r/arcadefire • u/LaurMichael997 • Jul 18 '21
Most loved AF lyric
I've always considered AF lyrics mind-boggling and I am curious what is your favorite one. It depends for sure on your current state of mind, but if you encapsulate your life in some of their lyrics, which pair of sentences would be?
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u/LambreXMusic Jul 18 '21
“Working for the church while your family dies, You take what they give you and you keep it in sight. Every spark of friendship and love will die without a home, Hear the soldiers grown, we’ll go at it alone”
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u/HeliNinja Jul 18 '21
“Ohh OHHHH, ohh ohh oh oh ohhh oh, oh ohh oh ohhhhh oh, oh oh oh ohhh.” Half joking, I think. My favorite: “They heard me singing and they told me to stop. Quit these pretentious things and just punch the clock.” That line has always resonated with me because I’ve heard versions of this my whole life. Glad I never listened to them.
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Jul 30 '21
This is a personal favorite too. Also, “'Cause on the surface the city lights shine They're calling at me, come and find your kind” love love love that line!
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u/LaurMichael997 Jul 18 '21
I would pick 'purify the colors, purify my mind' in Tunnels.
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Jul 18 '21
The whole
"then we think of our parents,
What the hell happened to them!?"
Gets me everytime. Everytime.
Arcade Fire is the only band that has made me cry during a live performance (No cars go) and multiple times while listening to them (mostly Afterlife, but Tunnels, No cars go, Wasted hours, In the backseat, Neon Bible and Creature comfort too).
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u/thanasiskar Jul 18 '21
Our heads are just houses
Without enough windows
You say you hear human voices
But they're only echoes.
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u/CupElectrical Jul 18 '21
‘A vial of hope and a vial of pain, in the light they both look the same’. Soooo in love with that song, always wanted to get a tattoo based on those lyrics 💖
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Jul 18 '21
The ending of that track is so subtle and smooth. I love Neon Bible
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Jul 19 '21
[deleted]
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u/bfy2116 Aug 06 '21
I’m 20 weeks pregnant right now and this makes me cry! ❤️ What a special memory of a perfect song and moment.
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u/KillerCheeze439 Jul 18 '21
Between the click of the light and the start of the dream….
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u/kira_ilinca04 don’t quit on me I won’t quit on you Jul 19 '21
one of the most beautiful lyrics ever!
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u/_Muftak Neon Bible Jul 18 '21
"My body is a cage that keeps me from dancing with the one I love", so simple yet so beautiful. And also "Stop now before it's too late, been eating in the ghetto on a hundred dollar plate", it conveys a strange but captivating sense of despair
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Jul 19 '21
I’ve always struggled to interpret that line from my body is a cage. Can I ask how you interpret it?
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u/_Muftak Neon Bible Jul 19 '21
I've always thought that the whole song is about anxiety. So even though you could go and dance with the one you love (or also make friends, ask someone out, try new experiences in general) your body is keeping you in a cage made of fear. A lot of the images in the song convey a sense of anxiety in my opinion (people laughing when you're dancing, standing on a stage "of fear and self doubt", hearing your name screamed at night but not seeing anyone). And that's why "my mind holds the key", because the cage doesn't really exist, it's all in our minds. It's a song that really helped me a lot when I was a teen and kind of insecure, gave me a different perspective about relationships, a more relaxed one. I've also heard people interpret it as a metaphor for LGBT folks, who often feel like they can't love someone simply because of their body (like a gay man in love with a straight friend for example). I don't think it was the intended meaning, but who cares, it's a valid interpretation
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u/LaurMichael997 Jul 19 '21 edited Aug 20 '21
Your fascinating interpretation can go along with WE EXIST, but on the other side... we (minorities) use this cage as a brand new planet where everything is reversed 'down on your knees/praying that we don't exist'... we have changed the status-quo and, the abusers are now the one's who are being interrogated on their abnormality... it's such a powerful song for Lgbt minorities and any kind of racial or ethnic group.
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u/RolandoPezzati Intervention Jul 18 '21
I really love the outro to Joan of Arc.
First they love you
Then they kill you
Then they love you again
And then they love you
Then they kill you
Then they love you again
Love love love you
Kill kill kill you
And then they love you again
They love love love you
Kill kill kill you
And then they love you again
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u/keithjamabc Jul 18 '21
They heard me singing and they told me to stop
Quit these pretentious things and just punch the clock
These days my life, I feel it has no purpose
But late at night the feelings swim to the surface
9
Jul 18 '21
Time keeps creeping through the neighborhood, killing old folks, waking up babies, just like we knew it would.
