This fortnight I was thinking of revisiting an old favorite. I remember the only musical interest I had in common with the biggest music snob in my high school was the band Wye Oak. I liked them for their musical style and how raw and honest their lyrics could be, I assume he liked them because he was stuck up or something. One of my favorite songs, though, was one that I did hear him playing a lot when commandeering the AUX cord during art class; “Glory‰” off the album Shriek. I did a lot of listening to this on repeat and mouthing the words to myself on my walks to school in the morning and from school at night but it had never occurred to me to actually analyze the lyrics. This is partly because the emphasis on certain lyrics in the chorus as well as the mood brought on by the music did a good job of conveying some kind of unclear message on their own. The song feels serious, slightly panicked, and a little reverent so the music does a good job of conveying a feeling on it‰’s own, but that doesn‰’t mean I should have avoided thinking about the lyrics for as long as I did. I was reminded of this only recently when for the first time I had seen the music video for the song, which was really cool.

The most confusing lines in the song are the first two.

I see his eyes moving away from me

Oh no, is this another albatross?

Um, okay. Why should she be dreading an albatross? An albatross is a bird, usually found near the sea and known for flying long distances. A quick google of the word albatross, though, has me realizing that it is an exceedingly common metaphor for a psychological burden. This probably makes more sense. Personally, I blame the failures of the GENED program for not having taught me this. To any woman ever and probably lots of men this is a really relatable line. To many when you can feel a relationship shift between themselves and another person there is a sense of dread over how you will feel about it in the coming future. Damn emotions.

He knows he holds dominion over me

But what I gain is worth the cost

So she‰’s not exactly singing about a healthy relationship here. There‰’s a power struggle between the two characters, and each of them, in their own way, feel like they have some kind of upper hand. At least the narrator is trying to convince herself that she does.

We share the cold embrace of cousins

I wonder if I’ve seen him somewhere else before

And as I wonder at his ancestry

I miss the meeting by the door

These lines simply state that the narrator and her “lover‰” (or whatever he is) just don‰’t know each other that well, and they‰’re not really making an effort to figure it out. They are cold and distant towards each other. She wonders about who he is and where he comes from but totally ditches her before she can even ask.

Then there‰’s the chorus.

And in the telling of the story

I lose my way inside a prepositional phrase

I read his lips and I see glory

But what I hear is “be afraid”

The way I read these lines is that when she tried to voice her struggles with their relationship to him she loses her train of thought, and forgets what she was even going to say in the first place. Possibly because she is distracted or interrupted by him, or because she realizes she doesn‰’t have a great understanding of her own opinions in the first place. Then comes the difference between what she sees and what she hears. Because of the juxtaposition of these lines, I‰’m lead to believe that was the lover actually said was something more akin to “Glory‰Û, he‰’s told her something pleasing. What she hears though is “be afraid‰” this hardly requires any analyzation.

So from the fog of every morning

Until the heat of day is still

I watch the clock as it turns backwards

I see the water run uphill

The bridge just explains what everyone does with a mysterious boyfriend(?) who treats them poorly. Makes the same damn mistakes over and over again.