Antimetabole
Invalids Lyrics
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Our eyes learned to return to stares
I offered so little then
Cause that's what I thought you would have said
Spent all evening long
Debasing back to still retracing our missteps
It wasn't "I didn't mean"
It's "I misrepresented"
And over again
You said you feel fine
There was no mess we left
I already added back
And still I waited there (there was nothing there)
You offered nothing
And I did the same to protest
(learned to stop sleeping on the floor)
We never held so much in
Everyone was waiting
Waited up watching the ceiling
Wondered if I would see just when the dream started
But I fell asleep
Said you watched the ceiling,
Think ours both look the same?
(it wasn't working)
Honest, you expected when I lied, "I feel fine"
You came to this conclusion the same way I did
(it was hopeless)
Is the sky so doomed to deny us our shadows?
I was our breath saved
You were arête
I was our plans laid
We were ill-conceived
I was in the way
I was the darkness
Backdrop of your window
Tried to decipher its shape without ever facing it
Maybe there was something holding us up
Something that positioned us where we are
Stuck so close together
So we made no difference
Measured progress by how little we've changed
Measuring our strain by the ways we're still the same
Then, in the absence of each other,
Slowly our shoulders settled
"on our knees, we made it hard to breathe."
The first stanza of Invalids' song "Antimetabole" describes the difficulty and apathy that the singer is feeling in their relationship. They have stopped putting in effort and slouching becomes their default position, and they have lost the ability to connect through eye contact, resorting to blank stares instead. The singer also admits to not giving much in the relationship because they assumed that is what their partner wanted. The second stanza explores how the two individuals spend their time together, debasing the relationship and retracing their missteps. The singer wants to relent, but instead of apologizing for having a lack of effort or love, they admit that they misrepresented their emotions instead of not feeling them at all.
In the third stanza, the singer talks about the wasted night they spent together, not making any progress in their relationship. Both individuals offered nothing to the other, and in turn, they mirrored each other's actions. The fourth stanza talks about how they both lay together, staring up at the ceiling, and the singer wonders if there is a way to know when the dream started. However, they end up falling asleep instead. The fifth stanza describes the irony of the situation, where both individuals watched each other's ceiling and both seemed fine with the lies they told about feeling okay.
The sixth stanza takes a philosophical turn, pondering if their relationship is doomed to fail because they cannot have a shadow without the sky. The last stanza reflects on the time that both individuals spent together and the effort that they put in but were unable to change. The picture painted is that of two people who were stuck together but were not making any progress, and the relationship became suffocating, almost hard to breathe.
Line by Line Meaning
In the absence of all the effort sitting up straight
Without putting in the effort to maintain good posture
Our eyes learned to return to stares
We became accustomed to staring off in a daze
I offered so little then
I didn't have much to give at the time
Cause that's what I thought you would have said
I made assumptions about what you wanted
Spent all evening long
We spent a long time
Debasing back to still retracing our missteps
Going back to revisit our mistakes and feeling ashamed of them
I concede to relent
I give up and let go
It wasn't "I didn't mean"
I wasn't denying responsibility
It's "I misrepresented"
I wasn't honest and didn't accurately represent myself
And over again
Repeating the same mistake
You said you feel fine
You claimed to be okay
There was no mess we left
We didn't make a mess
I already added back
I tried to fix things already
And still I waited there (there was nothing there)
I waited for something that didn't exist
You offered nothing
You didn't give anything
And I did the same to protest
I didn't offer anything to make a point
(learned to stop sleeping on the floor)
I've learned to take care of myself
We never held so much in
We kept so many things to ourselves
Everyone was waiting
Others were waiting around for us to act
Waited up watching the ceiling
Stayed up awake and staring upwards
Wondered if I would see just when the dream started
Questioned when things started becoming a nightmare
But I fell asleep
I ended up drifting off to sleep
Said you watched the ceiling,
You mentioned looking to the ceiling
Think ours both look the same?
Do you think we're looking at the same thing?
(it wasn't working)
Our relationship wasn't functional
Honest, you expected when I lied, "I feel fine"
You knew I wasn't being truthful when I said I was okay
You came to this conclusion the same way I did
We both arrived at the same conclusion
(it was hopeless)
There was no chance of success
Is the sky so doomed to deny us our shadows?
Are we always going to be in the dark?
I was our breath saved
I was able to keep us going
You were arête
You had a lot of potential
I was our plans laid
I was responsible for making plans
We were ill-conceived
Our relationship wasn't thought out well
I was in the way
I was causing more problems than solutions
I was the darkness
I was a source of negativity
Backdrop of your window
The setting of your life
Tried to decipher its shape without ever facing it
Tried to understand what was happening without confronting it
Maybe there was something holding us up
Maybe there was a reason we didn't work out
Something that positioned us where we are
Something that caused us to be in this situation
Stuck so close together
We were always together
So we made no difference
We didn't make any meaningful progress
Measured progress by how little we've changed
We considered not changing to be progress
Measuring our strain by the ways we're still the same
We measured our struggle by how little we were able to change
Then, in the absence of each other,
When we were apart
Slowly our shoulders settled
We gradually relaxed and let go of tension
"on our knees, we made it hard to breathe."
Our struggles were suffocating us
Contributed by Molly V. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
maxrs1708
you're a genius man, you should be at the top
Altus
I hope there will be more music soon. You are the best Pete
Luca Vincent
best song off the best math album sooooo... best song of all time?
John-Allan Barger
Not letting myself wear my invalids shirt til I have this tab down.
Ponyboy
I like your sound dude
Victor Nica
Astonishing
Kevin S
criminally low view-count
WarDimension
Nice song... I'm ruining the 69 likes...