Of Monsters and Men: Little Talks Meaning

Song Released: 2011

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Little Talks Lyrics

(Hey!)
(Hey!)
(Hey!)
I don't like walking around this old and empty house
So hold my hand I'll walk with you my dear
The stairs creak as you sleep it's keeping me awake
It's the house telling you to close your eyes
Somedays I can't even...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Jan 12th 2016 report

   My wife passed away two and a half years ago and I can't hear this song without at least welling up. There is no doubt in my mind that the song tells the story of a woman who's lost her husband and who was broken as a result. She can't move past the experience, can't figure out how to live what's left of her life, and feels like she has only one thing to look forward to: her death and the reunion with her husband. It's as clear as day to me.

2. 2TOP RATED

   #2 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Jun 8th 2017 report

   Oddly enough I don't feel like little talks is about the dead and living or even two different entities. I always interpreted it as the woman who sings being a more frail and depressed version while the male sings as the original encouraging the other to endure. It's as if the male's response to the female version is to comfort her and it hurts the logical part to see this deterioration of mental self. I feel this song is about one person's internal battle to stay sane. Although it seems unclear if this person is haunted by memory or delusion.
   
   I don't like walking around this old and empty house
   (Her feeling uneasy possibly afraid)
   So hold my hand I'll walk with you my dear
   (Trying to comfort)
   The stairs creek as you sleep it's keeping me awake
   (Her being afraid, possibly paranoid)
   It's the house telling you to close your eyes
   (Trying to convince her there's nothing to be afraid of)
   Some days I can't even dress myself
   (Her feeling depressed and losing her will)
   It's killing me to see you this way
   (Finding it tragic to see her so down)
   And though the truth may vary this ship will carry our bodies safe to shore
   (Not being able to tell reality from their mind either version finding it inevitable thar it will kill them)
   Don't listen to a word I say
   (Knowing they're not being logical and unable to help it)
   The screams all sound the same
   (Memories/delusion)
   And though the truth may vary this ship will carry our bodies safe to shore
   (See above)
   You're gone gone gone away I watched you disappear all that's left is the ghost of you
   (Reference to completely losing ones former self and becoming a shell/byproduct or ghost of that person)
   Now were torn torn torn apart there's nothing we can do just let me go we'll mee again soon
   (Accepting this new version as a permanent one)
   Now wait wait wait for me please hang around I'll see you when I fall asleep
   (Encoraging her not to give up hope of becoming who she once was$

3. 3TOP RATED

   #3 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Jun 9th 2012 report

   I thought this song was different than those interpretations, but i think you guys might be right.
   
   "I don't like walking around this old and empty house"
   ( I thought it was a widow who's husband died recently, she feels the house is empty w/o him )
   
   "So hold my hand I'll walk with you my dear"
   ( I thought this might be like his ghost talking to her )
   
   "The stairs creak as you sleep it's keeping me awake"
   ( More of him being a ghost )
   
   "It's the house telling you to close your eyes"
   ( He's telling her to go to sleep )
   
   "Somedays I can't even trust myself"
   ( Just her not knowing what to do w/o him )
   
   "'Cause though the truth may vary
   This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore"
   ( Like they are eventually going to meet again )
   
   "Well tell her that I miss our little talks"
   ( Him just missing her )
   
   "Soon it will be over and buried with our past"
   ( Foreshadowing )
   
   "We used to play outside when we were young and full of life and full of love"
   ( Nostalgia )
   
   "Your mind is playing tricks on you my dear"
   ( Her seeing his ghost )
   
   "You're gone, gone, gone away
   I watched you disappear
   All that's left is a ghost of you"
   ( Cus he's dead..)
   
