everything
my cursed search for meaning
Giving up everything
the compass and the map I was reading.
The hinterlands I'm leaving
I'm finally leaving behind
Giving up everything
the big to-do, the hullabaloo
The tug-of-war for some twisted truth
For the everlasting ache of it
No longer slave, not chained to it
no gate, no guard, no keeper
no guru, master, teacher
See the slow-receding faces
dissolve to black, no traces
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Natalie is, as far as I can see, in a literal closet here, though that may just be a stylistic choice for the shooting of the video. It looks like quite literally an old plaster walled closet.
What I find most interesting is the way the video interplays with the lyrics and the choices for what is sung and what is heard. Even the audio is clearly on different tracks giving the illusion that you have two separate identities speaking to one another.
There's a lot of speech in this song about what she is giving up, even though there is no distinct statement of why, it feels like it is a protective response.
"I mercy killed my craving."
"I've opened up my eyes for this. See the cold magnificent emptiness. Give what I want for how it is, for the stone inside and the bitterness."
It very much feels like a song that is about a hard acceptance of a pragmatic worldview that conflicts with the ideals that she held as a younger woman.
"I mercy killed my craving."<br /> <br /> This response form has a sound of a response to the call of "Giving up everything" with the response of "And this is what I have done."