This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Oh, is this the way they say the future's meant to feel?
Or just twenty thousand people standing in a field?
And I don't quite understand just what this feeling is
But that's okay 'cause we're all sorted out for E's and wizz
And tell me when the spaceship lands 'cause all this has just got to mean something-ing
Oh, in the middle of the night
It feels alright, but then tomorrow morning
Oh, oh, then you come down, oh
Oh yeah, the pirate radio told us what was going down
Got the tickets from some fucked up bloke in Camden Town
Oh, and no-one seems to know exactly where it is
But that's okay 'cause we're all sorted out for E's and wizz
At four o'clock the normal world seems very, very, very far away
All right
In the middle of the night
It feels alright, but then tomorrow morning
Oh, oh, then you come down, oh
Just keep on moving
Everybody asks your name, they say we're all the same and now it's
"Nice one," "geezer"
But that's as far as the conversation went
I lost my friends, I dance alone
It's six o'clock, I want to go home
But it's "no way," "not today"
Makes you wonder what it meant
And this hollow feeling grows and grows and grows and grows
And you want to call your mother
And say "mother, I can never come home again
'Cause I seem to have left an important part of my brain somewhere
Somewhere in a field in Hampshire, all right"
In the middle of the night
It feels alright, but then tomorrow morning
Oh, oh, then you come down
Oh, oh, then you come down
Oh, what if you never come down?
Or just twenty thousand people standing in a field?
And I don't quite understand just what this feeling is
But that's okay 'cause we're all sorted out for E's and wizz
And tell me when the spaceship lands 'cause all this has just got to mean something-ing
Oh, in the middle of the night
It feels alright, but then tomorrow morning
Oh, oh, then you come down, oh
Oh yeah, the pirate radio told us what was going down
Got the tickets from some fucked up bloke in Camden Town
Oh, and no-one seems to know exactly where it is
But that's okay 'cause we're all sorted out for E's and wizz
At four o'clock the normal world seems very, very, very far away
All right
In the middle of the night
It feels alright, but then tomorrow morning
Oh, oh, then you come down, oh
Just keep on moving
Everybody asks your name, they say we're all the same and now it's
"Nice one," "geezer"
But that's as far as the conversation went
I lost my friends, I dance alone
It's six o'clock, I want to go home
But it's "no way," "not today"
Makes you wonder what it meant
And this hollow feeling grows and grows and grows and grows
And you want to call your mother
And say "mother, I can never come home again
'Cause I seem to have left an important part of my brain somewhere
Somewhere in a field in Hampshire, all right"
In the middle of the night
It feels alright, but then tomorrow morning
Oh, oh, then you come down
Oh, oh, then you come down
Oh, what if you never come down?
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More Featured Meanings
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
I remember this at the time when it seemed to be a dig at what some people with guitars thought was a passing fad of dance music. In 2023 things are much clearer on what was the fad and what stood the test of time. Brit Pop died after a couple of years and dance music is still going strong. That's why bands like Pulp may still tour but their set list is songs now 30 years old. To many clubbers this song was unintentionally funny because it describes someone who goes to a rave, while on drugs and still manages to have a miserable time. Also to suggest UK raves didn't change the country is laughable. Unlike Brit Pop which at best changed haircuts for a couple of years. The biggest irony of this song however is the underlying suggestion dance music was all about drugs. When we all now know that heroin (heroin chic) and cocaine were rife in the indie guitar scene. Leading to many a second dull album and band breakup. So sorted for E's at the time was wrongly held as an anti drug anthem, which came from a scene with a far worse drug problem. Oh and Jarvis is now making house music. Irony upon irony.