What do you think Such Great Heights means?

Postal Service: Such Great Heights Meaning

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Album cover for Such Great Heights album cover

Such Great Heights Lyrics

I am thinking it's a sign
that the freckles in our eyes are mirror images
and when we kiss they're perfectly aligned
And I have to speculate
that God himself did make
us into corresponding shapes
like puzzle pieces from the clay

It's...

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  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    DaGitt
    click a star to vote
     Feb 13th 2007 !⃝

    Megan Sales
    2. 14. 07
    Block 3
    Song Analysis

    Such Great Heights – The Postal Service

    Such Great Heights by the Postal Service was released January 23, 2003, within an EP that sported an indie-electronic label. Since then it had been played consistently at radio stations, done as covers, and even exposed in commercials promoting Ask.com, Kaiser Permanente, and M&M’s. But does the song really have anything to do with search engines, hospitals or candy? Maybe with all the commotion going on, no one ever thought to sit down with a copy of the lyrics, really stare at it, and analyze the true meaning behind the familiar words. Interpretations could vary from person to person, but ultimately it all draws back to the themes of longing and connection despite separation. The song displays an upbeat, electronic rhythm, yet singer Ben Gibbard projects a message far from such—the whole thing is almost like a letter written to someone who will probably never get to read his yearning words.
    The song unfolds almost as a fairytale would: Once upon a time, there was a happy couple, and they were a match made in heaven. Postal Service’s singer ruminates on probably the smallest memories that are still linking him to the unknown lover, which are evident in the first stanza. “I am thinking it’s a sign / that the freckles in our eyes are mirror images / and when we kiss they’re perfectly aligned” shows an approximate rhyme between the two phrases that make up one of those faint memories. A reference to the heavens provides an allusion to the Bible and further backs up the clichéd statement of ‘a match made in heaven’ through, “I have to speculate that God himself / did make us into corresponding shapes like / puzzle pieces from the clay”. By this point, the listener probably isn’t expecting a harsh turn from the fairy tale atmosphere of the song. The couple’s love sounds so strong, so how could anything tear them apart? “It’s thoughts like this that catch my troubled / head when you’re away, when I am missing you to death” is evident of a hyperbole, as well as the drastic fate of these two people made perfectly for each other. The next three lines that finish up the stanza provide a possible reason behind this. The girl, namely a musician, left him to follow her dreams of exposing her music—evident in the approximately rhymed, “When you are out there on the road for / several weeks of shows / and when you scan the radio, I hope this song will guide you home”.
    The chorus is an example of a repetition and a metaphor at once, as well as filled with end rhymes. The world, otherwise known as reality, is referred to with the pronoun of ‘they’ in, “They will see us waving from such great / heights, ‘come down now,’ they’ll say” / but everything looks perfect from far away / ‘come down now,’ but we’ll stay”. The singer isn’t really climbing up a tree and waving down at everyone, although he could’ve. The “great heights” actually refers to the elevation above reality. He lingers in the fantasy that his lover could possibly be doing the same thing, and despite everyone’s nagging to forget about the past and move on (“Come down now,” they say), “everything looks perfect from far away”, and despite anything that gets in their way, they’ll still have each other.
    The final stanza discourages the listener, even after the chorus brimming of relentless loyalty. The girl hits the road to promote her songs, unknowing that her lover is still back at home, waiting, and in turn writing a song about her. “I tried my best to leave this all on your / machine, but the persistent beat it sounded / thin upon listening” personifies her answering machine with the same persistency that the song’s chorus displayed. After a repetition of the chorus, the singer then ends it on the sad, yet hopeful note that perhaps she will think to scan through the radio, and then perhaps it will be the product of his misery will bring her back to him. “You will hear / the shrillest highs and lowest lows with / the windows down when this is guiding you home.”

  2. anonymous
    click a star to vote
     Jul 9th 2021 !⃝

    I feel that this is about unrequited love. That he is singing about all of his feelings for this other person but he also knows that “everything looks perfect from far away” and that if they were really together that it wouldn’t work. He sings about trying to guide her “home” with this song but he is also hesitant to actually sing it to her. He seems very hopeful that this song somehow will maybe prove to her how much he loves her but deep down he knows she doesn’t feel the same. When he says “they’ll say come down now” I think he’s just wishing that he would have the chance to transcend the everyday life with her. Again, just my thoughts on the lyrics. Whatever the meaning, it is a beautiful song.

  3. anonymous
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     Oct 2nd 2018 !⃝

    It is clearly about two lovers who cannot be together but in such great heights (in their minds... or probably in the mind of one of them, not necessarily the same one all the time - sometimes one can miss the other and sometimes the other can miss the one).
    And that is why far away -in their minds- everything looks perfect.
    But it is sad. Because they cannot be in their minds.
    A love that you know will complement you but for any reason is not possible.

  4. anonymous
    click a star to vote
     Feb 13th 2011 !⃝

    I'm not toooo sure but it could be about when Ben Gibbard was dating Jenny Lewis (of the band Rilo Kiley) It seems that he's singing about both of them being on the road, which would make sense since they're both in their own bands.

  5. anonymous
    click a star to vote
     Oct 11th 2008 !⃝

    This song is about the high of being in love.

  6. anonymous
    click a star to vote
     Aug 27th 2006 !⃝

    I personally believe the song could be about death. The singer, ben gibbard, saying "...When I am missing you to death." another clue to this could be the chorus saying "they will see us waving from such great heights, 'come down now,' they'll say but everything looks perfect from far away,
    'come down now,' but we'll stay..". That would mean it would be about being in heaven, looking down to all the earth bound people, seeing heaven as a perfect place, wanting the narrator back with them.

  7. anna
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     Apr 26th 2006 !⃝

    It's about a girlfriend possibly and there both or she's in a band so they spend a lot of time apart (when you are out there on the road and I am missing you to death)

    He's saying that although so much is against them there's so much to keep them together... A match made in heaven (god himself did make us into corresponding shapes)

    Perhaps people are saying his heads in the clouds for staying in the relationship as it's such a difficult task but to him it seems perfect.
    (everything looks perfect, come down now) people are saying he thinks its perfect but it isn't.

    That chorus part's a bit ropey, but its my personal opinion


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