I'm going to post my interpretation by each paragraph of the song. Remember, this is my personal interpretation, and I am not speaking on behalf of Lauren Mayberry's views or any of the group member's thought process of this song.
I have a short summary at the bottom.
"Carved earth, cold / Hiding from you in this skin / So, old / I'll come, clean
Everyone-everyone knows / It's, me"
What I take from this is the person has "carved earth" their personality, beliefs, mind, who they are to protect themselves from what is hurting them; it can go to family, relationship, etc. They have molded themselves with masks & armor, & are hiding their true intentions, feelings, and who they are. S/he is growing tired (why she feels "cold") of this pseudo-self, this fake facade, and with paranoia, denial, possibly lowered self esteem from this long length of hiding, feels it's all her fault for whatever is going on in her life, whether it is her fault or not, but either way she feels like shit, or guilty for it all. She takes blame for all of this, and realizes she sees it may have been taken out innocently on people, and her feelings were misunderstood, but the damage is done, and for her, she's giving the person she's with, a chance to recognize that & make a decision themselves.
"And if I recover /Will you be my comfort / Or it can be over / Or we can just leave it here / So pick any number / Choose any color / I've got the answer / Open the envelope"
She lets the person in, to finally understand what's going on in her head, and her life, & maybe why she hasn't been herself, or how she sees the damage she has done to her relationship, and to the one she loves, but she knows she's hurting, and she can't help the pain she's in. So, she asks them if I can get best this, will you be there in the end? If you can't handle the worst of me you're seeing and what we've been going through, you can go, I won't blame you, we can just leave it here. But judging by what her partner is saying, she's letting him think of the pros and con (choose any number, pick any color) like a fortune cookie, but as the partner does this, she starts to realize they've been drifting the whole time without saying, and the last thing to lose is a title, and figures that she already knows the answer, so you might as well just say it "you're leaving." All the flaps, to her, lead to the same answer, because judging by how her partner is reacting, or has been, she has this realization, the person she is/was with, really isn't with her anymore in their entirety so all that's left is a real ending, a real goodbye.
"Blow by blow / Honest in every way I know / You appear / To face a decision I know you fear"
Each new thing she's saying to her partner, she's trying to be in her most honest form. She's so used to faking, pretending, and even telling her partner this, may be hard for them to handle. In fact, it may terrify them, but nothing scares her more than letting them know what's going on. Her partner is just listening to all this, absorbing it, but she lets him know at the end of this talk, something along the lines of, "We can either stick this out now till the end, you can love me as I am, and help me through this struggle, or if you can't, I understand, if you leave it here, and part ways forever," knowing s/he's scared. She realizes all of this is scaring him/her, and it's a lot of pressure, but the speaker knows a decision has to be made now, and so does the partner.
"I'll give you one more chance / To say we can change or part ways/ And you take what you need / And you don't need me"
She's giving him one more chance, with all this truth and honesty in mind, to make a decision (as I said above, something along the lines of "We can either stick this out now till the end, you can love me as I am, and help me through this struggle, or if you can't, I understand, if you leave it here, and part ways forever").
Now the ending doesn't denote the partner left. This is a misconception. She's saying "you can take what you need, and you know you don't need me", but that's what she personally believes due to her plummeted self esteem. Her beliefs =\= what the partner believes or does. She firmly believes after everything her partner and her have been through, s/he can be in a more stable relationship with someone whom isn't as damaged or complicated. As much as she loves her partner, she's willing to let them go so they can be happy. Because she knows that what she's going through has put a deep wound in her, which may take a long time or a whole life time to heal (and be someone s/he and herself can be proud of), and she doesn't want to be a burden on the one she loves.
--
Basically the speaker is really messed up, from depression or from pretending so long, that she has finally realized, she has wrecked havoc on everything and everyone around her, even the ones she loves. Her self-esteem is plummeted, and although she loves her partner, she finally begins to open up about her "true self", thoughts, and personality, which comes to alarm her partner. She finally has this talk about where she's at and who she is (currently in life), and her partner is concerned, scared and worried from what she's saying. Deep down inside, she knows her relationship has been winding down to be broken, and sees it is at an ending point (in her mind), & she can tell by the way her partner is scared of giving her an answer when she asks them if they'll be able to stick around for her to recover, and heal from the pain she's been in, or .. if they can't they can leave and she won't have hard feelings since she knows it's her whose doing this to herself and others. She feels immensely guilty about it, and harbors no sense of belonging anymore but when it comes to her partner, her love for her partner is requited, but too painful for her and her partner. She represents his answer as a fortune, (pick a color) or numbers like numerology (astrology), but feels there's only one right answer for her partner which is them to leave, because that's honestly what she feels they deserve. She feels like a burden for them, to see her suffer like this, and have to put up with her constant sadness, personality twitches, her being broken, and they deserve to be with someone who can make them happy and who is complete. She's telling the one she loves, when I recover, I want to be the person you can be happy with and proud of, and if you can wait this out with me, please stay but if you can't be there, throughout this hard time in my life, even if it last my whole life, you can go & find someone better than me, because I know I'm the hardest person to be with.
