Of Monsters and Men - Little Talks Meaning
Song Released: 2011
Little Talks Lyrics
(Hey!)
(Hey!)
I don't like walking around this old and empty house
So hold my hand I'll walk with you my dear
The stairs creak as you sleep it's keeping me awake
It's the house telling you to close your eyes
Somedays I can't even...
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This song, if intended, and it might just be seeing how beautifully directed and animated the video is, is a masterpiece in my opinion. One of the best in our era lyrically and musically. It is vague, and thus open to a variety of interpretations, but I believe it is still about a certain type of situation, which is the separation of two people, and the pain of separation. Be it love, friendship, brotherly/sisterly love (unlikely to be parent-child given the young voices in the song, it just wouldnt fit).
If taken as it is, this is pretty much the general theme. The pain, and how they attempt to cope with it, mostly the male attempting to insert reason into the emotional maelstrom of the female protagonist, attempting to salvage whats left of the relationship, and maintain the hope that is all there is left.
If taken together with the video, it becomes even more profound, and beautiful. I believe, like some other people have pointed out, that this song is about life, and pain in general when taken with the video. The video is about a journey, and adventure, sometimes very much like life is. We march along to the beat of time, like the 5 characters do. The 5 characters may be friends, or they may just represent different parts of us, at different stages of our life, or simply the different aspects of our character. We encounter various obstacles, and survive through sheer luck mostly (ship hanging on branch). But at the start of the journey, at the start of life, from out of nowhere, a guardian angel arrives. Do we all have this guardian angel? does it bring colour and beauty into our drab, miserable, bleak lives? perhaps. It gives a sense of safety to us, a sense that we can set out to do the things we want to do, to take risks, knowing we have her as a back-up. She seems to overcome the obstacles easily, banishing them into a shower of iridescent sparkles with a ball of light shot from her mouth. Symbolic of words perhaps? the 'little talks' the male is having with the female? are words that powerful? perhaps. Another point to make is the importance of imagination in life. Some have interpreted this as a case of alzheimer's, and it is possible, since an alzheimer's patient may be living in her own world, imagining what it was like to go on an adventure like that in the video. Words are enough to banish our imaginary demons, replacing them with a firework of colour, turning someone negative into a beautiful positive.
but at the end one shouldnt 'listen to a word I say', as words are merely words, they open doors into other imaginary worlds, that in reality might not be as colourful or exciting. The sobering fact is that 'theres nothing we can do', but the one redeeming fact that we know is the 'though the truth may vary', and that nothing is certain, 'this ship will carry our bodies safe to shore'. We will all eventually arrive at the destination of life that is death. Any pain or happiness is temporary. The video emphasizes the metaphorical nature of the 'ship' that we use. The ship destroyed, the characters continue to proceed, by walking, or climbing, or riding on an iceberg, in tune towards their destination, unhindered. I think this represents the incessant and unstoppable passage of time in our lives, we are always pushed towards our final destination every second of our lives. And every second is an adventure, bringing new obstacles, and we overcome them by luck (guardian angel), by resourcefulness (the rope), or by the use of 'little talks', words that dont mean a thing, but are enough to transform our reality such that it makes reality that little bit easier to deal with and overcome. But what is reality? and are we all but living in an illusion? this journey brings us from the heights of the sky to the depths of the sea, and then back up again to the sky, (arguably even higher than where it began) where it ends in the video. Perhaps it represents the ups and downs in life, and how we usually end up where we begin, the same components as we began, but with the added experience of life.
at the end, we realise that our demons and obstacles in the past make up who we are in the end, and having overcome them, however which way we had, represents the summation of our lives and who we are. These monsters are beautiful in retrospect, imagined or real. Its as if the characters are reflecting on their lives at the end of the video, a portfolio of their achievements and a story of their journey in one picture, including the guardian angel, and finally realise that they are ready to die, to get to 'shore'. It is a happy ending however, evidenced by the guardian angel smiling. It was a happy, well-lived life, full of adventure, risk, and despite all the hardship and struggle there was beauty, mostly in the form of the guardian angel. Does this all mean we need to believe in a higher power? I doubt so as there doesnt seem to be any traditional religious symbolism here. It seems this guardian angel is more of a secular, liberal version of the traditional guardian angels in christianity. Perhaps it is a broader metaphor, for friends, family, lovers who are there for the 'little talks' to help and guide us along the way in life, and make our journey more colourful whilst at the same time helping us overcome our fears and obstacles.
