| NoMBe – California Girls Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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If the lyrics aren't displaying due to "copyright restrictions," here they are: [Verse 1] She loves the sunlight How it paints on her soft skin Takes care of those tan lines Scar tissue from the morphine [Verse 2] Baby, don't you know you are stardust And you're a long, long way from home, way from home So baby, brush it off like it's sawdust Or you'll spend the California days alone, days alone [Pre-Chorus] Those California girls got me outside all night [Chorus] This is the last straw Take it off This is the last straw Why don't you take it all [Verse 3] She ain't never seen the zoo With the monkey on her back They'd arrest her at the booth And then sell her to the lab Put a label on the box that says Treat it like it's glass If she gets one scratch her parents Never take her back To be honest, she's a liar full of promise She thinks her Rolex makes her timeless Her famous friends think she's harmless I'd burn the bridge with her on it [Pre-Chorus] Those California girls got me outside all night [Bridge] Pinned down, pinnacle She looks like a centerfold Sinner, cynical (baby) Oh my, make her moan Amateur, baritone Sex drive, like animals [Outro] Ooh, how I like the smell of west coast pheromones Ooh, how I like the smell of west coast pheromones Ooh, how I like the smell of west coast pheromones She smells like west coast pheromones She smells like west coast pheromones |
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| of Montreal – My Friend Will Be Me Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| This has described me lots of times in the past and I don't want it to become the story of my life. | |
| Meursault – Crank resolutions Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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"Due to copyright restrictions, we are not authorized to display these lyrics." Here they are: I broke down on new years day I mixed my drinks and I lost my way I walked past the houses of every friend I'd ever known and I set off on my own If only I had known that you'd been waiting in the street for me all day And they carried you away They carried you away Now everything gets older the further that I go and I hope that someone is praying for me out there at home And I never saw you waving At least that's what I'll say when they carry me away When they carry me away |
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| Sia – Big Girls Cry Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| "Big girls cry when their hearts are breaking" = Being mature means allowing yourself to feel. | |
| Metric – Help, I'm Alive Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| The Anxiety Anthem. | |
| Phantogram – I Don't Blame You Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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It sounds like it's about regretting a suicide attempt: "And I'm wrapped up in gauze I should've known, that I can turn around" Somebody close to them feels like it's their fault that the speaker tried to take their own life, but the speaker is trying to tell them that's not the case: "I don't blame you" The speaker is ultimately glad to be alive because they realize they will have days where they will feel happy again: "It’s just a day I’m feeling something connect A happy day Should never have to hurt so bad" The suicidal feelings don't last long and go away in time: "It's just a day" They realize the better thing have done was to care for themself more, or reach out to others: "I should've slept it off I should've stayed in bed I should've took your call" |
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| Tilly and the Wall – All Kinds of Guns Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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Sounds like something that oughtta be in the musical Grease, haha. I think the title is a reference to the saying "stick by your guns," e.g. the man in the song stands by what he believes; she can trust him completely. |
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| Tilly and the Wall – Poor Man's Ice Cream Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| I definitely see parallels to the immigration debate here, how we draw arbitrary boundaries between people, how difficult it is to say who the land "truly" belongs to as others were here first. | |
| Regina Spektor – Düsseldorf Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| Lovely lyrical collage of her travels/imagined travels, and the effects each place had on her that she still carries to this day. | |
| Regina Spektor – Old Jacket (Stariy Pidjak) (Bulat Okudzhava cover) Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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English translation I got from another site: I’ve worn my jacket far too long, It’s getting shabbier and frailer. And so I take it to a tailor To see if something can be done. I tell him, “Now it’s up to you To remedy the situation. The magic art of alteration Should make my life as good as new.” It was a joke – but he takes on The task with single-minded passion, Bringing my jacket up to fashion As best he can. The funny man. He trims and sews without a word, With such meticulous precision, As if upon a sacred mission To have my happiness restored. He thinks I’ll try the jacket on, And then – the clouds will part above me, And I’ll believe that you still love me. Well, think again. The funny man. |
