Certainly there's a soured relationship here, but it's not exactly right (I think) to say that he wants to restart it. In fact, by the end of the song I'd say he reaches the opposite conclusion: he's going to torch it. He does want an energized relationship ("electricity"), but this one doesn't really fit the bill - she has "to cope" and misrepresent herself just to stick around, he thinks it'd make him feel lonelier to stay in the relationship than to leave it. There's sort of a catch-22 in that leaving reinforces that selfsame doubt, but until he leaves he'll never be able to say for sure whether he's "capable of waking up these dreams."
For me, the key notion in this song is fighting to let a relationship die: there's such a prevalent social mythology about the need to fight to maintain relationships that the other side rarely (if ever) gets a word in edgewise. Especially after you've "come this far," the conventional wisdom says you have to keep going. But there definitely are times when it's best to break it off, and it looks like the narrator found one.
for me this song is not at all about a relationship. not with a person at least. the pen for me there in the beginning is the symbol for art and from then on I he is talking about how he has the artistic impulse and then loses it all the time. He is kind of chasing his feelings to put them into words, but they run away. They just come out of nowhere and then he fails to grab them and freeze them to show them to someone. They just go by without any trace or effect in this...
for me this song is not at all about a relationship. not with a person at least. the pen for me there in the beginning is the symbol for art and from then on I he is talking about how he has the artistic impulse and then loses it all the time. He is kind of chasing his feelings to put them into words, but they run away. They just come out of nowhere and then he fails to grab them and freeze them to show them to someone. They just go by without any trace or effect in this world.
He knows he can live without doing his art, and he knows sometimes he is trying too hard to make art, but this is his dream. And wants that electricity to be able to freeze the feelings worthwhile to share. He is at the point of making a decision to give it all up or go all the way.
He gets insecure in himself but at the end he calms down (manages to connect to this electricity) and thinks, I've done much more than an average person and I am on my way to be an artist. Hey, it's time to break through!
this is my impression, but I might be completely missing the point...
Certainly there's a soured relationship here, but it's not exactly right (I think) to say that he wants to restart it. In fact, by the end of the song I'd say he reaches the opposite conclusion: he's going to torch it. He does want an energized relationship ("electricity"), but this one doesn't really fit the bill - she has "to cope" and misrepresent herself just to stick around, he thinks it'd make him feel lonelier to stay in the relationship than to leave it. There's sort of a catch-22 in that leaving reinforces that selfsame doubt, but until he leaves he'll never be able to say for sure whether he's "capable of waking up these dreams."
For me, the key notion in this song is fighting to let a relationship die: there's such a prevalent social mythology about the need to fight to maintain relationships that the other side rarely (if ever) gets a word in edgewise. Especially after you've "come this far," the conventional wisdom says you have to keep going. But there definitely are times when it's best to break it off, and it looks like the narrator found one.
for me this song is not at all about a relationship. not with a person at least. the pen for me there in the beginning is the symbol for art and from then on I he is talking about how he has the artistic impulse and then loses it all the time. He is kind of chasing his feelings to put them into words, but they run away. They just come out of nowhere and then he fails to grab them and freeze them to show them to someone. They just go by without any trace or effect in this...
for me this song is not at all about a relationship. not with a person at least. the pen for me there in the beginning is the symbol for art and from then on I he is talking about how he has the artistic impulse and then loses it all the time. He is kind of chasing his feelings to put them into words, but they run away. They just come out of nowhere and then he fails to grab them and freeze them to show them to someone. They just go by without any trace or effect in this world.
He knows he can live without doing his art, and he knows sometimes he is trying too hard to make art, but this is his dream. And wants that electricity to be able to freeze the feelings worthwhile to share. He is at the point of making a decision to give it all up or go all the way.
He gets insecure in himself but at the end he calms down (manages to connect to this electricity) and thinks, I've done much more than an average person and I am on my way to be an artist. Hey, it's time to break through!
this is my impression, but I might be completely missing the point...