   "Now we're torn, torn, torn apart
   There's nothing we can do
   Just let me go, we'll meet again soon"
   ( This might be farfetched but i thought she was trying to end her life because she wanted him to let her die so they will 'meet again soon' )
   
   "Now wait, wait, wait for me
   Please hang around"
   ( He doesn't want her to die )
   
   "I'll see you when I fall asleep"
   ( Like she seems him when she sleeps, so they can be together in her dreams )
   
   And thats what i thought...maybe a little out there, but if you listen to the song, you can seriously picture this scenario...and when it plays the "Hey!" happy parts i feel like she is remembering happy memories of them together doing things...sorry i think of this in terms of a music video haha
4. anonymous

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   May 17th report

   i personally resonate with this song because i always had a voice in my head, that would always comfort me when i was at my worst. And even when i tried to end it all, he was still there, telling me it's going to be alright and i'll make it.
5. anonymous

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   Mar 25th report

   As someone who has lost their mother at a young age, this always spoke to me as being a dead loved one encouraging the living one to keep going. The the two singers both saying "I'll see you when I fall asleep" at the end of the bridge really showed that.
6. anonymous

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   Mar 9th report

   Definitely mental illness and her husband coping and trying to help. Eventually they both are carried safe to shore after maybe experiencing a manic or mania stage which I myself can relate to.
7. anonymous

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   Aug 4th 2020 report

   I always interpreted this song as being about someone struggling with depression or an illness of some kind, not anything supernatural.
   
   The house could be figurative or literal, either someone describing feeling out of place where they are, or actually living in an old and empty house that feels depressing.
   
   "This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore" perhaps meaning that eventually things will get better and the sufferer will have relief.
   "You're gone away, I watched you disappear, all thats left is a ghost of you" perhaps meaning that they're watching their loved one fade away either physically or mentally.
   "We're torn apart...let me go we'll meet again soon." Could be either a reference to passing away from an illness or someone with depression feeling that their life is not worth living and they want to be let go.
8. anonymous

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   Jul 8th 2020 report

   I feel it’s an internal dialogue discussion (battle). The protagonist is more negative than positive; but it wasn’t always that way.
   
   The protagonist has had many experiences that has altered them forever; but they are still trying to recall positives and trying to find what little positives they have left.
   
   But regardless of what happens, the ship will inevitable deliver the protagonist to where they feel they belong.
   
   Depression and anxiety won.
9. anonymous

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   Apr 27th 2019 report

   I also heard issues of mental illness with this song but the other thing I heard was perhaps someone struggling with end stage cancer and struggling to keep her mind and her body, working through acceptance.
10. anonymous

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    Jan 9th 2019 report

    It's about a girl with schizophrenia and her lover helping her through it
11. anonymous

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    Nov 25th 2018 report

    My friends and I have decided on this explaination. The song, we think, is about mental illness, a couple who are both mentally deteriorating and how they use the metaphor of “Having a mental illness is like being trapped in a house in the middle of the ocean”. For instance, the girl said there is a voice in her head holding her back, and the guy says he misses when he used to be able to talk to her without the voice. The “ship will carry our bodies safe to shore” in our interpretation means that death will one day save them from the island they are (metaphorically) trapped on.
12. anonymous

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    Aug 13th 2018 report

    First of all, I love how my interpretation differs from my friend's interpretation which differs from the meaning that the band has confirmed, and how ALL of these feel right to me.
    
    I think it's about trauma. We use the word "traumatic" to describe that embarrassing thing that we can't seem to get over, or that time when someone hurt our feelings so bad that we believed we were worthless. They call this kind "little-t" trauma. The song could absolutely be about that.
    
    But maybe it's about someone processing Capital-T Trauma, a kind of terrified, wake up in the middle of the night screaming, kind of trauma. I read that a house could be a metaphor for your body, in song lyrics or poetry. So maybe someone hasn't been aware of their body because it's too intense to feel the sensations that come up when they're triggered. Someone so out of touch with themselves that they don't trust themselves anymore, someone who simultaneously wants comfort but doesn't want to bother someone because their screams all sound the same.
    
