Interpol: Evil Meaning
Song Released: 2005
Evil Lyrics
Heaven restores you in life
Coming with me
Through the aging, the fearing, the strife
It's the smiling on the package
It's the faces in the sand
It's the thought that moves you upwards
Embracing me with two hands
Right will take...
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Taking into account the video (which is not always a good way to interpret lyrics) it looks as as this is a song about mourning and loss after the accidental death of a loved one. The song could also refer to a car crash (glass and grease) and as previous entries have pointed out, there are a number of references to grief, loss and mourning, given with a detached attitude (but hey who's on trial?) that is also represented in the video where the protagonist is a plastic dummy, in shock and filled with a sadness rather than grief. Also there is no reference to a 'sandy' in this song. I believe some people may be mis-hearing the line 'saying 'hey, why can't we look the other way?'
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this song is aout crystal meth, switch the words around, you can't lay grease
Leave some grease under the belly.
Lay some shards inside my hand.
ehh? anybody that knows about meth users knows what a grease belly is. it is those big round tubes they use to cook meth. lay some shards inside my hand? i rest my case.
Is this motion everlasting
Or do shadows pass in the night?
i know everyone thinks it says shutters but listen more closely he says shadows. you tweakers will know what shadow people are. i rest my case. -
The song is a reference to The Stranger by Albert Camus. A 1942 book about the meaninglessness of life and the inevitability of death. Rosemary refers to "Marie", the protagonist's girlfriend. Evil refers to how people view him after a meaningless, accidental murder on an Algerian beach.
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I think that a couple of these Interpretations are good, however..
When he says "Hey, but who's on trial?"
He's not saying who's on trial, it's a common phrase (especially in NYC, where they're from)
It's like saying 'What's with the third degree?' or more succinctly: Why are you asking -me-?
Just thought that would help. :] -
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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I think the murder interpretations were the most accurate, but sometimes I think artists write songs that might not always make sense.
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The song is apparently based on Rosemary West, an infamous English murderer.
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I think this song is actually about the life of Albert Speer who was the "good Nazi". I use that term very loosely as anyone who knows will know he wasn't.
However, he spent a life sentence with no cell mate. His wife was rosemary who committed suicide white the Nuremberg trial was happening when Speer was on trial. That leads to her memoires while he is in jail thinking about her.
He is also associated with the killing of thousands of jews, but was never actually convicted.
There is more in the song, but I can't be bothered. Look it up yourself, more fun that way. -
I heard this song was referencing the serial killer Rosemary West. It seems to make sense-
Rosemary
Heaven restores you in life
You're coming with me
Through the aging, the fear and the strife
It's the smiling on the package
It's the faces in the sand
It's the thought that moves you upwards
Embracing me with two hands
Write, will take you places
Yeah maybe to the beach
When your friends they do come crying
Tell them now your pleasure's set up on slow-release -
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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this song is about a herione user, rosemerry is the marks a needle leaves on you after frequent use(not a girls name as commonly thought). The beach reffers to the goosebumps you get on your arm after shooting up(a very common refference) mostly reffers to ones arm after herionuse). "when your friend say you come crying" herione users often call on friends for money . "now your pleasure is set on slow release" when you unwind the ruberband or string around your arm slowly after enjection herione in your body to more slowly feel the sensation of the drug flowing throught your body. "the thoughts that move you upward" getting high. Sandy id a girlfriend r friend who doesn't approve of his use of herione hence his saying "why can we just look the other way" ".lay some grees inside my hand" anouther direct refence to enjecting. "a life time with no cell mate" mby life long sentence for drug abuse or selling or just a feeling of lonleyness. most of the rest of the song is just more of about his and sanys relationship and or his relationship to herion
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I think, plain and simply, this song is about someone who has had an affair. So many of these very thoughtful interpretations are failing to see the forest through the trees. There are two women, rosemary and sandy. The line about rosemary being restored, in my opinion, a reference to redemption, that she was given the shaft in the affair, but that life would make it up to her. For sandy, she is being begged for forgiveness. The affair is regarded as a train wrech, or car crash of sorts. The life with no cell mate represents the emotional isolation one experiences when one's spouse is stepping out. The long way back is the long road to rebuilding trust.
Hey wait. Great smile. Is tantamount to a guy coming home late from a bar and trying to appease his pissed off wife by saying "hey, nice dress." or something like that.
Sensitive to faith, not denial. Means that sandy is fully awaure of what has been going on, but does not act rash; she respects her vows, even if he hasn't.
But hey, who's on trial? Simply means that he has absolutely no right to judge her given what he's done.
The car crash is a metaphor for the train wreck the guy's life has become in the wake of his infidelity. -
This whole song represents someone being trapped in there own mind. Someone had done something so wrong that they can’t live with themselves anymore. They apologize for what they have done. When the song says "sandy, why can’t we look the other way" he is saying that "we" as in two of us can not see why they killed her. "weightless semi-erotic" is a meaning of which that he didn’t mean to kill her and that for what he did he will join her in his own pain and denial. "hey wait, great smile." is simply a metaphor for how so many people want to try to forget about people that have died, and that have tried to get on with there lives, when he says those lines its almost like he can't believe that they are so happy...He doesn’t understand that they could forget so easily. "I spent a life span with no cellmate" is of course his sentence for doing what he did to his wife. Being alone is the worst thing, to be trapped in a cell with himself and his thoughts that have slowly over taken his mind. The last few lines "leave some shards under my belly lay some grease inside my hands" is not him talking...Being trapped inside his own mind has caused him to say things that mean absolutely nothing to anyone else but means everything to him, they are metaphors that can not be explained. At the very end of the song he asks many questions to "sandy" because he doesn’t understand, he wants clarification to why he killed her because in his lasts few breaths he wants answers for everything he has done, "why can't we just look the other way" is asking why the world can't understand that he didn’t know what he was doing. And then at the very end he of course dies. "evil"
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While I can see some room for the perspective that it's about murder, the video clearly goes in the opposite direction. It's clearly been an accidental death. So perhaps it's about someone trying to move on after a loved one's death and yet he is haunted by his former lover.
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