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| Regina Spektor – The Prayer of François Villon (Molitva) (Bulat Okudzhava cover) Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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Here's the English translation I found on another site: As long as the world's still turning, As long as the air's still sweet, Lord, won't you give to all of us Whatever it is we need? Give a mind to the wise one, A shield to the enemy, Give some gold to the happy man, And don't forget about me. As long as the world's still turning, Lord, if it be your will, Give to the hungry for power A kingdom to rule his fill. Give some rest to the generous Under a shady tree, Wash the stain from the face of Cain, And don't forget about me. I know that your powers are wondrous, I believe that your ways are wise, The way that a fallen soldier Believes he's in paradise, The way every breathing being Believes in your gentle word, The way, in our utter oblivion, We keep on believing, oh Lord. My all-wise, my all-merciful, My sweet Lord of sea-green eyes, As long as the world's still turning To its eternal surprise, As long as it still has plenty of Fire and destiny, Give a little to everyone And don't forget about me. Some background on Villon from Wikipedia: "Francois Villon is the best known French poet of the late Middle Ages. A ne'er-do-well who was involved in criminal behavior and got into numerous scrapes with authorities, Villon wrote about some of these experiences in his poems." |
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| Regina Spektor – Uh-Merica Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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I feel like this song is about gun culture and American hubris. "Mrs. E. Roosevelt never heard me shoot my gun Mrs. E. Roosevelt didn't even knew I owned one" This could be a reference to the acceptedness and commonality of guns in American culture, and how we have the world's highest gun ownership rate. "Oh, there's nothing Like Emptying a cartridge at the sun" Trying to shoot the sun is an obviously useless endeavor, but it would be done out of arrogance, since one thinks that one has the power to put out the entire sun using just a bullet. It could also reference an overreliance on violence to solve problems which are much larger and more complex. "Oh, we're born alone and then we're covered by m-m-m-mothers' kisses The mind has already forgotten what the body still misses Somewhere between the sticky floor and the cracks in the ceiling Cuddling my semi-automatic dash what a very fuzzy feeling" To me, Regina is saying here that embracing gun culture/violence in general is a way of compensating for the love you were surrounded in as a child that faded as you entered the world. The world can be an incredibly confusing and unfair place, like the unsavory environment of the "sticky floor" and "cracked ceiling," and it is tempting to respond, and make ourselves feel better, by being equally callous. In other words, we've turned to our weapons to give us the "fuzzy feelings" that our "bodies still miss." |
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| The Weeknd – Montreal Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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According to my tentative knowledge of French, the parts at the beginning and end seem to say: "Never mind those girls Never mind those girls One day it will be you that will be left (x2) Yes, I cried, but this day No, I will not cry anymore No, I will not cry anymore (x2)" |
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| The National – Mr. November Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| Yeah, it makes more sense if the song was referring to not Obama, but Kerry...I think "great white hope" is kind of a giveaway in the latter direction. | |
| Kid Dakota – Ivan Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| I'm getting the feeling that Ivan is being sent to a labor/concentration camp of some sort, what with the lyrics about the suffering of innocents and the children forced to run naked in the woods. | |
| Eisley – Save My Soul Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| I appreciate that Neutral Milk Hotel reference so much. | |
| CocoRosie – Undertaker Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| Honestly, the metaphor "pink balloon of time" is so evocative and unique. You breathe into a balloon to fill it up. After a certain number of breaths, the balloon pops, or else floats away from you, i.e. you die. A balloon is fragile, like the limited time you have on earth. But balloons (especially pink ones) are a symbol of joy too, common at birthday parties and other celebrations. Life is a celebration, short as it is. Most of all, balloons are light, which implies both that life is insignificant, but also that it shouldn't be taken overly seriously. | |
| CocoRosie – Houses Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| I agree with ohthatssokewl that it's about emotional bankruptcy in a materially wealthy family. One additional thing that seems to support this is the sound throughout the beginning of the song that is like coins repeatedly dropping. So the first part of the song portrays physical wealth in both the mention of food and the sound of money, which create an even larger contrast to the second part of the song, when the true emotional emptiness of the family is revealed. | |
| D.O.A. – New Age Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| I wonder though, isn't art in general catered more to the emotions? Even Greek ideals of balance and symmetry seemed in their own ways to appeal to the emotions, since it displayed the beauty that resulted when order was applied to a chaotic world. I feel as though all art is emotional in some way or another, it just depends on how overtly. | |
| The Golden Filter – Nerida's Gone Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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I couldn't find the lyrics to this song anywhere, so I had to transcribe it by ear. Sorry if there are any mistakes. As for the meaning, I'm wondering if this song isn't referencing Narada, the Hindu sage with the ability to travel to multiple worlds and dimensions? A lot of the lyrics seem to point to taking a journey of some sort to another world, e.g. "interstellar bound," "not of this world." |
