1- Sea, Swallow Me

The song Sea, Swallow Me, by the Cocteau Twins and Harold Budd, is an example of the shoegaze genre. Shoegaze is a subgenre of rock that is characterized by the heavy use of effect pedals, with light percussion and fuzzy vocals. One of my favorite things about this piece is the unclear lyrics, which is one of the reasons people can have different interpretations of the song. In my mind, this song is about the unpredictability of a person and mood swings, which is shown through the unpredictable structure of the song and is portrayed as waves in the melody (it isn’t really waves, I just paint a picture of waves in my mind when I listen to it). Other people have different interpretations of it, some saying that it’s about escaping the monotony of life, and others saying it’s about sorrow and grief. One thing that stood out to me about this song is the watery texture of the song, something that is hard to explain unless you listen to the song, but the fact that water is portrayed through music without any sounds of water droplets or anything else is very interesting to me and very impressive. The piece is dynamic and there is no particular pattern to the music. It is unpredictable which makes it more dramatic and haunting. The naturalistic undertones of the song are also very beautiful and unique. Harold Budd at the time was experimenting with Ocean sounds, one of the main characteristics of most of his music. The intense oceanic undertones add a sense of depth and dramatism to the piece

2- Dreams

Song: Dreams by Fleetwood Mac

Lyrics:

Now here you go again, you say you want your freedom

Well, who am I to keep you down?

It’s only right that you should play the way you feel it

But listen carefully to the sound of your loneliness

Like a heartbeat, drives you mad

In the stillness of remembering what you had

And what you lost

And what you had

And what you lost

Oh, thunder only happens when it’s raining

Players only love you when they’re playing

Say, women, they will come and they will go

When the rain washes you clean, you’ll know

You’ll know

Now here I go again, I see the crystal vision

I keep my visions to myself

But it’s only me who wants to wrap around your dreams, and

Have you any dreams you’d like to sell, dreams of loneliness?

Like a heartbeat, drives you mad

In the stillness of remembering what you had

And what you lost

And what you had

Ooh, what you lost

Thunder only happens when it’s raining

Players only love you when they’re playing

Women, they will come and they will go

When the rain washes you clean, you’ll know

Oh, thunder only happens when it’s raining

Players only love you when they’re playing

Say, women, they will come and they will go

When the rain washes you clean, you’ll know

You’ll know

You will know

Oh-oh-oh, you’ll know

Analysis:
The way I interpret the story behind this song is that it’s a woman singing about a man who she is in a relationship with, but who has commitment issues. 

The first two lines show that the man wants his freedom, and the woman thinks to herself that she is not one to deny the man his “freedom,” but warns that the man will be lonely once more. 

She talks more about his loneliness and describes it as a heartbeat that drives you mad, and essentially talks about how once the man is “free” from the relationship he will look back and miss her and everything that comes with the relationship.

Then, she goes on to describe the man in the lines “Players only love you when they’re playing,” meaning that he is a player.

She continues on to sing about women, and that they come and go in life, and even though this relationship isn’t working due to the man’s commitment issues, life goes on just like relationships.
The lyrics “thunder only happens when It’s raining,” may be symbolic. “Thunder” likely represents relationships and “raining” may symbolize the openness to said relationship. Since the man has commitment issues, he is not open to a serious relationship and ends up hurting the woman he is in. 

However, the major key and calm-upbeat music shows that this is another part of life and that the man and probably the woman too have a lot to work on, and that relationships will come and go, but that’s just life. 

My favorite thing about this song is that even though it’s probably a break-up song, it still has that attitude of “we are young and life will go on,” and if both of the people in the relationship reflect and learn from the experience while respecting each other, then break ups aren’t all bad and the world won’t end. 

3- Another Brick In the Wall

Song: Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2, by Pink Floyd

Lyrics: 

We don’t need no education

We don’t need no thought control

No dark sarcasm in the classroom

Teacher, leave them kids alone

Hey, teacher, leave them kids alone

All in all, it’s just another brick in the wall

All in all, you’re just another brick in the wall

We don’t need no education

We don’t need no thought control

No dark sarcasm in the classroom

Teachers, leave them kids alone

Hey, teacher, leave us kids alone

All in all, you’re just another brick in the wall

All in all, you’re just another brick in the wall

If you don’t eat yer meat, you can’t have any pudding

How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat yer meat?

You! Yes, you behind the bike stands

Stand still, laddy!

Analysis:
One thing that stands out about this song is that a lot of it is sung by a chorus of children. This leads many to believe that it’s about the incompetence of children and their resistance to learning and education, however, many people including me think it’s a commentary on the abusive school conditions of the time when the song was made (1979).

The lyrics “We don’t need no education, we don’t need to have thought control” is not something lyrics that you should take at face value. The fact that children are saying this after the main singer shows that it might be in some sort of protest. 

Though in the beginning of the song, this seems unlikely and the children just seem like an unruly mob, it all falls into place at the end of the song, where a sound clip of a teacher yelling at children is heard. The teacher is mad that children are eating pudding without eating their meat first, and is lashing out at the kids, which shows why the kids probably feel that they are being “thought controlled,” and that there are too many rules such as “no dark sarcasm in the classroom.” 

The feeling of your passions being taken away from you by the plethora of schoolwork that you will receive as you grow up is familiar to all of us, and many of us feel like there are too many rules, and that the only way certain teachers would be proud of us is if we were robots.

 These feelings seem prevalent at the time this song was made too, plus the added bad conditions of the classrooms. 

