What do you think Bigger than Us means?

White Lies: Bigger than Us Meaning

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Album cover for Bigger than Us album cover

Bigger than Us Lyrics

You took the tunnel route home
You've never taken that way with me before
Did you feel the need for change?
Apologies on your fingernails
Love flickered in the city of lights,
Like intermittent radio waves

I don't need your tears
I don't...

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  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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     Jul 12th 2011 !⃝

    I think it's a two people in a car and they drive back from the hospital. One of them has just learned he/she is going to die soon.'Bigger than us' because they can't do anything about it.

  2. 3n19m470
    click a star to vote
     Jun 7th 2015 !⃝

    This is probably way off, but that's OK :)

    I've read a lot about Abduction Phenomena. Millions of people claim to have been abducted by aliens. We don't understand exactly what is going on, but there is definitely Something to this phenomena. People thousands of miles apart have described similar details in their experiences, Before the age of the internet... Late Harvard Professor John Mack (RIP) wrote a couple of books about it that I highly recommend.

    Are they really aliens from another planet? Or do they live inside the earth and in our oceans? Are they really just "demons" masquerading as aliens? Or is this phenomena something that takes place in the mind of the abductees? Perhaps these entities are what the ancients called angels, demons, djinn, and other names given to them by cultures on every continent on this planet? It's a mystery to me!

    Now, about the song... He mentions someone taking a different route to get home than they normally would. Many abduction accounts I've read begin this way... someone ends up on an isolated "country" road, out in the middle of nowhere. Perhaps the singer was riding shotgun...

    He mentions horses crying. Animals often have adverse reactions to paranormal phenomena. If a flying craft came near them, I could imagine they might cry out... Also, the mention of horses reinforces the idea of being out on a country road, out away from the city, where people own horses.

    He mentions headlights on the hillside... Then follows up with a perhaps fearful "don't take me this way". UFOs are often confused with headlights on a hillside. Sometimes someone thinks they see a UFO and it ends up being just headlights on a hillside in the distance... And perhaps in this case, the singer thought he was seeing headlights, then it ended up being a flying craft. Or maybe he doesn't like driving on a certain road because the headlights remind him of his terrifying abduction experience, or maybe he is saying "don't take me this way!" because that was the road where the abduction happened,

    I agree that there is also relationship problems mixed into the song... It seems like they were driving and having a discussion or argument about her cheating on him, and then "it" happened... They were both abducted. Then later on when they started talking about this crazy thing that happened, and what they were going to do about their relationship issues, he realizes, and tells her, this is bigger than us... The cheating doesn't really matter anymore. It's small potatos compared to what just happened... So, whether romantic or not, they will always be connected by this experience. They will need each other for support because abduction phenomena is almost always a shocking, life changing experience. People go through a lot of feelings. Fear. Depression. Anger. Etc.

    I don't need your love, tears, don't want you to hold me... I just want you to pray because this is bigger than us, and only God can save us now... And after it happened he was obsessed with getting home. Where he could feel safe again.

    There are a few other lyrics I could interpret at this angle, like he feels like he's breaking up and wanted to stay, means he doesn't know how to cope with what happened, and he wishes he could have stayed in his "normal" life, before this crazy thing happened. Or he just wanted to stay in the car, but was taken, possibly into the craft...

    Like I said, probably way off, but that is just what this song makes me think about. I guess you think about what you've studied, and I've studied all types of mysterious topics, everything from the Giza Pyramids and Sphinx, to ghosts and hauntings, to wild theories like Hollow Earth and Breakaway Civilizations and of course Ancient Astronauts/Aliens.

  3. anonymous
    click a star to vote
     Apr 24th 2011 !⃝

    Hey guys,
    looking over the video and looking over many different kinds of movies/ shows, i found out what the interpretation us!

    My interpretation is that it is relating to the 1982 film, E.T directed my Steven Spielburg. The music video itself was directed by Steven. The music video itself was to interpret the relationship between E.T and Elliot, Elliot being the boy in the red sweatshirt, and E.T being the "Bigger Then Us" candy bar.

    I hope this helped someone :P

  4. Ota Otaria
    click a star to vote
     Apr 14th 2011 !⃝

    You took the tunnel route home
    You've never taken that way with me before
    Did you feel the need for change?

    There is a boy and a girl in a car, they are not a couple but very close friends, she is driving and is not bringing him home, she going somewhere isolated as we will read later. Do you feel the need for change means: why are you changing our ways?

    Apologies on your fingernails
    Love flickered in the city of lights,
    Like intermittent radio waves

    The girl is pretending to tell some excuses
    "on your fingernails" probably means the excuses are told not very convincingly.
    While she is driving into the city, there is a clear romantic atmosphere between this 2. The love flikered like intermittend radio waves to underline the uncertainity and undefinity of the
    relationship.

    I don't need your tears
    I don't want your love
    I just gotta get home

    Probably the girl is driving him not home but somewhere where he doesn't want to go, because he doesn't want her to love him explicity, ruing their complicity, or doesn't want her to cry for not understanding what he feels, he just wants to go home, playing safe.

    And I feel like I'm breaking up
    But I wanted to stay

    He feels like is breaking apart but still he wanted to stay firmly in his previous position

    Headlights on the hillside, don't take me this way

    She is getting the car on an hillside, probably far from anything, with a nice point of view; he's saying 'don't take me this way', please don't try to seduce me this way. Don't take me this way also means 'don't bring me on this way" literally speaking.

    I don't want you to hold me
    I want you to pray

    I don't want to be embraced by you= this could transform our platonic love into something I'm not prepared to. I want you to pray and adore this relationship.

    This is bigger than us

    This relationship is bigger than us and is not going to be domated by us right now, if we make concrete this love we will ruin it.

    You went where the horses cry
    You've never taken that way with me before
    Did you feel the need for change?

    See the first stanza

    Guilt smeared across your lips
    I was tired and cold from the window
    You're tired, nothing has changed

    The guilt smeared across the lips maybe a poetic or religious vision of an oral intercourse. He's tired, as he didn't want to get involved but couldn't stand the girl that was trying to seduce him. He's also cold, as if he has built a wall between him and the girl.
    She is also tired, probably physically, but nothing has changed for the good, instead of slowly evolving to a stronger relationship, they are still in this strange relationship.


    I don't need your tears
    I don't want your love
    I just gotta get home

    Again he doesn't want to get involved in a more thighten relationship, he just wants to get home, he's tired and disappointed.

    And I feel like I'm breaking up
    But I wanted to stay

    He's disappointed, he's not feeling comfortably, but still he wanted not to run away

    Headlights on the hillside, don't take me this way
    I don't want you to hold me
    I want you to pray
    This is bigger than us

    It seems like what she wanted to control was something so big that she eventually failed controlling: their relationship has its own will and destiny and they can't fight it, trying to accelerate it won't bring anything. The relationship should take its own right time, even if the boy and the girl likes each other, messing up and trying to go faster is not that witty.


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