Although previously believed to be an incorrect artist tag for iliketrains,… Read Full Bio ↴Although previously believed to be an incorrect artist tag for iliketrains, from October 2008 the Leeds group decided to change their name to I LIKE TRAINS.

I LIKE TRAINS have flourished within Leeds' fertile music scene since their inception in 2004 and have seen their intelligent, thought-provoking and quintessentially British world embraced by a growing following the world over. The NME descried them as 'brilliant, unique, wry... at odds with pop's present trends.' Uncut Magazine referred to them as ‘Bold and Impressive’, and the Guardian cast them as ‘Intelligent, very dark humorists… grand civic music, less to be listened to and more to be visited like a museum or war memorial, and all the more interesting because of it.’ The widescreen nature of their music has found them in demand for film and television soundtracks, their recent syncs include the ever popular CSi: Miami and trailers for Hollywood films The Wrestler, Amelia and Beautiful Boy.

Due for release on May 7th 2012, The Shallows explores our relationships with technology. Set to a dark motorik pulse and haunted by machines, production duties were handed to Richard Formby, celebrated for his work on the Mercury nominated ‘Two Dancers’ by Wild Beasts. ‘The Shallows’ deals with themes of information overload, charts a history of how our tools have shaped us, and asks how our recent reliance on digital technology to obtain information has changed the way we think and retain knowledge.

The band released their debut single 'Before The Curtains Close' on the Leeds label Dance to the Radio in 2005. The murder ballad soon sold all 500 copies and was followed by their second single 'A Rook House For Bobby' on Kids. The dramatic tale depicting the life of Bobby Fischer, the troubled chess grandmaster sold all 500 copies in its first week and earned them recognition on the radio and in the press in the UK. Their third single was released in 2006 on Fierce Panda and sold all 1000 copies in its first week. 'Terra Nova' was the story of Captain Scott's doomed 1912 Antarctic expedition set to a sensational orchestra of guitars as grand as the landscape it describes and has earned them regular plays on national radio and glowing reviews. The band's zero-budget animated homemade video re-enacting the last days of Scott and his team has become as popular as the song and received regular plays on MTV2 and even features in a exhibition at the Fram Antarctic museum in Oslo. The summer of 2006 saw the release of the mini-album PROGRESS, REFORM on Fierce Panda, which was a catalogue of their recordings to date and was full of the band's unique, beautiful sounds and rousing songs, brimming with exceptional characters and historical events. The songs covered Captain Scott, Hjalmar Johansson, a rejected candidate for the Norwegian Antarctic team; Bobby Fischer, the troubled chess Grandmaster and a reprise to Bobby's political status; Dr. Beeching, who closed many of the nation's railways, and other tales of damned or murderous events.

I LIKE TRAINS’ first full length record, Elegies to Lessons Learnt, came in October 2007, released on legendary independent Beggars Banquet. This took the band’s historical obsession to its logical conclusion, an ambitious record illustrating how history repeats itself and how the human race fails to learn from its mistakes. It was accompanied by a series of singles which showed that there is always more than one side to every story. Each b-side took up the same story from an alternative perspective.

Following the folding of the Beggars Banquet label, I LIKE TRAINS released an instrumental piece entitled The Christmas Tree Ship EP at the end of 2008 on yet another influential independent label Fantastic Plastic.

Released in October 2010 the album He Who Saw the Deep was the first release on the band’s own ILR label. Having successfully secured funding from a loyal fan base via the Pledge Music website, the record marked a new chapter for I LIKE TRAINS. There was a streamlining of their signature dark atmospheric sound. There was light and shade, hope and devastation. Where once, the band had looked to the past for its inspiration, ‘He Who Saw the Deep’ had its eyes firmly on the future. The album spawned three singles with beautifully shot sea themed videos produced by the Progress Film Company. These were brought together on This Skin Full of Bones CD/DVD release at the end of 2011. It also featured videos of the band performing stripped down alternate versions of tracks from ‘He Who Saw the Deep’ in the grand surroundings of Leeds’ Left Bank.

In 2012 they released their third album The Shallows.

A Divorce Before Marriage, a film about the band by Matt Hopkins and Ben Lankester, was released in 2016. An album with the same title accompanied the film.

Kompromat was released on 2020/08/21.

sirens
I LIKE TRAINS Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

This skin full of bones
Offers me no
Resistance to your charms,
And I am on the rocks.

I have chosen
Ruffled feathers and the devil we know best.

You sing to me,
And I,
I am lost.

You will find me in
The darkest corners and
I will ask you to leave.
I want nothing here that doesn’t need to be.

I have chosen
Ruffled feathers and the devil we know best.

You sing to me,
And I,
I am lost.

You sing to me,
With your arms wide open and
You sing to me,
With a bird in your hand.
You sing to me,
With your arms wide open and
You sing to me.
I will stay here,
If you want me to.

I will stay here,
If you ask me.

Overall Meaning

The song "Sirens" by I LIKE TRAINS is a hauntingly beautiful piece about an intense and captivating relationship. The opening lyrics "This skin full of bones offers me no resistance to your charms, and I am on the rocks" suggests vulnerability and surrender to the irresistible allure of the person they are singing about. The mention of "ruffled feathers and the devil we know best" is a possible allusion to the idea of accepting flaws and imperfections in a relationship rather than seeking perfection elsewhere.

The chorus, with the repetition of "You sing to me, And I, I am lost" evokes the idea of being entranced by someone's voice or their music. The lyrics convey an intense desire to stay despite acknowledging the likelihood of darkness and difficulties. The lines "I want nothing here that doesn’t need to be" suggests a desire for simplicity and minimalism in the relationship, a need for authenticity and rawness rather than artificiality.

The dichotomy between the allure of the relationship and the darkness that comes with it, creates a sense of poetic tension. The song leaves a haunting impression of a relationship that is as intense as it is complex, and that draws the singer in despite the shadows that loom.

Line by Line Meaning

This skin full of bones Offers me no Resistance to your charms, And I am on the rocks.
Despite my weak exterior, I am hypnotized by your charisma and find myself in a precarious situation.

I have chosen Ruffled feathers and the devil we know best.
I have willingly put myself in a tense and uneasy situation with familiar problems.

You sing to me, And I, I am lost.
Your enticing voice has left me disorientated with no sense of direction.

You will find me in The darkest corners and I will ask you to leave. I want nothing here that doesn’t need to be.
I will hide away in the most obscure places possible, only welcoming things that are necessary while warning you to stay away.

You sing to me, With your arms wide open and You sing to me, With a bird in your hand. You sing to me, With your arms wide open and You sing to me.
You continue to use your gift of singing to woo me, while using the bird in your hand as a symbolic gesture of manipulation.

I will stay here, If you want me to. I will stay here, If you ask me.
I am willing to stay and suffer in this toxic environment if you demand it, but I am incapable of leaving on my own accord.

Contributed by Thomas K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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