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| The Golden Filter – Solid Gold Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| Haha, honestly the first thing that came to mind when I read these lyrics (especially the last verse) were the Olympics. But I think it's really about pursuing your dreams in general and pushing yourself to be the best. | |
| Low Roar – Tonight, Tonight, Tonight Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| This seems to be another Low Roar song about a dying relationship, specifically the last night a couple spends together before they break up. At this point, communication between them has broken down, as he tries to satisfy her, but she won't tell him what she wants, and they have run out of things to say to each other. They have only been staying together out of "routine," and out of "fooling themselves." The bridge of the song seems to be about having sex even though there's no love behind it, because neither of them have the energy or courage to fight and bring their grievances into the open. However, the main character says that he will soon leave, possibly that very same night, and finally end things. | |
| Low Roar – The Painter Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| It's pretty clear to me that this song about the beauty and possibilities of art and the creative process. When you make art, you are the master of that world, and anything you imagine can be rendered on the canvas before you ("this is all ours to fuck with, this is all ours to taunt"). The character in the song also addresses and counters criticisms of being an artist. Others may say his artistic visions are "only dreams" and tell him to be more rational, but he says that a life of imagination and creativity is far better than a predictable and routinized life, taking him to places that the people who misunderstand him can't even conceive of. | |
| Low Roar – Because We Have To Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| I think this song is about the end of a relationship, expressed through the metaphor of a sinking boat. Even though everything is beautiful in the beginning (the water is "calm" and there are "blue skies"), a shadow forms over their relationship as "wind" and "clouds" move in. The break-up is portrayed as a splintered boat, washed up on shore, that can no longer be of use to the couple. The "women and children" are all the positive things that happened in the relationship (women and children are the first to be evacuated from a sinking ship), but in the water, they drown. That is, they cannot be repeated because the relationship is over for good. | |
| Low Roar – Patience Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| This song, to me, is about increasing depression and disillusionment with the world. It's about how difficult it can be to interact with others and to fully integrate into society, thus "lacking rhythm." With no connections or investments in the world, with nothing to care about, you feel "barely conscious." Even then, you're still oversensitive and the smallest thing can get to you and discourage you. The chorus ("get out of my mind") has two meanings for me - it can be about finding the world to be increasingly invasive and demanding, and wanting to escape it; or pushing away the people who are concerned about you. | |
| Low Roar – Nobody Else Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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To me, this song is about a couple in a failing relationship, in which abuse is taking a growing role. When abuse happens, it's usually "swept under the rug" and not talked about - however, the entire time, the unconfronted problem is still waiting to manifest again ("under the rug old shadows wait for their moment"). The abusive tendencies only need a moment of weakness ("when I'm feeling feeble") to come out. Afterward, the main character is ridden with guilt and promises he won't do it again, because he has nobody else to love and be loved by. The second half of the song seems to talk about how the couple can't break up because they're fixating on how good their past was ("shine lights in the past, no sign of a way out") instead of facing the grimmer present reality. Even though their relationship is falling apart ("with time it gets worse"), neither of them is strong enough to escape it. |
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| Low Roar – Just a Habit Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| It seems to me that this song is about alcoholism, specifically his denial about the increasing hold it has on his life. Alcohol is a way for the character in the song to escape from the confusion and ugliness of the world to a place where everything is "quiet" and where anything that is said holds a "truth" to it. To minimize how much he relies on alcohol, he calls it "just a habit" and attributes his slurring to only being "confused." But the entire time, the problem is escalating until it's poised to take over his whole life. | |
| Yann Tiersen – Chapter 19 Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| * Taken from Chapter 19 of Sexus by Henry Miller | |
| Boys Like Girls – Five Minutes To Midnight Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| You're really cool, just sayin'. | |
| The O'Jays – For the Love of Money Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| How ironic that this was used in the opening titles of The Apprentice. | |
