Radical Face: Welcome Home Meaning
Song Released: 2011
Welcome Home Lyrics
And the days blur into one
And the backs of my eyes hum with things I've never done
Sheets are swaying from an old clothesline
Like a row of captured ghosts over old dead grass
Was never much but we made the...
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:I believe this song is about a soldier returning from war as well. When he visits his home he is elated with nostalgic memories. He is also coping with his experiences at war.
"Sleep don't visit, so I choke on sun, and the days blur into one
And the backs of my eyes hum with things I've never done"
He needs to sleep and not remember the bad times. He doesn't sleep because of combat stress. Due to this the days all blur into one.
"Sheets are swaying from an old clothesline
Like a row of captured ghosts over old dead grass
Was never much, but we've made the most
Welcome home"
The ghosts that represent the clothesline is referring to some of his fallen buddies. He feels safe at home, although has definitely changed from seeing combat. He looks at things differently than he used to. He remembers his home as when he left it, but even his childhood memories can't be seen in the same way.
Ships are launching from my chest
Some have names but most do not
If you find one, please let me know what piece I've lost
The ships are pieces of his heart and soul that have been taken away from him. He has buried his emotions so deep. Parts of him before leaving, are now gone. He doesn't want his family to realize this but he knows its obvious.
Peel the scars from off my back
I don't need them anymore
You can throw them out or keep them in your mason jars
I've come home
His family asks him about his time over there. They talk about it briefly and it heals his emotional wounds for the moment, but he mainly just want to forget and rest. They want to help him move on and heal. Being home distracts him from his dark side.
All my nightmares escape my head
Bar the door, please don't let them in
You were never supposed to leave
Now my head's splitting at the seams
And I don't know if I can
After a while, his nightmares slowly diminish over time. Being home with his family helps him forget. They can see he has changed from war and say you were never supposed to leave. He doesn't know if he can go back. He's not finished healing. But he's buries his emotions as usual and prepares for another tour after only being home for a few weeks.
Here, beneath my lungs
I feel your thumbs
Press into my skin again
He's back at war(here)again. He feels a knot in his stomach as he prepares for his first op on his second tour.
Many people don't realize that young warriors, like the one I am describing, have a soft side too. They are just good at hiding it. Home brings out that soft side even in the most hardened individual. -
2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:Could this song be about returning to God after disbelieving for many years? "Sleep don't visit, so I choke on sun/and the days blur into one/and the backs of my eyes hum with things I've never done." Perhaps many truths have been revealed to him, peeling back the false matrix that surrounds and imprisons us all. His former worldview, his acceptance of supposed necessary evils, has been supplanted by these revelations. This results in restless nights spent analyzing the state of the world with new, open eyes, while concurrently celebrating his spiritual rebirth. He realizes his time has been misspent on the mundane and the non-spiritual. Once freed from a system of fear, he contemplates all that he denied himself. Now he will live a life aligned with his new values. Fear no longer binds him.
"Sheets are swaying from an old clothesline/Like a row of captured ghosts over old dead grass/Was never much but we made the most." Captured ghosts could allude to ideas formerly embraced but now characterized as dead, false. He made the most of his life despite his limited knowledge.
"Ships are launching from my chest/Some have names but most do not/If you find one, please let me know what piece I've lost." Ships have sailed. He's released ideas, perhaps people, too, that no longer fit.
"Heal the scars from off my back/I don't need them anymore/You can throw them out or keep them in your mason jars/I've come home." This is so beautiful. God healed his emotional scars. Before God, he couldn't let them go. Home is where God is. He is with God.
"All my nightmares escaped my head/Bar the door, please don't let them in/You were never supposed to leave/Now my head's splitting at the seams/And I don't know if I can..." God freed him from fear. He's asking God to bar the door, preventing fear from reentering. He never really wanted to deny God. Now his head is splitting at the seams, because his mind is bursting with new beliefs, new interpretations. His spiritual conversion displaced his atheism.
"Here, beneath my lungs, I feel your thumbs press into my skin again" The Holy Ghost lives within him, filling his lungs with the breath of God. He is born again. -
3TOP RATED
#3 top rated interpretation:What I believe the song is about is that a soldier returns home to his family after years of war. The family is really happy, and welcomes him home. I could be wrong, this is just my interpretation.
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An abusive father (his wife dies some time ago) winds up, in his anger and grief, unintentionally driving his only son away, not realizing that his presence is the only thing that still ties him to his wife. The torrential downpour of emotions that follows eventually tears him apart, leaving him a broken man, waiting for his son to come back home.
