anonymous March 19th, 2007 10:08PM  
The "city by the sea" reminds me of "kingdom by the sea" from Edgar Alan Poe's Annabel Lee. Annabel Lee is about distress at the death of a lover, and I get a similar feeling from this song.

anonymous March 21st, 2007 11:47PM  
This song is about the narrator's one and only who isn't with him anymore. Anomaly means abnormal, the only girl that stands out in his mind. "Defragmenting the attic"?
Erasing the memory of all the others. That's my opinion.

anonymous March 27th, 2007 10:44PM  
Ok about the whole anomaly and Anna Molly thing ...here it is:
anomaly means something or in this case someone not easily classified which is what this song is all about
He longs to be with this girl but yet he doesn't know who she is, all he knows is that they belong together
He compares her to his ex's when he talks about "ships sailing" and how they won't compare to the girl he's searching for . He describes the girl as "being as broken as he is" so they desperately need to find each other because they're meant to be
whether she exist or not, she's all he wants in his life

anonymous September 15th, 2007 11:15AM  
This song is about an anomaly.

Anomaly--One that is peculiar, irregular, abnormal, or difficult to classify: "I'll call out your name
Up into the air
Not one of the others
could ever compare"--incubus, anna molly

this song is about this girl who can't be compared or classified with the rest. She stands out at him and draws his attention with her appeal. " I picture your face in the back of my eyes
A fire in the attic a proof of the prize,", " I'll call to your name,
Up into the air,
Not one of the others,
could ever compare,"

and her loses his mind with out her, "A cloud hangs over,
And mutes my happiness,
A thousand ships couldn't sail me back from distress,
Wish you were here,
I'm a wounded satellite,
I need you now put me back together make me right "

Baxmeyer123 March 18th, 2009 04:58PM  
Brandon Boyd has talked about the meaning of this song. Look up "Making of Anna Molly" on youtube and you will find out soon enough. What he says is that the song is about being in love with a girl that does not exist and you would basically give anything for her to be a real person, and it is an anomaly to be in love with someone that is not real. Her name is Anna Molly, and she is an anomaly.

chrissiem May 26th, 2009 12:53AM  
Yes it is true that Anna Molly is an anomaly, but she is a real person. If you watch the video, you will see what happened to her. She was left for dead in a park after being raped and strangled when she was only 16 years old.

What saved her was her guardian angel appearing like a man-scaring the rapist but allowing Anna Molly to save herself. When she saw the angel, it spoke directly into her eys-without words being exchanged.

Anna Molly does not know why she was saved, but she was always intently devout-wanting to be a nun. Somehow-discovering guys put an end to that, but Anna Molly will never forget what happened in that park and will always be thankful that God saved her and allowed her to live a full life.

Whether she belongs with Brandon is a good question? I think Anna molly does seem to be the female version of him-they like the same things, are into art & writing, and look alike. Anna Molly has had her share of hardships and could probably use a good boyfriend, and maybe Brandon could use a good girlfriend?

anonymous July 9th, 2009 01:16PM  
Chrissiem you are very clever, you have a very good imagination! What if Anna Molly had listened to this song, her song, what would she think? Would she get hurt, knowing that it would be difficult to reach to her soulmate? What would she be felling now? Do you all care about her? What would she be typping here if she is the one, Anna Molly? And if she have seen everything Incubus have done before doing it, I mean if she had visions since she was 5, even with out knowing who they were. If she could predict many things, would she try killing herself when she was 16 because she also knew that he does exist, but only in visions? But because of many circumstances they can´t get together and she´s listening to songs and she listens to his voice and she´s still alive thanking God that she didn´t die on her 16. And she dind´t die on her 17 while she was on her finalist trip while she was abused by a guy, like something that could happen to many girls in somewhere, some place?
What if both of them do have visions? They do see each other in visions and sometimes talk about what they are doing on that moment, for instance, "Did you brush your teeth?"? What would they talk about? It could be many things, but now I´m just worried about her feelings, maybe she's a bit lonlely out there, so does he, but listening to his song, drawing, painting, singing, listening to the nature, watching movies, writing songs and stories cheers her up and maybe she will be good doing it! Maybe she's a normal artist like him. What if every thing is indeed real on her world? She would enjoy her and his art so, Anna Molly just wait, keep on hopping, if you´re reading it, one day you´ll see him!

