What does Dear Vienna mean?

Owl City: Dear Vienna Meaning

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Album cover for Dear Vienna album cover

Dear Vienna Lyrics

Dear Vienna
I regarded the world as such a sad sight
Until I viewed it in black and white
Then I reviewed every frame and basic shape
And sealed the exits with caution tape
(Dear Vienna)
Don't refocus your eyes in the darkness
And don't...

  1. anonymous
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    Nov 16th 2020 !⃝

    This is a Christian Song.

    "I regarded the world as such a sad sight"
    - We all sin and God doesn't like that.

    "I describe all the things that you cannot see
    - God sees things we can't

    "Then I reviewed every frame and basic shape
    - God made everything and is looking at creation

    "'cause I am so far from where you are
    - God is in Heaven and far from us

    "There's a light show out my window, somewhere way up there
    - Out Gods "window" is Earth

    Just my thoughts, I am not sure if this is correct.

  2. anonymous
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    Dec 6th 2017 !⃝

    This is Adam Young, the man has his head so up in the clouds that he could be singing about the little Vienna Sausages, who knows with Adam?

  3. anonymous
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    May 15th 2017 !⃝

    i think that this song is about a girl he met in a really pretty place and is trying to explain to her and that the world can be awful but she makes it a better world for him.

  4. anonymous
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    Mar 14th 2017 !⃝

    I think mayb he fell in love wit a character in a story book(Vienna) and is now tryin to describe his world to her as a beautiful place and not just d evils side of it...But he can't stay wit her cos he somehw know's he's in a fantasy world(a book) and needs to get back home(there's a light show....)Beautiful lyrics wit different divine meanings;I love it.

  5. anonymous
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    May 2nd 2015 !⃝

    Vienna is the capital of Austria. Famous artists such as Mozart and Beethoven lived there.

  6. anonymous
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    Apr 21st 2015 !⃝

    Amazing interpretations. Mine is a mixture of all of these wonderful point of views.
    After obsessing over this album for the past year (I know im late), I think I found a meaning to this song that resonates well with me.

    Adam starts the song by "regarding the world as such a sad sight." then he views it from a different pov and seals up the exits because it's dangerous to escape from life or reality, if you will. This could be a number of things, in his case I assume it's books, in mine its video games. We all have distractions.

    He's with someone named vienna, they are both going through this together. He tells her to not "refocus [her] eyes in the darkness," unless he fails to tell her the beautiful things that life has to offer.

    In the next stanza, he says goodbye to his "friends in textbooks." He's leaving that decoy and focusing on the "light show out [his] window", which is reality. The light show could be the sun and the clouds all passing by his bedroom window. This is his hope. The weather in pictures pale in comparison to the weather outside.

    "Dear Vienna are you singing, Dear Vienna are you swinging?". Here he is writing to her, because she made it out, and he wants to know if she's happy. "We were happy like the shades of May" they might have felt happy occasionally but they were still living in the shadows.

    In the bridge, there is a sense of regret, longing and maybe solitude. "I was so far out of place watching those stars in outer space cause I am so far from where you are." He was out of place, not in a present state. The longing can be heard by the synths in the background, and the regret in the strong drums. Perhaps he wants her to come back but in the end he wants her to be happy. This is seen in I'll Meet You There, the optimistic follow up to Dear Vienna.

  7. anonymous
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    Jan 2nd 2013 !⃝

    I think he is talking to his dead girlfriend that is colorblind, and he just wants to be alone with her. But he cannot find her and he misses her.

  8. anonymous
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    Dec 23rd 2012 !⃝

    This song is about his blind friend Vienna. But I'm not quite sure so if anyone could ask Adam, via Twitter or Tumblr that would be great.

  9. anonymous
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    Nov 28th 2012 !⃝

    I think Vienna is a camera. It describes a world in black and white and describing a world she cannot see. A camera cannot see except through it's pictures. like it is "Unraveling" the mystery. There are so many examples in this song that I could just go on and on. This is why I call my old vintage camera Vienna because it reminds me of this song.

  10. anonymous
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    Aug 21st 2012 !⃝

    i think he is talking to someone who is dead telling her not to focus on all the bad things in the world (Don't refocus your eyes in the darkness
    And don't remember this place unless
    I describe all the things that you cannot see) but he sees the world from every angle and its not so bad after all we just tend to focus on the evil and not pay as much attention to whats good

  11. anonymous
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    Jul 8th 2012 !⃝

    This is just my personal interpretation,
    but I've always thought that this song was about meeting an old girlfriend in Vienna and getting together for a short time, then breaking up.

  12. anonymous
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    Mar 28th 2012 !⃝

    I agree with all of the above, but the real lyrics say "happy like the shades of may" I believe this is referring to the duo Shades Of May which are an elecrtonic dance music. As you probably know if you are an owl city fan, Adam loves the dance genre, typically the european dance.

  13. anonymous
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    Nov 26th 2011 !⃝

    I think This song means he;s dreaming of someone named Vienna (Duhhhh) Who's possibly dead or just really special to him... and she;s gone or dead or disabled in some way. That's just my opinion... :)

  14. anonymous
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    Jun 27th 2011 !⃝

    I think that it's about someone who he fell in love with, and this love overjoyed him. Then, the two of them suddenly broke up, and then Adam was extremely downcast.

    "We were happy like the shape of Maine..."

    If you can tell me how Maine's shape is happy, then, by all means, tell me. I can't figure this out. How is the shape of Maine happy?! It's practically a BLOB. D8

  15. MonkeySeeMonkeyDo
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    Jun 13th 2011 !⃝

    Okay So, this is what I think. He is saying a lot about photos, "Cause my blood cells cannot depend on the weather in photographs" So it could be used as a metaphor.Instead of looking at a sunset in a picture, go outside and look at it for your self. I think Vienna is his lover. And Hes tired of just looking at her picture, he actually wants to see and touch her. That's as simple as I can get.

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