When he finally does, the sheer immensity of the unresolved bitterness and anger they've harbored for each other come to a head. One or both break down. It was a long time ago, but the father is still processing his wife's death. The son is grieving the father he wished he had and the mother he never did.
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Frankly, for as much as I dislike Indie in general, this is a great song. The immense amount of pain and sorrow that is very clear isn't presented in a kitschy or stupid way, and somehow it *works*.
For a father, losing a son is hard. For a son, losing a father is impossible. Dealing with that is one of the most difficult things anyone in those circumstances will ever do. This theme is tackled beautifully, I must say. -
A woman trying to get free from an abusive relationship and keeps finding herself trapped. She has a strong side and keeps on trying despite defeat after defeat.
The woman exists with a glass heart, so easily broken time and time again that her head becomes like stone to protect herself from dieing from too many heartbreaking moments of being put down again and again. She is a person, soft-hearted, loving, kind, trapped now behind the mind of stove, her only way to survive, until she can break free.
That was my take on it. The rest was too painful to listen to again or meditate on to see how it fits in verse by verse. The lyrics grapped at my heart and sang of my years in an abusive marriage and struggle to break free.
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*edit* kind of think it’s from Tom’s son’s perspective who ran away. Even though this song isn’t in the family tree album idk. There’s a reference to a clothes line in Mute too. Mute is from the son’s perspective
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I kind of think it’s from Tom’s perspective about his son who ran away. Even though this song isn’t in the family tree albums idk. There’s a reference to a clothes line in Mute too. That’s the song from his son’s perspective. Also makes sense.
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I think that this song might be about the loss of a loved one, specifically a brother because at the end it says he laughed along with his brother. Who is dead.
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This song, I believe, is about death and/or loss, more specifically coping with the overwhelming emotions some physical places hold for us due to the experiences we've shared there with others. The idea that these places that we hold dear in our hearts for one reason or another begin to hold new layers of meaning and emotion as we grow and mature, and as those close to us pass on. A good example would be the loss of ones parents and the return to the childhood home you long since left behind you. Another, more personal example would be a location you have a spiritual connection to because of the time you spent there with someone special who is no longer in your life for one reason or another. It's a place that feels at once familiar, bringing back wonderful memories and feelings associated with them, and yet alien, as you know in your heart that you'll never truly have those experiences here again outside of your memory. Ultimately I believe that the song is about the mixture of nostalgia and deep loss, familiarity and out-of-place sensations that we feel in these locations.
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The cool thing about music is it means something different to everyone. I see everyone’s view being correct. Enjoy music and let it speak to you. It’s fuel for the soul.
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I can't guess what it means to anyone else... But it makes me want to head back into the mountains...
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No, the song was written because of the lost of someone, the person died and was very important, that kind of importance that we don't notice until is too late; and there`s a lot of pain in every line of the song, the song describes memories of past things, some of them good, some of them not, the kind of things that hurt when you remember. But although all these, and no matter the pain within, there is some kind of strange adictive feeling that takes the one that is hearing to his own past, and his own paradise at the same time where the things that were never pronounced, can be heard, and it's still time to say I'm sorry, not only for the one that is no longer here, but also for the one that is hearing.
English is not my native language, but I think if you see this: "Radical Face - Welcome Home (Live 2011 New LA Folk", is in youtube, watch out just at the end of the play, I think that's more elocuent than me... -
I may be influenced by my own experience but it spoke to me so much this is how I see it: (I heard it all the time when I flew home after my mom died)
He has returned home after the death of one or both parents. He is flooded with memories of childhood. As it often is with kids who leave, his memories are a smattering of negative experiences and love. Though his absence has healed many of the old wounds, he seems slightly tortured by thoughts of things unresolved, emotions with nowhere to go.
Again, it's very influenced by my experience and by the video. -
It is about coming home for the first time after your parents die.
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"I believe the song is about is that a soldier returns home to his family after years of war" I believe this too :) And I think when he hardly come home and hug her family, after this he died :(
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I think it's about someone who has moved away from home, and having done so has managed to rid themselves of all the bead memories they've had growing up, be it to do with family or friends or just life in general. And now they have returned back to their home town or village and their time away has changed them their nightmares have left and they want to enjoy their life with out these bad things.It's a new beginning!
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It's about death, the freedom of not caring anymore.coming home to yourself at last.
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I think what Radial Face are going to express is, the feeling when you get home after so many years and you're just thrilled. You start remembering all those memories of your old home or even your first home. It's a incredible feeling that he perfectly expresses and everytime you listen to the part, when he says "welcome home" you're like returning to your home and remember your whole childhood and start letting out your inner child again and do whatever you were doing there as a child.
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