I LIKE TRAINS have flourished within Leeds' fertile music scene since their… Read Full Bio ↴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.

sirens
iLiKETRAiNS 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 iLiKETRAiNS is a hauntingly beautiful exploration of love, temptation, and the struggle for self-control. The lyrics paint a picture of a person who is deeply drawn to another, despite knowing that this attraction will lead them down a dangerous path. They describe themselves as vulnerable, with a "skin full of bones" that offers no resistance to the other's charms. Despite their reservations, they find themselves unable to resist the other's call, and are lost in their embrace.

The chorus of the song emphasizes this sense of being lost, with the singer describing themselves as "ruffled feathers" who have chosen "the devil we know best." This suggests that they are aware of the risks involved in pursuing this relationship, but have decided to go ahead anyway. It's a decision that will likely lead them to dark places, the "darkest corners" of their soul, but even there they will be unable to resist the other's song.

The final verse of the song offers a glimmer of hope, with the singer offering to stay with the other if they want them to. Despite the darkness of the previous verses, there is a sense of redemption here, as if the singer has been through a trial by fire and emerged on the other side with a newfound strength and commitment.

Overall, "Sirens" is a powerful meditation on the nature of desire and the risks we take when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable to another. It's a song that speaks to the heart of what it means to be human, and will resonate with anyone who has ever struggled with their own conflicting emotions.

Line by Line Meaning

This skin full of bones Offers me no Resistance to your charms, And I am on the rocks.
My physical body is weak and vulnerable, and I have no defense against your alluring ways. I am in a difficult situation.

I have chosen Ruffled feathers and the devil we know best.
I have decided to stick with what is familiar, even if it comes with problems or discomfort.

You sing to me, And I, I am lost.
Your singing draws me in completely, and I feel disoriented and unable to resist.

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 am hiding in the shadows, but I only want things around that are necessary. I will request that you remove anything unnecessary.

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.
Your singing is accompanied by symbolic images of openness and fragility, but also of control and potential harm.

I will stay here, If you want me to. I will stay here, If you ask me.
I am willing to stay with you, but only if you explicitly ask or invite me to.

Contributed by Kaylee E. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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