I'm going to post my interpretation by each paragraph of the song. Remember, this is my personal interpretation, and I am not speaking on behalf of Lauren Mayberry's views or any of the group member's thought process of this song.
I have a short summary at the bottom.
"Carved earth, cold / Hiding from you in this skin / So, old / I'll come, clean Everyone-everyone knows / It's, me"
What I take from this is the person has "carved earth" their personality, beliefs, mind, who they are to protect themselves from what is hurting them; it can go to family, relationship, etc. They have molded themselves with masks & armor, & are hiding their true intentions, feelings, and who they are. S/he is growing tired (why she feels "cold") of this pseudo-self, this fake facade, and with paranoia, denial, possibly lowered self esteem from this long length of hiding, feels it's all her fault for whatever is going on in her life, whether it is her fault or not, but either way she feels like shit, or guilty for it all. She takes blame for all of this, and realizes she sees it may have been taken out innocently on people, and her feelings were misunderstood, but the damage is done, and for her, she's giving the person she's with, a chance to recognize that & make a decision themselves.
"And if I recover /Will you be my comfort / Or it can be over / Or we can just leave it here / So pick any number / Choose any color / I've got the answer / Open the envelope"
She lets the person in, to finally understand what's going on in her head, and her life, & maybe why she hasn't been herself, or how she sees the damage she has done to her relationship, and to the one she loves, but she knows she's hurting, and she can't help the pain she's in. So, she asks them if I can get best this, will you be there in the end? If you can't handle the worst of me you're seeing and what we've been going through, you can go, I won't blame you, we can just leave it here. But judging by what her partner is saying, she's letting him think of the pros and con (choose any number, pick any color) like a fortune cookie, but as the partner does this, she starts to realize they've been drifting the whole time without saying, and the last thing to lose is a title, and figures that she already knows the answer, so you might as well just say it "you're leaving." All the flaps, to her, lead to the same answer, because judging by how her partner is reacting, or has been, she has this realization, the person she is/was with, really isn't with her anymore in their entirety so all that's left is a real ending, a real goodbye.
"Blow by blow / Honest in every way I know / You appear / To face a decision I know you fear"
Each new thing she's saying to her partner, she's trying to be in her most honest form. She's so used to faking, pretending, and even telling her partner this, may be hard for them to handle. In fact, it may terrify them, but nothing scares her more than letting them know what's going on. Her partner is just listening to all this, absorbing it, but she lets him know at the end of this talk, something along the lines of, "We can either stick this out now till the end, you can love me as I am, and help me through this struggle, or if you can't, I understand, if you leave it here, and part ways forever," knowing s/he's scared. She realizes all of this is scaring him/her, and it's a lot of pressure, but the speaker knows a decision has to be made now, and so does the partner.
"I'll give you one more chance / To say we can change or part ways/ And you take what you need / And you don't need me"
She's giving him one more chance, with all this truth and honesty in mind, to make a decision (as I said above, something along the lines of "We can either stick this out now till the end, you can love me as I am, and help me through this struggle, or if you can't, I understand, if you leave it here, and part ways forever").
Now the ending doesn't denote the partner left. This is a misconception. She's saying "you can take what you need, and you know you don't need me", but that's what she personally believes due to her plummeted self esteem. Her beliefs =\= what the partner believes or does. She firmly believes after everything her partner and her have been through, s/he can be in a more stable relationship with someone whom isn't as damaged or complicated. As much as she loves her partner, she's willing to let them go so they can be happy. Because she knows that what she's going through has put a deep wound in her, which may take a long time or a whole life time to heal (and be someone s/he and herself can be proud of), and she doesn't want to be a burden on the one she loves.
--
Basically the speaker is really messed up, from depression or from pretending so long, that she has finally realized, she has wrecked havoc on everything and everyone around her, even the ones she loves. Her self-esteem is plummeted, and although she loves her partner, she finally begins to open up about her "true self", thoughts, and personality, which comes to alarm her partner. She finally has this talk about where she's at and who she is (currently in life), and her partner is concerned, scared and worried from what she's saying. Deep down inside, she knows her relationship has been winding down to be broken, and sees it is at an ending point (in her mind), & she can tell by the way her partner is scared of giving her an answer when she asks them if they'll be able to stick around for her to recover, and heal from the pain she's been in, or .. if they can't they can leave and she won't have hard feelings since she knows it's her whose doing this to herself and others. She feels immensely guilty about it, and harbors no sense of belonging anymore but when it comes to her partner, her love for her partner is requited, but too painful for her and her partner. She represents his answer as a fortune, (pick a color) or numbers like numerology (astrology), but feels there's only one right answer for her partner which is them to leave, because that's honestly what she feels they deserve. She feels like a burden for them, to see her suffer like this, and have to put up with her constant sadness, personality twitches, her being broken, and they deserve to be with someone who can make them happy and who is complete. She's telling the one she loves, when I recover, I want to be the person you can be happy with and proud of, and if you can wait this out with me, please stay but if you can't be there, throughout this hard time in my life, even if it last my whole life, you can go & find someone better than me, because I know I'm the hardest person to be with.
This honestly makes the most sense.
This honestly makes the most sense.