Regina Spektor: One More Time with Feeling Meaning
One More Time with Feeling Lyrics
but your scars are healing wrong
the helium balloon inside your room has come undone
and it's pushing up at the ceiling
and the flickering lights it cannot get beyond
everyone takes turns
now it's yours to play the...
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I always interpreted this song as being from the point of view of someone who's loved one recently attempted suicide by slitting their wrists or throat. I take this especially from the chorus, the lyric
"Hold on/one more time with feeling/ try it again/ breathing just a rhythm"
Shows that the person was feeling numb and not feeling anything, "try it again" being try to live their life again. Breathing's just a rhythm is saying that they try to think the other person can recover easily, but they really know that it will be a long process and also reflect this in the lines
"You thought by now you'd be
So much better than you are
You thought by now they'd see
That you had come so far
And the pride inside their eyes
Would synchronized into a love you've never known
So much more than you've been shown"
Showing that the subject is trying to be safe and "better" to appease their family and others.
I can draw the suicide conclusion from the beginning lyric, "Your stitches are all out
But your scars are healing wrong" saying that they may be physically healed, but not mentally. -
I'm just spitballing a different angle onto this song....
Maybe it could be applied to America after 9-11.
"your stitches are all out
but your scars are healing wrong
the helium balloon inside your room has come undone
and it's pushing up at the ceiling
and the flickering lights it cannot get beyond
everyone takes turns
now it's yours to play the part
and they're sitting all around you
holding copies of your chart
and the misery inside their eyes is
synchronized and reflecting it to yours"
That part could be about how America is trying to work past 9-11 but we are "healing wrong" by starting the war on terror. The helium balloon could be our innocent days before the attack leaving because now we have so many safety regulations and screenings, you can't go anywhere without going through a metal detector. the "chart" could either be a war chart or the chart of where the twin towers used to be. Then the last part of that phrase shows everyone is still sad from 9-11.
"this is why we fight " would then be referring into why people are fighting terrorism, because we are sad and want to do all the people who died justice.
Like I said.. this was just a different idea.. not completely formed but a different take nonetheless... -
I believe it could be about a loved one of hers that is sick and struggling to recover (your stitches are all out but your scars are healing wrong) there are other metaphors that could mean doctors and hospitals ( the helium balloon inside your room has come undone; they're sitting all around you holding copies of your chart) but she feels like the real reason her loved one is struggling is because he/she has lost hope or the will to survive even though he/she has the potential to... So she reminds them to carry on and fight to get better and that they are loved no matter what... That's what resonated with me about this song when I heard it, because my cousin was fighting cancer at the time and he didn't feel like he would make it.. I played this song for him one day and he said he was sorry and he wasn't going to give up.. He has made a full recovery and is healthier than he has ever been! :)
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I believe this song is talking about her trying to become famous, or at least have people know her name in music. I think she feels that after so much she's done, she hasn't accomplished what she felt she should:
"You thought by now you'd be
so much bigger than you are
you thought by now they'd see
that you had come so far."
More Regina Spektor songs »
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