The track "Melt!" was representative of Siouxsie & the Banshees more elaborate and experimental musical direction at the time. The overtones of the song were accentuated by a lush string section. The sensual lyrics of "Melt!" compare an intense sexual interlude with a lover to dying. Its lyrics can also allude to a S&M encounter ("...Handcuffed in lace and blood and sperm / Swimming in poison / Gasping in the fragrance / Sweat carves a screenplay / of discipline and devotion...").
"Il Est Ne Le Divin Enfant" is an adaptation of a traditional French song. This track was exclusive to this single, and remained unreleased on album or CD for many years, until the appearance of 2004 Siouxsie & the Banshees box set Downside Up.
Released in late 1982, "Melt!"/"Il Est Ne Le Divin Enfant" peaked as a double A-side at number forty-nine in the UK singles chart.
Melt
Siouxsie and the Banshees Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You are the situation
There is no time to breathe
And yet one single breath
Leads to an insatiable desire
Of suicide... in sex
So many blazing orchids
Making you choke
Making you sigh
Sigh in tiny deaths
[Chorus]
So Melt!
My lover, melt!
She said melt!
My lover, melt!
You are the melting men
And as you melt
You are beheaded
Handcuffed (in lace and blood and sperm)
Swimming in poison
Gasping in the fragrance
Sweat carves a screenplay
of discipline...and devotion
[Chorus]
Can you see?
See into the back of a long, black car
Pulling away from the funeral of flowers
With my hand between your legs
Melting...
The lyrics to Siouxsie and the Banshees' song Melt! are cryptic and enigmatic, yet they paint a vivid picture of lust, death, and the idea of self-annihilation. The song begins with the singer addressing another person as the "melting men" and "the situation," implying that they are subject to the forces of entropy and decay. Despite this, the individual longs for an escape, which manifests as an insatiable desire for sex and death.
The second verse of the song seems to compare the individual to a kind of plant (or perhaps an orchid), burning and choking on their own passions. The chorus, which features the repeated phrase "Melt! My lover, melt!" reinforces the song's central theme of dissolution and surrender to the natural order.
The final verse of the song is perhaps the most unsettling, containing imagery of a "funeral of flowers" and the singer's "hand between [the listener's] legs." The final word of the song is "melting," bringing the song full-circle and underscoring the idea of surrendering to forces beyond one's control.
Overall, the lyrics to Melt! are cryptic and difficult to interpret definitively, but they clearly touch on themes of lust, death, and surrender.
Line by Line Meaning
You are the melting men
You are the ones who are being destroyed slowly by the cruel world.
You are the situation
You are the one who is stuck in a difficult and complex situation.
There is no time to breathe
There is no chance for you to take a break, it's a non-stop action.
And yet one single breath
And yet a moment to take a deep breath is all we need to move on.
Leads to an insatiable desire
It leads to a fervent craving that can't be satisfied.
Of suicide...in sex
To be sexually overwhelmed to the point where self-harm becomes desirable.
So many blazing orchids
So many bright, passionate things within you.
Burning in your throat
Fire raging within you so much that you can feel it in your core.
Making you choke
Making it difficult to take a deep breath, feeling that your throat is tight.
Making you sigh
Making you make breathed-out sounds of relief, exhaustion, or desire.
Sigh in tiny deaths
The sighs are like small deaths, like miniatures of every time you feel overwhelmed.
So Melt! My lover, melt!
Let it all go! Let it burn away! Release yourself, my lover!
She said melt! My lover, melt!
Someone else is urging you to let it all go, urging you to release your pain.
You are the melting men
You are still those people, still feeling so much that you're risking being erased.
And as you melt
As you let yourself fall apart, as you give in to destruction.
You are beheaded
You are losing your mind and sense of self, feeling like everything you know is gone.
Handcuffed (in lace and blood and sperm)
You are trapped and held by intimate, bodily things that are out of your control.
Swimming in poison
Drowning in something toxic, something that kills if consumed in large amounts.
Gasping in the fragrance
Desperately trying to inhale something that smells nice, trying to find beauty in the midst of destruction.
Sweat carves a screenplay of discipline...and devotion
The marks of your own suffering are like words on a page, evidence of your loyalty and strength.
Can you see?
Can you comprehend what's going on? Can you understand what my words mean?
See into the back of a long, black car
Look behind you and see the thing that's coming for you, big and dangerous and hard to escape from.
Pulling away from the funeral of flowers
Riding off into someplace where life doesn't feel like a masquerade of beauty and stillness, away from the fragile things that have already died.
With my hand between your legs
The touch is intimate and sexualized, something that brings comfort and safety even in fraught moments.
Melting...
Everything's crumbling, falling apart, dissolving into nothingness.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: JONATHAN DAVID MARIS, ANTHONY RICHARD MICHAEL SMITH
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind