Of Monsters and Men: Yellow Light Meaning
Yellow Light Lyrics
But everything feels so different now.
Just grab a hold of my hand,
I will lead you through this wonderland.
Water up to my knees,
But sharks are swimming in the sea.
Just follow my yellow light,
And...
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I believe that this is one of those songs made for us listeners to decide what it means. I personally interpret it as a song about learning to trust and love someone again, moving on from bad experiences and ignoring those insecurities that might stop people from doing so.
I'm pretty sure that the slightly haunting lyrics were written that way on purpose. However, I don't think they're meant to be interpreted in a literal sense, because even if it does make sense, there's a deeper, different meaning to it. -
Read this one all the way through first, it helps. Now my proposition: The two of them are inside a whale (soft sides etc. OMAM always do the sea haha). The chap has a torch and begs to persuade her to follow his yellow light. The teeth are the warning sides; the sharks outside etc etc. ;)
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I feel like it's a love song type thing. I know a book by Sherrilyn Kenyon called Acheron. It sort of reminds me of some stuff in there. A girl is looking for somewhere to start anew a way from all the problems in her past. This guy comes to help her through her fears and calls it a wonderland. The "warning signs" are people sort of judging them being together. In the last verse Somewhere deep in the dark
A howling beast hears us talk
I dare you to close your eyes
And see all the colors in disguise
Runnin' into the night
The earth is shaking and I see a light
The light is blinding my eyes
As the soft walls eat us alive
She gets scared and they both killed by the people when it says the light is blinding my eyes and when they both sing as soft walls eat us alive. Like going to the after life.
anyways, this is Just My interpretation. -
I always imagined the male voice as a malevolent force, leading the woman astray, deeper into danger. Like a will-o’-the-wisp. But at the end she succumbs to it and actually gains power from it. That or she finds a way to break free from it at the end, and conquers it. The lines “and I see a light; the light is blinding my eyes” show the male voice losing confidence and control for the first time and show the woman gaining confidence or certainty. The “danger” could be insanity, depression or something like that. At least that’s how it’s felt to me.
The beauty of a song as vague as this is that it has a different meaning to each listener.
It’s definitely very haunting though. -
heres what i think, i think that he (the artist) is rushing to the hospital with the girl in the back seat dying. Street lights are the yellow lights. Hes just confessing these feelings for her and stuff, and when he says that he might "make a move" is when he is looking back and regreting something that he didn't do. As he gets to the hospital or where ever, shes scared and dying, while shes dying hes holding her. well thats what i think. you dont have to agree thats just what i interpreted.
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I believe it's about this girl's succumbing to insanity... The line that made me think about it was the "soft walls", can you think of an asylum?... But maybe the "insanity" is not real insanity, but a metaphor to being different from what society wants us to be. Anyway, in this metaphor she is "losing her plot", and the male voice represents insanity itself "welcoming" her.
"Water up to my knees" might mean she is halfway through loosing her mind, and she is scared, which is represented by the sharks...
Well, it really fits for me. -
I'm pretty sure it indicates a will-and-wisp. Google it, it only makes sense.
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I'm pretty sure it indicates a will and wisp.
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idk what this means lol
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I think that the girl is dreaming, It seems an oniric songs. She's having a nightmare, with monsters (the sharks,the baest, the darkness). Probably,she feels guilty for something wrong she has done or she's doing - the big warning signes.The male voice who tries to comfort her (grab my Hans, follow my Yellow light) is her hope (her lover in real life like that has become an angel,a saviour in her nightmare?) Maybe. The beast that could hear them talk is probably the morality of society, also represented by the walls that eat both... but alive! Really alive, because they have gain their freedom (to love each other).
Silvia -
I think that the girl is dreaming, an oniric songs. She's having a nightmare, with monsters (the shark,the best, the dark). Probably,she feel guilty for something wrong she has done or she's doing - the big warning signes- the male voice who tries to comfort her (grab my Hans, follow my Yellow light) is her hope (her lover in rel life like an angel,a saviour in her nightmare?) Maybe. The beast that could hear them talk is probably the morality of society, also represented by the walls that eat both... but alive! Really alive because they have gain their freedom (to love each other).
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I always think the song is about a woman on the verge of dying who is afraid of death, and the internal struggle of her coming to terms with it.
Much of the woman's lyrics ('somewhere deep in the dark a howling beast hears us talk', 'running into the night', 'sharks are swimming in the sea') are filled with fear, especially of the unknown (death). This contrasts to the man's lyrics ('just grab a hold of my hand, I will lead you through this wonderland', 'just follow my yellow light', I dare you to close your eyes'), which are much more reassuring could either be interpreted as the woman's conscience trying to calm her down or as perhaps an angel or spirit doing the same thing. A lot of the imagery is also to do with coming into the light and away from darkness - a metaphor for dying.
This also helps to explain why the actual sung part is only around a third of the song - the rest is chanting to the sounds of marching footsteps and harmonizing music box-like notes. This is where the woman has slipped into limbo - the last three lines of the song are when she passes away and the chanting is the sounds of the dead welcoming her into the afterlife, even though she initially refuses. This is why this part is so long. She doesn't want to accept her death until the very end, when she lets go and the final notes play out and fade away as she enters the next life.
On a side note, I also read a different interpretation which is essentially the same as mine except a a little more literal - the woman is being bombed (yellow light, warning signs) and has to come to terms with her imminent death. -
I think that the song is a bittersweet lullaby about ignoring the warning signs of entering into a clandestine relationship. He tells her to literally ignore all of the "big warning signs", "see all the colors in disguise", and let the "soft walls eat [us] alive", indicating a number of threats and challenges to vulnerability that she is being asked to overlook to "follow [his] yellow light". He is promising that she will follow him " through this wonderland", but she will do so at great peril to herself and her sense of safety and security.
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This song is about dying and how the walls close in on you and everyone around you.
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The way I see it, The soft walls are society. we built the world to be comforting for us, Therefore softness, but we lost the freedom that comes with nature and lack of structure, therefore walls. The girl is just now beginning to see the world outside of her tight comfort zone, the soft walls, and the man is guiding her through it, telling her not to be afraid of the warning signs, which are really just parts of the natural world. The howling beast, the sharks, ect.. are also parts of the beautiful natural world that people consumed by soft walls don't fully understand.
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