IMO, "closet full of almost-pristine videotape / documenting sordid little scenes in living color" refers to memories that you don't want to confront, so you push them in the back of your mind (the closet) and don't think about them. I think that "ghosts that haunt your building" also refers to memories that haunt you but that you're not quite consciously aware of.
The use of the second person in this song is great because it underscores how universal the tendency is, in people who've survived trauma, to reach for anything (often, drugs) that distracts from these memories. I think that's one of the things this whole album is about.
Background: the wtfpod link that some other people gave, but here's an actually correct link:
IMO, "closet full of almost-pristine videotape / documenting sordid little scenes in living color" refers to memories that you don't want to confront, so you push them in the back of your mind (the closet) and don't think about them. I think that "ghosts that haunt your building" also refers to memories that haunt you but that you're not quite consciously aware of.
The use of the second person in this song is great because it underscores how universal the tendency is, in people who've survived trauma, to reach for anything (often, drugs) that distracts from these memories. I think that's one of the things this whole album is about.
Background: the wtfpod link that some other people gave, but here's an actually correct link:
wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/episode366-_john_darnielle
I can't edit comments? Okay, sorry, here's the really correct link:
I can't edit comments? Okay, sorry, here's the really correct link:
wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/episode366-_john_darnielle
wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/episode366-_john_darnielle