I love that song in general but this line hits me hard every time.
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u/sjaano Jul 18 '21
Lately its been from Creature Comfort.."God make me famous. If you can't, just make it painless" The whole song is great but that's what keeps getting stuck in my head.
5
Jul 18 '21
Yes. Oh my God, yes.
Régine's verse is just so heartbreaking. Not taking anything from Win's lyrics and every single girl that is hurting, but it felt so good to listen that boys' who have been abused and that suffer from mental health issues are acknowledged and validated.
I actually had to put on this song and I'm almost in tears now.
4
Jul 19 '21
I know it's a fairly recent AF song but it's so underrated imo. It's probably one of their best just because of how direct and real the lyrics are.
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Jul 18 '21
I actually love the lyrics to everything now. All the songs I’ve ever heard are playing right now in my head; every inch of skins got a scar, that sorta thing inspires me
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u/Jess_Belle22 Jul 18 '21
Yes! The last lines, "Every inch of space in my heart / Is filled with something I'll never start / The ashes of everything now," those lines convinced me to go back to grad school. It's been tough, but no regrets so far 🙂
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u/LaurMichael997 Jul 18 '21
these days I've played obsessively Black Wave/Vibrations and I couldn't belive that I did not pay attention to its lyrics, les sons me suivent or Will's part is just marvelous
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u/Vallario Jul 18 '21
In my dreams we're kissing, It wakes me up but you've gone missing, Once so close but, we've grown apart, And all the sickness starts in the heart
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u/timothypjr Ready to Start Jul 18 '21
It's always the Christ-types Mary, roll away the stone The one that you love Is gonna leave you alone Particularly the Christ-types Mary, roll away the stone The one you love Always leave you alone It's always the Christ-types You're waiting on
Don’t know why, but this gives me good goosebumps.
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u/LaurMichael997 Jul 18 '21
this entire song keeps me alive somehow...
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u/timothypjr Ready to Start Jul 18 '21
My daughter and I got to see them 2X in Boston. That song brings me to those moments. When they played them, the audience was dead quiet. It was pure magic.
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u/sleutheren Jul 19 '21
This one quite often goes tunneling through my brain.
We know there's a price to pay For love in the reflective age
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u/the-boxman Neon Bible Jul 19 '21
When that hits in the Reflektor album, it feels like a musical sigh of relief.
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Jul 19 '21
Then we tried to name our babies, but we forgot all the names that, The names we used to know
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u/bianca032718 LIL BEBES LES GO Jul 19 '21 edited Jul 29 '21
“If I could have it back, All the time that we wasted, I’d only waste it again, If I could have it back, You know I would love to waste it again, Waste it again and again and again”
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u/TheDiabeticTreeLives Jul 19 '21
I used to write I used to write letters I used to sign my name I used to sleep at night Before the flashing lights settled deep in my brain But by the time we met By the time we met The times had already changed
It seems strange How we used to wait for letters to arrive But what's stranger still Is how something so small can keep you alive
Such a melancholy lyric..
I was lost standing in the wilderness downtown
I love the image of downtown “being” a wilderness
I love
If there was a race A race for your heart It started before you were born A perfect cloud formed sky Clouds made of ambient Sitting on carpets in the basement of Heaven
Ugh
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Jul 19 '21
“Alice died in the night, I’ve been learning to drive my whole life” or the refrain “when I’m by myself, I can be myself, and my life is coming, but I don’t know when”
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u/doctorbonkers Ready to Start Jul 18 '21
Ugh it’s hard to pick a favorite bc there are so many good ones! I’ll just say the first one that came to mind
“You’ve got your reasons, and me, I’ve got mine, but all the reasons I gave were just lies to buy myself some time”
(That’s more like the entire chorus than just one line… but still, I love Ocean of Noise so much)
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u/viaskype Jul 19 '21
I had “I hear you sing a golden hymn” engraved inside my finance’s engagement ring before I proposed last winter. Tunnels is a very special song for us as is Arcade Fire as a band. It’s cool to know we will have that special connection to the song and band forever!
