Just one listen to Adam Green & Binki Shapiro is enough to become enchanted… Read Full Bio ↴Just one listen to Adam Green & Binki Shapiro is enough to become enchanted. With deceptively pretty arrangements that echo filigreed late-sixties folk-pop and an easygoing rapport between singers, this duets collaboration may seem like the perfect accompaniment to a sunny summer’s day, Southern-California style. But it works even better as a comforting soundtrack at the end of a dark, lonely night in the big city. The atmosphere the pair conjures up with strummed guitars and discreet layers of synths indeed suggests romantic possibility, but the lyrics are more sweetly melancholic, gently but candidly addressing betrayal, incipient heartbreak, and conjugal discord. It’s an approach that makes for compelling repeated listening, as the intimate dramas reveal themselves, and it’s one that surprised even Green and Shapiro as their debut album together began to take shape.

On their own, Green and Shapiro have long been notable figures among indie-pop fans, cherished for their off-kilter sensibility (him) and elegantly quirky style (her). As part of New York City’s “anti-folk” scene at the end of the nineties, Adam Green first came to prominence as one-half of Moldy Peaches, his duo with Kimya Dawson that enjoyed belated mainstream success via the Grammy-winning soundtrack of the 2007 indie film Juno.

I Never Found Out
Adam Green & Binki Shapiro Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

There’s nothing to you
You have to love everything, don’t you know it
For forgetting as I love
To one person’s actions run two lives

And I never found out
And I never found out
And I never found out

Took me for granted, stole what’s mine
Now you’re thanking me for my time
Love’s above her, hell is knowing
One thing and doing another

And I never found out
And I never found out
And I never found out

Love’s above her, hell is knowing
One thing and doing another

And I never found out
And I never found out
And I never found out

And I never found out

And I never found out
And I never found out

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Adam Green & Binki Shapiro's song "I Never Found Out" seem to be about a past relationship that ended badly. The first verse talks about someone who appears to be emotionally shallow and incapable of understanding the depth of love. They seem to forget all about the love they shared with their partner, while the singer of the song loves in a profound way. The singer also adds that one person's actions can affect the lives of two people, possibly hinting that the singer was deeply affected by the breakup.

The second verse seems to shift the focus to the person who broke the singer's heart, as they took the singer's love for granted and even stole from them. However, they now seem to be thanking the singer for their time, perhaps implying that they have realized their mistake. The lines "Love’s above her, hell is knowing/One thing and doing another" suggest that the person may have been dishonest or unreliable during the relationship.

The repetitive chorus "And I never found out" implies that the singer was never able to find out the truth about what went wrong in the relationship, whether it was the other person's actions, or a failure of communication or understanding. Overall, the song seems to be about the lingering pain and confusion of a relationship that ended without closure.

Line by Line Meaning

There's nothing to you
You are shallow and have no depth to your character

You have to love everything, don't you know it
You believe love is all encompassing and should be for everything

For forgetting as I love
While I forget, you continue to love everything

To one person's actions run two lives
One person's actions can have a significant impact on the lives of others

And I never found out
I never discovered the truth or the answer

Took me for granted, stole what's mine
You didn't appreciate me and took something that belonged to me

Now you're thanking me for my time
You're expressing gratitude for the time I spent on you

Love's above her, hell is knowing one thing and doing another
It's better to choose love over everything else, but it's difficult to act on that belief

And I never found out
I remained ignorant of the truth

Contributed by Miles V. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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