| Benjamin Britten – Cuckoo Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I heard this song, as I'm guessing a lot of people did, in Moonrise Kingdom, so with that still in my mind, I can't help but interpret this song in relation to the movie. I feel as though it describes the progression of Sam and Suzy's relationship. "In April, I open my bill" refers to the start of their relationship, and them finding and opening up to each other. It also works out really nicely that when they first met, Suzy was dressed as a raven, so it's almost literal. "In May, I sing night and day" refers to the period when they're exchanging letters and discovering more and more about each other as they pour their selves into the letters. "In June, I change my tune" is about the time they begin thinking about running away together and making plans to do so. The realization of that goal, the flight, the escape, happens in "July, how far I fly." In "August" they're back home, but continue secretly seeing each other. "Away" refers to the continuation of the relationship despite circumstances, and implies that in one way their flight was successful, because their love still remains. The repetition of "cuckoo," in relation to the movie, I just find so damn significant and meaningful. A cuckoo is really just a bird, an innocent and beautiful thing, but society has appropriated the name to designate someone who's "crazy." Just like how the protagonists, simply because they're outcasts, get labed "emotionally disturbed" and "troubled," yet beneath that is a beautiful interior that only comes to the surface when they're near someone who understands. |
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| Placebo – Requiem for a Jerk Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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"Listen to the organ that i play for you Since you've got no choice Hear me through You look as though you like it But you seem reserved Its my requiem for a jerk" It sounds to me as though it's about rape. |
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| Dry The River – Shield Your Eyes Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I tried to find out more about the Phrygian Lion, but not much came up, just that lions accompanied the Phrygian mother goddess Cybele, and that there are a lot of gates flanked by stone lions in Phrygia (in modern day Turkey). But historically, lions have symbolized protection, and that these lions have "excellent eyesight" seem to mean that they can foresee the future, i.e. that the relationship will end. "But I wish you could've warned me Of the Phrygian Lion, With his excellent eyesight, At the gate of our love." He's saying he wished he could have known that their relationship would end the way it did. "And the Phrygian Lion, With his excellent eyesight, Is what makes it our love." And yet, this imminent end is what gives meaning to the relationship and makes it, in a way, more special than if they were meant to last. It's a sad but still beautiful sort of doomed love: "Under sweet autumnal skins is our myth dispelled. In your strange and simple way." |
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| Awolnation – Sail Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| This interpretation of the video is great. Thanks for making sense of it, as I always thought it was about alien abduction, which doesn't make as much sense in relation to the song. | |
| Awolnation – Sail Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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"Blame it on my ADD" implies that the ADD isn't the real problem, it's just a cover for something else, something darker. I think it could be a more serious mental illness, possibly depression, what with the suicide reference ("maybe I should kill myself"). I.e. when he isn't paying attention, he's really having thoughts of worthlessness/suicide. Another user said they thought the song was about infidelity, and I could definitely see that too, with "This is how I show my love" being a perversion of his expected faithfulness. A third user posted an interpretation I love, which is that the song reflects the flaws of the modern education system, with the fault being placed on the children and their "ADD", rather than flaws such as teaching to a standardized test, resulting in an unengaging environment. Yet I also think the meaning of the deeper underlying problem that his ADD is a cover for, isn't meant to be important as the fact that he's using one issue to conceal a more serious one. That's why the deeper problem is left intentionally vague, yet "Blame it on my ADD" is consistently repeated. We can all relate to hiding things, and using a lighter problem to mask it, no matter those problems specifically are. The emphasis is on the act of deception, not the individual problem. No matter what, though, the speaker expresses the desire to break free of his problems, to escape to a state of mind where he doesn't have to keep secrets and hurt his loved ones in the process. He wants to "sail" as easily and in as carefree a manner as a boat on the ocean. |
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| The Bear That Wasn't – Next Stop: Disneyland Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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This song is so terribly sad. The first verse describes a beautiful scene in which the two protagonists, as children, try to bike to Disneyland. Of course, they don't make it, but they have fun pretending they actually went there. The second verse talks about becoming older and losing the idealistic perspective they had as children ("These things we've imagined were never to be"). When you grow up, your perception of the world changes and you can never experience things in the innocent and happy way you did as a child. Perhaps, suggests the speaker, it was better to never experience things that way to begin with, if it only gets crushed later. In the third verse, the protagonists finally go to Disneyland as adults and it is nothing how they thought it would be as children -- there are crying kids and lines everywhere. And the people in the lines are "craving...something we had long ago." In other words, the people wish to reclaim the happiness and the simplicity of the world they had as children. "And you realized it seemed better when you weren't here before Yes, sometimes things are quite better Just lying on the floor Of the garage with our naive hopes" This might be the saddest part of the song. Sometimes, the way you imagine something to be turns out better than the thing itself. Your expectations disappoint you, especially when you're young and naive and concocting wonderful visions in your head. The last verse is also heartbreaking. As adults, they realize their lives have become the same as others', going through the same routines at similar jobs, day in and day out ("these things that already have been lived before"). In time they'll know there's more to the world than childish fantasies. And Disneyland doesn't matter any more. |