    Someone who's working through it in therapy, and who trusts that they can get through the "dark nights of the soul" on the way to recovery (I think I'm quoting or paraphrasing Bessel van der kolk in that last statement, so credit to him for his wonderfully-written book on trauma.)
13. anonymous

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    Jul 17th 2018 report

    i think it's a girl with depression and a guy trying to comfort her and keep her from suicide, until she does.
14. MikeOrtiz

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    Jun 7th 2018 report

    I have read great interpretations of this song. Ever since I listened to it for the first time I thought about sadness and depression. It seems to me that the female voice is the struggle (whether the person is a man or a woman), the male voice is the logic that is trying to overcome the illness. That female voice could be all the emotional issues going on and the male voice could represent also friends or close ones who are worried about the one who is depressed. The empty house is the sense of loneliness. The truth that varies is the decision to look for help or let that depression take over, the ship is life per se. Maybe the person feels he/she is drifting.
15. anonymous

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    Dec 9th 2017 report

    According to Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir, the song describes two loving people talking past each other and implies one is recently deceased, saying "maybe one person isn't really hearing the other one." wiki
    - under wraps dec 9, 2017
16. ErinTheGuineaPig

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    Dec 9th 2017 report

    A different interpretation could be that she has a mental illness, and he’s tried to help, but there’s nothing he can do. They are old anyway, so he decides to be alive in the moment and believe that life will take them to the end. At the end one of them died, and the line “go away and we’ll meet again soon” means the other is nearing the end of their life too. A sad and beautiful song about life and death.
17. ErinTheGuineaPig

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    Dec 9th 2017 report

    A woman and her husband are getting old. She’s scared that they’ll die soon, but he comforts her. The truth may vary, but this ship will carry our bodies safe to shore probably means that their lives will take them to the end (shore) and they will be happy.
18. anonymous

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    Sep 29th 2017 report

    I think this song is about dementia triumphing over the logical side of a woman's mind. The logical side of her mind is competing with the dementia that is overpowering it, and the woman is trying to make sense of who to trust; the logical side or the dementia. She is currently in an asylum, which is what the song means when it says "house," and "ship." Here is what I see in this song:
    
    Hey! Hey! Hey!
    I don't like walking around this old and empty house (Asylum)
    Dementia: So hold my hand, I'll walk with you my dear
    The stairs creak as I sleep,
    It's keeping me awake
    Dementia: It's the house (asylum) telling you to close your eyes
    And some days I can't even trust myself (The dementia is overpowering her mind)
    Dementia: It's killing me to see you this way
    'Cause though the truth may vary
    This ship (asylum) will carry our bodies safe to shore (probably wishful thinking)
    Hey! Hey! Hey!
    There's an old voice in my head
    That's holding me back (She is referring to the dementia)
    Dementia: Well tell her that I miss our little talks (referring to when the dementia was still struggling to overpower the logic)
    Soon it will all be over, and buried with our past (when she dies - which would be her only escape from the disease)
    We used to play outside when we were young
    And full of life and full of love
    Some days I don't know if I am wrong or right. (The effects of Alzheimer's on her brain)
    Logic: Your mind is playing tricks on you my dear
    'Cause though the truth may vary
    This ship (asylum) will carry our bodies safe to shore (probably wishful thinking)
    Hey!
    Logic: Don't listen to a word I say (explaining that she shouldn't trust the dementia that seems to be speaking for it)
    Hey!
    The screams all sound the same (the patients of the asylum are screaming)
    Hey!
    Though the truth may vary
    This ship (asylum) will carry our bodies safe to shore (probably wishful thinking)
    You're gone, gone, gone away,
    I watched you disappear (referring to her sanity)
    All that's left is a ghost of you (again, her waning sanity)
    Now we're torn, torn, torn apart,
    there's nothing we can do, (self-explanatory)
    Just let me go, we'll meet again soon (Even in her more lucid moments, she knows she'll slip back into it and be a victim of this fog again.)
    Now wait, wait, wait for me, please hang around
    I'll see you when I fall asleep
    Hey!
    Logic: Don't listen to a word I say
    Hey!
    The screams all sound the same (asylum patients)
    Hey!
    Though the truth may vary
    this ship (asylum) will carry our bodies safe to shore (probably wishful thinking)
    Hey!
    Logic: Don't listen to a word I say
    Hey!
    The screams all sound the same (asylum patients)
    Hey!
    Though the truth may vary
    This ship (asylum) will carry our bodies safe to shore (probably wishful thinking)
    Though the truth may vary
    This ship (asylum) will carry our bodies safe to shore (probably wishful thinking)
    Though the truth may vary
    This ship (asylum) will carry our bodies safe to shore (probably wishful thinking)