1. |
Unlearn
01:12
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I can't unlearn
Throughout our lives (and especially when we are young) we learn to perceive ourselves in certain ways- over the course of our lives even the most minute of comments can teach us to view ourselves in ways that often misrepresent who we are. Nonetheless, the way we learn to see ourselves affects us in our everyday life, and this song is about the struggle to leave all of the misconceptions we have about ourselves behind- a struggle that is in my opinion a worthy cause, because in order to reach our full potential, we have to understand ourselves as what we really are and “Unlearn” many of the things that have been instilled in us our whole lives.
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2. |
Cult of Youth
02:22
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Cult of Youth
You'll keep your youth until you're dead,
But this obsession is what will put you in your grave.
I don't know what's in your head,
You can't bring back all the time that you wasted.
You wasted it trying to be something you're not
The cult of youth took your life from you.
You wasted it trying to be something you'll never be-
the cult of youth took your life from you
In the end you will be dead-
six feet under you'll be lying in your grave.
There will be nothing in your head-
you can't bring back all the life that you wasted.
You wasted trying to be something you're not
The cult of youth took your life from you.
You wasted it trying to be something you'll never be-
the cult of youth took your life from you.
We live in a culture that values youth, but youth is not something that can really be preserved without doing irreparable damage to how we function throughout our lives. We all move through time at the same pace and that is one of the core themes to being alive. For this reason, we have to learn to enjoy the moments we have, and let them go when they are over- otherwise we risk wasting our time trying to hold onto something that will never return to us, which is a dangerous road to walk, and one that will often lead people to be ungrateful and unhappy with what is going on around them in the present.
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3. |
Grains of Sand
02:37
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Grains of sand
They are slipping through my hands
like grains of sand through my open fist.
Nothing I do will stop this end-
there is no other outcome.
So I'll watch them slip away-
grains of sand are all they are
in the long run.
So I'll watch them slip away-
forgotten details from a time long ago.
I will hold them in my hand,
and I will let go when I am ready
'cause even as just grains of sand
there was a time when they meant everything.
“Grains of Sand” and “Cult of Youth” go hand in hand in the sense that they both discuss the problems that go along with trying to hold a moment that is gone forever, but “Grains of Sand” discusses the stated theme on a more personal level- the moments that I am discussing do not refer to trying to preserve youth as much as they represent trying to preserve singular, powerful experiences that we feel throughout our lives. These experiences, although powerful are also moments that we cannot live in, because as time continues to move forward, we have to go along, otherwise we will be left behind, and become complacent. With all of this being stated, we will always have memories, and we can use these types of experiences to build a better future through the wisdom and strength these experiences provide us with as long as we are able to realize that they are gone.
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4. |
Empty Room
02:02
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Empty Room
I lie in this empty room and think about
better days- always just around the corner.
This place doesn't feel
anymore like home
than anywhere that I dwell-ed just for a moment.
I need you here with me.
When I feel far away from the people I love, I also feel alienated from my surroundings- I think this may be due to the fact that people tend to relate to other people more than they relate to their surroundings, so feeling comfortable in one's surroundings is often largely due to the people that are around as apposed to actually feeling comfortable due to surroundings.
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5. |
Salvation
02:17
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Salvation
I sit and watch the waves come in
I feel them break over my skin
I'm drifting out to sea
At first I was afraid to be alone,
but then you rescued me.
I thought I was at my end,
but new beginnings are what you made me see.
One day the light will leave our eyes,
But we'll know what it meant to be alive.
After the passing of of a very close friend last year, I sunk to a very low place. I was having a lot of trouble feeling optimism about a future that seemed very dark. This being stated, as low as I got, there was a group of friends that stuck by me every step of the way and helped me work through the tremendous loss that I had to learn to deal with. When I saw the situation in retrospect, I saw how powerful the "Salvation" that we gain from the people who love and care about us is. I would like to hope that everyone gets to experience that in their lifetime, because to me, knowing that people care with that depth is one of the most powerful things that people can experience. Realizing how powerful friendship and love can be has also helped me be a better friend (or at least a more active, aware, and involved friend) to the people that I care about.
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6. |
Day of the Dead
03:07
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Day of the Dead
Day of the dead,
Looking for something you can't find.
City of men,
your savior is gone.
Year of our lord,
nothing is true.
Your city of god
is empty like the sky.
We live in a world that is controlled in large part by the fact that a significant number of people live by belief systems that project their ideologies onto other people. Because of this, our reality becomes part of the collateral damage that is caused by misguided beliefs- as these beliefs effect the society that we have to function in. When I was younger, I was always extremely frustrated by this fact, but now the frustration that I feel is accompanied by sorrow for the fact that the better world that we could have is stifled by people who are so obsessed with being right about what is “true”, that they let their belief in books older than time sour our world by taking away the rights of others.
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7. |
Live
02:34
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.Live
How I wish things had gone differently,
but things can only end one way.
Don't want to talk about it,
don't want to think about it,
keep my problems buried deep inside of me.
I have to learn to live with my mistakes-
I have to learn to live with myself.
I have to learn to live with my mistakes-
I have to learn to live with me.
Being alive means making mistakes and failing at some of the things that we try to accomplish- there are things that I have said and done that I am not necessarily proud of (this song refers more specifically to my feeling that I did not get to visit my friend enough when he had cancer). The impulse that occurs after these events transpire is to internalize everything (whether it is due to embarrassment, shame, or just the general desire to repress the memories of the scenarios surrounding our mistakes). As I have gotten older, one of the most useful things I have learned is that if I do make a mistake or fail, I should address that issue so that I do not repeat the same mistake of failure. With this perspective, I think it is easy to see that we can benefit from our failures, if we can learn to use them to be better than we would have been before our mistakes.
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8. |
Dreams of Youth
01:50
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9. |
Nocturne
03:00
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Nocturne
You stood my me,
out on the street where time is an illusion,
and only space stood in between.
You spoke to me,
from in my dreams- you said you'd always be there,
so let go of everything.
This song is about reconciling the anxiety of being away from the person that I love most with the understanding that they feel the same anxiety as me, and are every bit as afraid of losing me as I am of losing them. Letting go of that anxiety has been an important decision for me, as it has allowed me to love in a more free and open way.
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