I could go on and on about the meaning of the facepaint on each of the characters (perhaps as above, different characters of us, or the same individual at different times in his life etc), the meaning of the number 5 (5 eyes on the guardian angel, on the final form of the monster, 5 characters; or it may just be simply the 5 members of the band), or the details of the makeup of the final monster, or the meaning of the guardian angel's facepaint. I could also go on about the various details of the journey and their meaning regarding each stage of our lives, or the dichotomy that exists throughout the video (every negative is countered by a positive, and the dual nature of the final monster (black fumes and monster mixed in with colourful sparkles), and also about the interplay between the lyrics, the music and the video etc.
I could go on and on, such is the beauty of this song and its video. One of my favourite all time. -
I think it's about a woman with schizophrenia based on her confusion. "It's killing me to see you this way" the man says because he's watching his love slip into a mental disorder. A symptom is hallucinations and especially the music video looks it. "All that's left is a ghost of you" because once you have Schizophrenia, you are never the same person.
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I agree with most of these interpretations but I think the main chorus "though the truth may vary this ship will carry our bodies safe to shore", could mean every ones life on earth are different whether rich poor, dying young old, all these differences don't matter when we lose someone. Then the ship will carry on, like planet earth is our ship and it'll keep on spinning - like life will go on. Shore is definitely heaven or whatever or wherever you believe we go to reunite w our lost loved ones. Hope you like my thoughts ;)
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I think this is a widow talking about how she(This house) feels empty and lost without her husband and is contemplating suicide. The part about the ship carrying their bodies is talking about how they will be carried away(their dead bodies) together or they end up buried together and then they'll be reunited. Just my interpretation of this.
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I agree with the dementia/ Alzheimer's disease theory. It sound like a woman slipping away from her husband who can do nothing but watch as his love can barely recognize him anymore... :( but they are reunited in death and can be together forever.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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This story isn't mine (I saw it on Grooveshark as one of the comments on this song) but the interpretation seems very accurate to me.
There were two close friends. He always never gave up while she was kind andtrustworthy. They go home together one night from a party and the girl was drunk and the guy stayed sober to watch over her. As they walked home, they were crossing an intersection. The guy stopped because a car was coming, while the girl kept walking and turned around wondering why he stopped for she didnt notice that a car was coming. The guy shouted at her, but she asks, "Why are you mad? I lov-" the guy pushed her before she could finish. The guy was hit by the car and the girl got up and saw what happened, and fell back to the ground crying. Four days later, the guy woke up in the girl's house. He finds the girl in her bedroom crying, with her parents trying to talk to her outside. He comes closer and sits beside her on her bed. He whispers "I'm here". The girl looks up and smiles and apologizes, cries even harder but with a smile. The guy whispers to her ear: "Move on, I'm here now." From there on, they talked to each other, making each other laugh. The girl's parents see her sometimes laughing on her own, thinking she has gone crazy but still whenever they would talk to her she seemed normal, thinking she had surely moved on. Weeks passed, and the guy starts to notice her mumbling how life is meaningless without him. Up to the point the guy realizes that the more he spent time with her in his afterlife, the more she was drawn to committing suicide. Though he realized too late. He ran as fast as he could back into her room. His eyes widened with a sad face. But, he realizes that he cant do anything to change her mind. He sits down at her bed and stared outside the window because he didn’t want to see her kill herself. The girl looks at the ceiling and says: “I know your there, why don’t you talk to me?” The guy kept silent and walked close to her and looked at her face. The girl continued for she knew for sure he was there: “This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore. Remember? You always told me when we were kids. Thank you.” The guy started to smile, he knew she already made up her mind, and for the truth’s side, he realizes how much he misses her “I remember, I thought you forgot.” The guy fell to the ground. The girl knew it was time, she says to him, “Your gone, all that’s left is a ghost of you. We are torn apart, just let me go and we’ll meet again soon.” The guy stood up, and said, “I guess I'll see you when I fall asleep then” as he walked towards the spot where he woke up. He closed his eyes and everything turned white. He tried to open his eyes but everything stayed white. He waited for something to happen, though afraid if he was going to be trapped there forever alone in the white. Then he hears a familiar voice behind him. He looks at the ground and cried with a smile, “I missed you so much.” -
I agree with most people on their interpretations saying how she's a widow and her husbands dead but more specifically I have a slightly different interpretation. I think tha her husband is just very ill and she can't talk to him anymore because he's dying. Eventually he dies and before he dies maybe, she made a promise to him or something that keeps her from trying to commit suicide. Like when it says "just let me go we'll meet again soon" she feels like whatever she said or did for him before he died is keeping her from dying. But eventually whether it's from old age or just sickness she's starting to die. Now, she's saying "I'll see you when I fall to sleep" which means she now slipping away and finally dying. Which means she'll finally get to see him.
