This song is a masterpiece. I had no idea that it was written by Walla, I assumed Gibbard was the author due to it's similar metaphorical wordsmithery.
At times I'm surprised at the observations people make on this website as they so often seem to deviate from my initial contemplations. My thoughts tend to be more abstract and fragmented I feel, thus leading to alternate conclusions about meaning. Thus it was with this song. While I must admit, the common interpretations result in a greater level of overall clarity,I can't resist adhering to my original musings.
Luckily, after glancing through some of the responses I found that I wasn't quite so isolated.I resonated most with Overmyhead's response near the beginning of the thread. I felt that the song was talking about one man. The relational aspect between two people appears to me to be at the periphery of the songs general message. I like to think it's about getting older, but still fealing youthful inside. It's the dichotomy that exists between your inner soul and your outer body. As the man gets older he begins to recoginze that his body is a deceptive fascade no longer matching his soul. He looks in the mirror and the person who he sees is different than how he thinks of himself. It's like he's trapped within himself. He feels young, strong, and vibrant, but the reflection disagrees with all of it. He senses the constriction in the same way one who anticipates a removal of gravity to let them fly would. I also feel like the song is about imagination. The man's powerful imaginative being is unable to penetrate the reality of his situation, which contains absolutely no mechanism for flight. The last line seems nearly haunting to me. I imagine a man sitting on a hotel room bed looking across from himself at a mirror on the other side. He says goodnite to himself (his reflection in the mirror) which he now thinks of like a brother. Within the last line he comes to terms with the seperation between his soul and body, but takes the notion to new awkward heights of dissassociation by imagining this different entity that stares back at him as a brother who he is familiar with but sepperate from.
This song is a masterpiece. I had no idea that it was written by Walla, I assumed Gibbard was the author due to it's similar metaphorical wordsmithery.
At times I'm surprised at the observations people make on this website as they so often seem to deviate from my initial contemplations. My thoughts tend to be more abstract and fragmented I feel, thus leading to alternate conclusions about meaning. Thus it was with this song. While I must admit, the common interpretations result in a greater level of overall clarity,I can't resist adhering to my original musings.
Luckily, after glancing through some of the responses I found that I wasn't quite so isolated.I resonated most with Overmyhead's response near the beginning of the thread. I felt that the song was talking about one man. The relational aspect between two people appears to me to be at the periphery of the songs general message. I like to think it's about getting older, but still fealing youthful inside. It's the dichotomy that exists between your inner soul and your outer body. As the man gets older he begins to recoginze that his body is a deceptive fascade no longer matching his soul. He looks in the mirror and the person who he sees is different than how he thinks of himself. It's like he's trapped within himself. He feels young, strong, and vibrant, but the reflection disagrees with all of it. He senses the constriction in the same way one who anticipates a removal of gravity to let them fly would. I also feel like the song is about imagination. The man's powerful imaginative being is unable to penetrate the reality of his situation, which contains absolutely no mechanism for flight. The last line seems nearly haunting to me. I imagine a man sitting on a hotel room bed looking across from himself at a mirror on the other side. He says goodnite to himself (his reflection in the mirror) which he now thinks of like a brother. Within the last line he comes to terms with the seperation between his soul and body, but takes the notion to new awkward heights of dissassociation by imagining this different entity that stares back at him as a brother who he is familiar with but sepperate from.
@SteveOatman Brilliant. You nailed it.
@SteveOatman Brilliant. You nailed it.