angiebby July 10th, 2009 08:24PM  
theres some kind of drug, i don't remember what the name is, but when you take it it slows your heart rate down to the point where if someone were to check your pulse they couldn't feel it. i think the girl took that drug because in the music video she's just laying there. you see her twitch her fingers but nobody notices. people believe she's dead because of the effect of the drug.

anonymous July 20th, 2009 01:21AM  
Ok. I realize I'm a little late posting this and am not sure who still looks at this but I've got this different interpretation that I thought I would bring up. Although I've seen the "Making of Anna Molly" video where the band explains their interpretations of the song I've noticed a lot of stuff that seems to support my theory... I think it's too much to be a coincidence.

The first thing that caught my eye was "A thousand ships couldn't sail me back from distress". The thousand ships reminded me of the story of Troy (I think it's in the Illiad) of how Paris seduced Helen to leave King whatshisface and return with him to Troy which began the Trojan war and Greace launched a thousand ships.

This got me thinking and I think that Troy would be the city by the see. I then started to look up words in the song and found out "Attic" can mean "of, pertaining to, or characteristic of Greece or of Athens"(dictionary.com) and "Satellite" can mean "a country under the domination or influence of another" (dictionary.com).

This would mean that "A fire in the attic, a proof of the prize" could be that the city of Troy on fire is proof of the king's victory or something. Attic is also used later saying "Illuminated attic fate" which could mean the fate of the city or the nation.

I know this is a loose idea but I think you can see some validity in the comparison to The Illiad in my opinion (although I am neither confident in my knowledge of epic poems nor poetry). I really suck at poetry but in this interpretation as I read over the song I can't decide weather the speaker is the city, the prince (Paris), or the Greek king or someone else.

Anyway it's a great song and I just though it was more than a coincidence how references from the Trojan war seemed to show up.

anonymous September 17th, 2009 07:13AM  
this song reminds me of edgar allen poes poem annabel lee when he says a thousand ships couldint sail me back from distress he means that there is no other girl for him any more after she dies. when he means a cloud hangs over hes talking about tubercleosis when he says a cloud hangs over and mutes my happiness thats most likely when the girl dies and when shes in the coroners office thats like the sepulcher in annabel lee where she is put when she dies

champagne October 29th, 2009 06:38PM  
Anna Molly is a real person. She may or may not be Brandon's romantic soul mate but she is his spiritual soul mate.In fact she seems to be the female version of Brandon.

Brandon is very handsome and attractive but his heart is cold and he plays games with women.
Anna Molly and Brandon have shared glances and met once. I believe he knows who she is. The true story of Anna Molly is a story of redemption and resurrection. She arose from the dead and Brandon saw "it." His Third Eye glimpsed the truth. He perceived spiritual truth.

So all this talk about love and Anna Molly is misguided. Brandon already has a blonde, model-type girlfriend and Anna Molly is not his "Hollywood" type.
This is probably one of the most popular Incubus songs and was a big hit for the band. The real Anna Molly is happy to have helped this wonderful band gain such great popularity.

The real Anna Molly is the female resurrection.

anonymous February 24th, 2010 12:57PM  
this song is easy to interperate for me. when he says "i watch the ships pass and wonder if she might be" he means the ships are like the people or girls in his life. they come and go like ships in a harbor. and he feels so alone and is just searching for the right girl to just barge into his life. but when he is writing the song she is just a vision in his head and she doesnt exist yet. but he wants to find her. i can once again relate to this song in many ways. i was like brandon boyd at one point before i found courtney. i felt like i was the one who was sitting in the harbor and watching the ships pass. they used to just come and go. this is such a great song and i hope the rest of you see what i mean by my thoughts :)