I think for me, this song is a little bit trying to figure something out.
It’s not like we have a nicely packaged answer with a ribbon on it about what to do
or what anything means really.
Normally when we’re writing, it’ll start with a rhythm or a sample or a chord progression,
and we’ll get a vocal sketch.
Like a rough vocal pattern and then we’ll put the lyrics on afterwards mostly, so that’s
the last thing that falls into place.
That one’s kind of a tongue-in-cheek reference to previous albums.
And it’s kind of fun that we’ve done that on both records.
In case people thought I ran out of ideas, it’s a deliberate reference cause there
was a song called “Lies” on the first record and then the opening track of the first
record had a reference to that as well.
I suppose that that actual phrase is more about kind of getting to a point of honesty
and not compromising.
The line about “angels in the darkest of skies,” to me is about trying to find
hope and trying to believe in things but then the follow up line saying that, “we wanted
more,” for me is about the fact that a lot of the time, it seems like people are never
satisfied.
I think about that a lot with like friendships or relationships or any of those things that
when it’s done, where do all the good parts of that go?
Where does the love go when it’s finished?
I wanted it to have these consistent visual themes and these metaphors about faith and
religion and belief and those kind of things.
And I guess for me, that’s about the idea that everybody wants to have a place where
they belong, that they feel understood or feel helps them understand things but I don’t
necessarily know if people really find that.
Martin Doherty: I think that’s the most sarcastic thing.
Martin Doherty: The idea in pop music of showing the love is like bubbly, one of the most-
Lauren Mayberry: Put your hands in the air, touch the hands, can you feel the love?
Martin Doherty: Most overdone concepts.
When you say, “If you feel it, will you let me know?”
What comes to my mind is not “touch the hands,” it’s literally, “I don’t feel it."
“Ask for forever when the end is in sight,” is for me about belief and heaven and hell
and the afterlife.
“Showing what you want to,” is kind of about the hypocrisy of the things that
we do while we’re alive and a lot of the times, we present ourselves as very pious
and very wholesome and very right, but there are a lot of things that we do that aren’t right.
Sometimes the people that preach that they are the most perfect are the least in a lot
of ways.
The more that we’ve gotten into this band, it’s like, I’ve thought a lot more about
imagery and wordplay than I used to.
I don’t think that alliteration or within lane rhyming or similes or whatever is enough
to make a lyric good, but if you can take that and apply it in the correct way or at
the right moment in the right time with the right delivery and the right sounds, then
I think it can be really poignant.