ThePumpkins.net

I’ve been wondering about some of the songs on AG. I have to admit that a lot of the lyrics don’t make sense to me. So I thought I would start this thread to help others who might be curious about a line in any SP song that they didn’t understand, by posting our own interpretations.

Now I understand that some lyrics can only be understood by the author himself but it’s still interesting to try. I’ll start, here’s one from sunkissed (although admittedly there are several lines in that song that drive me crazy).

“i mistook you for a trust
invocations i must dust off
fresh bouquets to playfully cut”

The lyrics can be understood by anyone. Well written lyrics can mean different things to different people. That's my opinion of well written lyrics anyway.

me personally....I've always been intrigued by the lyric "Where's Vince? YOU MOTHERFUCKER WHERE ARE YOU!?!?"

HAHA...

I think that is the beauty of lyrics. They can mean a million different things to a million different people. And to the person who wrote them, they mean something entirely different.

I think there may have been a misunderstanding with my first post. I know that lyrics mean different things to different people...that was kind of my point. I was hoping people would share their different view points and thus perhaps help each other gain new insight into the songs as a whole. I guess people on this board aren’t very big on literary analysis/criticism. It’s ok though, thanks anyways.

You're welcome.

Well, if you want someone's two cents, have mine:

I did some kind of assignment thing for English class last year, where we had to study three or four works by a poet/filmmaker/author/composer, and I chose Four songs by SP, which were Muzzle, Where Boys Fear to Tread, Bodies, and Zero.

Now to me, a whole bunch of the lyrics from these songs seem to refer to the pointlessness of teenage love, how it's so fake, how teens put on a show, but they don't realise that they don't REALLY love someone who is their girlfriend, etc...

Although Muzzle seems to be much more positive, as if he's accepted this realisation.

lyrics like these seemed to tell me this.

"All things must surely have to end/And great loves will one day have to part"

Zero sort of seems to be more about being hypnotized by some girl who seems to be far too good for him.

"I'm your lover/I'm your zero"
"Wanna go for a ride?"
"She's the one for me/She's all I really need"

WBFTT and Bodies really stand out to me as this whole "fake love" business.

"In knowing this was meant to be the last"
"A go-go kids/A go-go style/A suck-suck kiss/A suck-suck smile"
"A veiled promise to never die"

"Come into my life forever"
"Of the hurt you call your own"
"Love is suicide"

If you need me to explain any further what I think of these particular lyrics, just ask.

ghostchild wrote:
i think i heard in an interview that he was one of james' friends who became like thier assistant, then it became a joke to ask where he was.

someone can correct me if i am wrong, but i am pretty sure i heard that somewhere.

M.I.A. wrote:Well you never asked a specific question or posed as specific view point on your interpretation of the lyrics in question. Do so and you'll get a more meaningful discussion.

I understand what you’re saying, my fault for being unclear. I just thought people would interject with their own interpretations on any SP song/album concept/machina story/etc they wanted to, you could choose to look at “sunkissed” or any other song.

Geek N.Z. wrote:

Nice. I wonder if he intentionally wrote from a young person’s point of view or if it was just his period of “growing up”. As you pointed out, there certainly is a sense of self-deprecation emanating from the majority of songs on MCIS. MCIS sounds like his idealism was shattered, “Muzzle” sounds like the turning point when he comes to terms with it and accepts it as is...probably the most “grown up” song on the album.

By the way, if you don’t mind me asking, how did you do on that assignment?

Aw... you know...

Pretty average.

As for “sunkissed”, my interpretation is incomplete because some of the lines that throw me off. I have a very general interpretation, but here goes.

The lyrics seem to indicate a failed relationship. The person is prepared to throw away all their notions/ideas of what they think love is to have this person. The person feels in their gut (based on feeling rather than logic) that they are in love. Now depending on how you look at it “I’ve never chased, a brighter sun, than you’ll become” can either mean that this person is destined for greatness or is an analogy of the way that person makes the writer feel. It has some interesting lyrical structure, like how he sings "burn the bridge outside" then "burns the bridge outside" and then "the bridges burn outside". The mention of “crystalline” throughout the song is also curious. It seems like it might almost refer to a person/name because his usage of the word seems grammatically nonsensical to me as is “mistook you for a trust”, unless “mistook you for trust” means that he mistook the person for someone that he could rely on. This is why the nature of the song seems confusing to me. The only thing I’m clear on is that the relationship has failed.

All of the songs on AG seem to deal with relationships in an obsessive and desperate manner. Though I didn’t really notice at first the songs on AG indicate somewhat of a concept or at least a connection between failed relationships, the perversion of love, and American ideals mirrored with the authors view of the current state of America.

***I haven't read your post yet***

but...

To me, Sunkissed sounds like a song about trying to win somebodies love, rather simply. Most of the lines kind of point that way.

M.I.A. wrote:
Well, that's kind of what I thought of. Notice that it's sung after the first chorus, after all the good things?

M.I.A. wrote:
My friend tells me that MCIS is a concept album of life and death.

Well yeah, look at the lyrics.

Life and death or day and night...

I've heard different things, but these two pop up most.

i heard i dont know what is right or wrong or if it is up to the fans to make up their own minds but

i heard that MCIS was from when you wake up throughout the hussle and bussle of your day through to your night when you go off to sleep

but i have also heard that its about life and death both fit very well if you listen and think about it

i have heard that also if you look at the names on the cd's and on the vinyl they lean more twoard a day

vinyl - Dawn, Tea Time, Dusk, Twilight, Midnight & Starlight.
cd - Dawn to Dusk, Twilight to Starlight


and on sunkissed, i agree that it is about a love, maybe not about a person though, maybe an idea, or a place? that was just my first take on it though

bulletwoutbutterflywings wrote:
Agreed!
The lyrics seem to be about a special place, maybe a hypnotic place and the feelings belonging to it