That's what I personally think but, I could always be 100% wrong. -
could the line about the ship carrying safety to shore have anything to do with Greek mythology and the boat that carried the dead away?
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Speaking with Interview Magazine, Hilmarsdóttir explained the song's meaning: "How we usually make our lyrics is, Raggi and I, sometimes we come up with stories or situations. That one is about a relationship. Sometimes we haven't wanted to give too much away. We like people to read their own things in the lyrics. I guess I could share it. It's about a couple and the husband passed away and it's from the conversation between the two of them. We don't know if she's going crazy or if someone's actually there. We've kind of been inspired by people that lived in my house. This old couple that lived there for 30 years. The woman passed away, so it was kind of different."
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Ok this song what i get from it is like a relationship right and they had a fight and said things they didn't mean to say and now they are not with each other and so hes telling her its ok and she see's him in her dreams and they will be with each other again as lovers they just need time away for a while yea thats what i got from this song.
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My interpretation is very different from what most believe. I think it's about a girl suffering from depression and delusions caused by her losing a loved one (let's say her sister.) and the man she loves is trying to help her, but she won't accept help.
"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Him getting her attention
"I don't like walking around this old and empty house" It isn't really empty, she is empty inside.
"So hold my hand, I'll walk with you, my dear" He's trying to understand her pain.
"The stairs creak as I sleep, it's keeping me awake" The sounds in her mind.
"It's the house telling you to close your eyes" He tries to convince her to ignore the delusions.
"And some days I can't even trust myself" She can't tell th -
Given that 'King and Lionheart' was about her brother being taken from her because of a divorce (the king possibly being their father and Lionheart being her brother), this song could be about her hating being in a place that reminds her of growing up with someone who is now nothing more than a memory.
She's now alone without him, and as she's trying to sleep alone, being kept away by all the sounds, she knows he's out there asleep soundly somewhere. His voice of comfort is a whimsical memory. "It's the house telling you to close your eyes."
"I'll see you when I fall asleep" affirms the idea that they'll both be together in their dreams to play like they did when they were young and the family was still intact.
"You're gone away, there's nothing we can do" affirms the idea of children being unable to do anything about the parents separating and tearing them apart from one another.
I used to think it was a song about an unconfident woman in a relationship where the man tries to reassure her that they could still have a great relationship if she'd only stop listening to the little voice in her head that told her some little slight had been done by him, that some new place they had to move to was no good, that everything was just ruined.
Most people here seem to be thinking about how elderly people go through crises of memory loss or madness, but did you ever think the madness was just a metaphor for children being confused and torn apart by the adults who control their lives? -
it could be about a husband's wife with a deathly sickness resulting in hallucinations and brain damage and so the husband is trying to stop her from dying (she dies near the end) or its a plague and so theyre both in the isolation camps and the wife is dying and the husband will eventually die too
(a little dark when you think about it) -
my interpretation is that it is about an old couple where the woman is being driven into insanity because of an accident and losing her memory (possibly brain damage) and is now considering committing suicide because she cant take it but the husband doesnt want her to die and is relentless in trying to stop her from her own self-destruction and wants her to remember and so during the long pause with no music she commits suicide (or attempts to resulting in a mortal injury) and shes slipping away from her husband (" wait for me please hang around" in the song is the husband is either saying not to finish killing herself or to die if she was dying) and then here she dies which is the reason for the lack of conversation between the couple.
"ill see you when i fall asleep" saying that she will still dream about him in the afterlife or return as a ghost.
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