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| The Bear That Wasn't – Winterwandering Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| Their relationship is fading. Even though they still care for each other ("our mind is listening"), there's no more fire ("but our heart is drifting"). | |
| Bon Iver – Skinny Love Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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This is a spot-on interpretation. I will say that I always thought "Right in this moment, this order's tall" meant that he was ordering a "tall" drink at bar to attempt to escape his feelings through alcohol, but I like your way of reading it too. |
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| The Bear That Wasn't – They Are the Donut People Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Donut people = hollow in the center? | |
| The Black Atlantic – Reverence for Fallen Trees Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| I have the same reverence for trees, fallen or otherwise. | |
| The Black Atlantic – Madagascar Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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"The lie" = religion. Or maybe, as a secondary interpretation, "the lie" is the inherence of meaning in the universe, i.e. there's no hidden meaning in the universe/life, it just is. "And for them to drape all things With a cosmic blanket of meaning When dust cherishes no memories" Could go both ways, I think. |
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| The Black Atlantic – Dandelion Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| I have a hunch that "Dandelion" may be the narrator's mother, who is no longer with him ("when the life of a loved one fades away," "Now she walks the land / The heart of which she always belonged to"). | |
| The Black Atlantic – Walked-On Wood Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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There's been a death in the family. "Come morning, the house was full of strangers" The wake/funeral. "One bumped off the ladder Another moves a rung" One member of the family has died, another is closer to death. "I can feel the summer in this current" The speaker can feel the passage of time; the same "current" that takes away his loved ones is also the one that brings summer and joyful times to him/her. "Behind your shoulders, he looms What can you say? When winter is lodged in your throat" The speaker can't talk about things until more time has passed. That being said, this is an absolutely gorgeous song. |
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| The National – Murder Me Rachael Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| I saw it as the narrator murdering Rachel for infidelity, ergo "loving her to ribbons." I guess it doesn't make sense in the context of the rest of the song, but I'm clinging to it nonetheless. | |
| Esben And The Witch – Chorea Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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"At first the fingers start to twitch The blood is set in commotion The feet start to beat Strange tattoos on the street A warmth floods fast (They grow wild) The devil's dived Inside their minds Everyone's on fire Like mad dogs they slather Writhing and rabid Feverishly twisting A tragic display Wrestling tremors Imprisoned in prisms Together in silence They desperatly pray Ferocious, voracious Infectious, afflictions Convulsions, contortions Devour their victims Heaven help me A descent into savagery Plummeting rapidly They tried in vain to shake this terrible hex With reckless abandon Belief was confounded By spiralling, spluttering, Quivering wrecks Heaven help me And we watched Them dance Themselves to death Everyone's on fire Heaven help me" Sounds like an absolutely horrible way to die. |
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| The National – Theory of the Crows Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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What actually is the "theory of the crows"? Does anyone know? That being said, last stanza is beautiful. The whole song is, really. |
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| The National – Blank Slate Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| To me, it's clearly about fantasizing things you'd really like to do, but having to limit the existence of those things to only your mind, ergo "keeping it upstairs." I can relate. Everyone can relate. It's awesome. | |
| The National – Brainy Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Beautiful stalker song. | |
| The National – Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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Actually, the second verse reminds me very much of Quentin from The Sound and the Fury, who... SPOILER ALERT commits suicide by drowning while at college. |
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| The National – Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| I get a collegiate feel from this, due to the geek mentions and how Vanderlyle sounds like a fancy college. | |
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