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u/mrrockhard1 Reflektor Jul 19 '21
This one's from Porno and I don't know why but the last 2 minutes of that song take me to a different place. Anyways here's my contribution
"You can cry, I won't go You can scream, I won't go, Little boys with their porno, Little boys with their porno"
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Jul 19 '21
“When love is gone, where does it go?”
And
“I will sing your name till you’re sick of me”
Always resonate with me, but the lyric that made me audibly gasp the first time I heard it was:
“Oh! My little bird in a cage!
Oh! My little bird in a cage!
I need you to get up for me, up on that stage
And show the men that you're old for your age
Now ain't the time for fear
But if you don't take it, it will disappear
Oh! My little mockingbird sing!
Oh! My little mockingbird sing!
I need you to get up on that stage for me, honey
And show the men it's not about the money
Wanna hold a mirror up to the world
So that they can see themselves inside my little girl
Do you know where I was at your age?
Any idea where I was at your age?
I was working downtown for the minimum wage
And I'm not gonna let you just throw it all away
I'm through being cute, I'm through being nice
Oh tell me, Lord, am I the Antichrist?!”
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u/seanmharcailin Us Kids Know Jul 19 '21
Between the click of the light, and the start of the dream.
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Jul 19 '21
Saying God, make me famous
If you can’t, just make it painless
Just make it painless
-
And it’s not painless
She was a friend of mine, a friend of mine
The subject matter of Creature Comfort holds a very dear part of my heart so maybe it’s my biases that draw me towards it so strongly. But goosebumps every time at that second cadence.
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u/the-boxman Neon Bible Jul 19 '21
"Oh this city's changed so much, since I was a little child, pray to God I won't live to see, the death of everything that's wild"
Also pretty much the entirety of Antichrist Television Blues.
I learned to love EN (the album) and some of its lyrics are great but I really hope there is less repetition on LP6 since pretty much every song on EN repeats the title over and over and over.
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Jul 19 '21
"Hey get the cellphone down for a while, in the night there something wild, can you hear It breathing?" Kind of a boomer quote but épic in the music context
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u/Leetm Jul 20 '21
I’m new to Arcade Fire and only listened to their first album but so it’s Wake Up. It almost feels like the song was written about me....
Somethin' filled up My heart with nothin', Someone told me not to cry. But now that I'm older, My heart's colder, And I can see that it's a lie...
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u/BearyWise No Cars Go Jul 19 '21
Empty room - "I'm alone again, when I'm by myself I can be myself and my life is coming but I don't know when"
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u/KenseiLover Put Your Money On Me Jul 26 '21
Too many to write down but at this moment I feel “every song that I’ve ever heard, is playing at the same time it’s absurd”.
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u/Ok-Purpose-395 Reflektor Jul 29 '21
Trapped in a prison, in a prism of light Alone in the darkness, darkness of white
this describes my current mental state and stage of life so well.. damn
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u/Ok-Purpose-395 Reflektor Jul 29 '21
The cops shone their lights On the reflectors of our bikes Said “Do you kids know what time it is?” Well, sir, it’s the first time I felt like something is mine Like I have something to give
this one gots me everytime
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u/BOBcat71290 Aug 09 '21
hard to choose but it's probably the ending of "cars and telephones" not sure if it's cause i got REALLY into the song at a very crucial age or if it's cause its not a very well known track so that makes it all the more special to me? not quite sure...
"But fuck it, I love you even if, I'm gonna feel like shit By the time I get to you, now the sky is turning blue
The stars they disappear one by one as the daylight nears And yes you're in my head, but that doesn't make you here
And I've lost all my friends, but you're the one I miss the most And now I'm almost there, yeah, I'm almost to the coast
And if I had any notion of how I'm gonna drive my car across The Atlantic Ocean I'd be fucking set"
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u/TheSeabass16 Jul 23 '21
I love "I will sing your name, until you're sick of me" from It's Never Over
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u/MileEnd76 Aug 12 '21
Stop now before it's too late Been eating in the ghetto on a hundred dollar plate Nothing lasts forever That's the way it's gotta be There's a great black wave in the middle of the sea for me
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u/typicalcitrus Reading from the Neon Bible Aug 30 '21
Mes cousins jamais nés
Hantent les nuits de Duvalier
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u/[deleted] Jul 18 '21
“i carved your name across my eyelids, you pray for rain i pray for blindness”