Overall, my favorite thing about this song is that you can’t take it at face value and that you have to listen to not only what is being sung, but who is singing it to get the full explanation. 

4- Jigsaw Falling Into Place

Song: Jigsaw Falling Into Place by Radiohead

Lyrics: 

Just as you take my hand

Just as you write my number down

Just as the drinks arrive

Just as they play your favorite song

As your bad day disappears

No longer wound up like a spring

Before you had too much

Come back in focus again

The walls are bending shape

They’ve got a Cheshire cat grin

All blurring into one

This place is on a mission

Before the night owl

Before the animal noises

Closed circuit cameras

Before you’re comatose

Before you run away from me

Before you’re lost between the notes

The beat goes round and round

The beat goes round and round

I never really got there

I just pretended that I had

Words are blunt instruments

Words are sawed-off shotguns

Come on and let it out

Come on and let it out

Come on and let it out

Come on and let it out

Before you run away from me

Before you’re lost between the notes

Just as you take the mic

Just as you dance, dance, dance

Jigsaw falling into place

So there is nothing to explain

You eye each other as you pass

She looks back, you look back

Not just once

Not just twice

Wish away the nightmare

Wish away the nightmare

You’ve got a light, you can feel it on your back

A light, you can feel it on your back

Jigsaw falling into place

Analysis: 

The lyrics of this song are laid out in a very story-like way.

The first stanza is from the perspective of a man, who is the singer, on a date with somebody. The date in the lyrics so far is going well despite the somber tune of the song, which shows that the somberness likely comes from within the singer (nervousness, desperation).

The second stanza is very abstract and is likely a reflection of the desperation of the singer, with descriptive language such as “the walls are bending shape.”

In the third stanza, the singer talks about the date “running away,” which is likely just a reflection of his lack of confidence within himself, and this makes him think that his date is going to “run away,” or essentially be not interested.

The last stanza is noticeably longer, and the singer belches out his feelings rather than stick to the structured stanzas of the first half of the song.
I think that in the last stanza, the singer is talking about himself and his date from a 3rd person perspective, signifying that the date is already over and he is about the summarize the end.

The line “jigsaw falling into place” shows that everything is falling into place. Since the song has a desperate tone, it probably means that the date ended the way all of the singers’ other dates probably did. 

The most important lines of the last stanza in my opinion are the lines “you eye each other as you pass, she looks back, you look back, not just once, not just twice.” SHows that the relationship could have possibly been something and there might have been mutual interest as they both look back at each other. However, the path of the relationship was probably blocked by the desperation of the singer judging by the somber regretful tone of the end.

My favorite thing about this song is the lyricism, especially in the second stanza, and the fact that you have to listen to the tone to find out the full story behind the song. 

Forget Her

Song: Forget Her by Jeff Buckley

Lyrics: 

While this town is busy sleeping

All the noise has died away

I walk the streets to stop my weeping

‘Cause she’ll never change her ways

Don’t fool yourself

She was heartache from the moment that you met her

My heart feels so still

As I try to find the will to forget her, somehow

Oh, I think I’ve forgotten her now

Her love is a rose, pale and dying

Dropping her petals in land unknown

All full of wine, the world before her

Was sober with no place to go

Don’t fool yourself

She was heartache from the moment that you met her

My heart is frozen still

As I try to find the will to forget her, somehow

She’s somewhere out there now

Well, my tears falling down as I try to forget

Her love was a joke from the day that we met

All of the words, all of her men

All of my pain when I think back to when

Remember her hair as it shone in the sun

The smell of the bed when I knew what she’d done

Tell yourself over and over

You won’t ever need her again

But don’t fool yourself

She was heartache from the moment that you met her

My heart is frozen still

As I try to find the will to forget her, somehow

She’s out there somewhere now

Oh, she was heartache from the day that I first met her

My heart is frozen still

As I try to find the will to forget you, somehow

‘Cause I know you’re somewhere out there right now

Duh, duh, dah ah ah, oh-oh, oh
Analysis:

This dynamic song is set up in a very story-like way, but is still unorganized as intense emotions are.

In the first stanza, the singer talks about his mourning, as he got cheated on by a girl who he loved very intensely.

In the second stanza he tries to convince himself that he knew this was going to happen, and that she was too good to be true and he in a way deserves it because he was “fooling himself.” He then goes on to say that she’s out there somewhere and it’s hard for him to forget her.

The third stanza talks about their relationship and the nature of her love, and again the singer is having trouble forgetting and getting over her. 

The fourth stanza is a repeat of the 2nd, and again talks about how he was fooling himself and that she was “heartbroken from the start.”
After the bridge, the very intense fifth stanza talks about him mourning again and crying at this loss. He thinks about how the whole relationship was a lie and thinks about the potential man or men that this woman cheated on him with.

The sixth stanza is also very intense and talks about how this man worshiped this woman and remembers “her hair as it shone in the sun” and remembers catching her cheating or seeing the aftermath “the smell of the bed when I knew what she’d done.”
The next stanza is a repeat of the 2nd and 4th

The last stanza is a continuation of the last, as the singer talks about how she was heartache from when he first met her.

My favorite part of this song is the intense voice of the singer and the organization of the stanzas. Since stanzas 2 and 4 are the same, you think that the 6’th stanza would also be a repeat of these, but instead, stanza 7 is and stanza 8 is a continuation of stanza 7 which I think is very creative in showing the rawness and mental disorganization of an intense breakup.