What does Angel mean?

Sarah McLachlan: Angel Meaning

Album cover for Angel album cover

Song Released: 1998


Angel Lyrics

You spend all your time waiting for that second chance
For the break that will make it ok
There's always some reason to feel not good enough
And it's hard at the end of the day
I need some distraction oh beautiful release
Memories seep from...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    Oct 23rd 2008 !⃝

    I totally agree with the drug addiction thing- and I didn't figure it out until recently, while watching my sister fight an endless battle with hardcore drugs (meth, cocaine, and heroine) to cover the pain of her past she's scared to face.

    I saw Sarah McLachlan endorse an animal adoption agency on a commercial that played this song and I couldn't help but think how unfitting it was.

    Before that, I just thought it was a lovely, lullaby-like song.

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    k2dat1
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    Mar 19th 2009 !⃝

    "Angel" is a song by Sarah McLachlan that originally appeared on her 1997 album Surfacing. As McLachlan explained on VH1 Storytellers, the song is about the Smashing Pumpkins touring keyboard player Jonathan Melvoin, who overdosed on heroin and died in 1996. McLachlan explained that there's nothing constant when you are on the road; everything becomes the same.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_(Sarah_McLachlan_song)

  3. 3TOP RATED

    #3 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    Feb 10th 2011 !⃝

    I agree that it could be about drug addiction. But the way that I thought it came across was that it was talking about suicide. She says "Memories seep FROM my veins." I think that signifies bleeding when someone has decided to take their life. She also talks about feeling empty and wanting to escape from endlessness. When someone decides to take their own life, they feel like their empty life is endless, like they will always feel nothing and they will always feel alone. This is such a beautiful song and although I think it could be about drug addiction, I felt that it was strongly signifying suicide.

  4. anonymous
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    Nov 27th 2022 !⃝

    “Memories from my veins”

    It doesn’t have to do with bleeding.
    I lost my child, and memories seep from my veins. He’s in every part of me, even when my brain isn’t thinking about him, my body mind mourns.

    We make the song our own.

  5. Lightning79
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    Sep 21st 2022 !⃝

    So this is my life so it hits home. My parents were just not good parents. I was abused not by them but neglected sent to places and my mom gave me to a man when i was 14 who was in his late 40s.I got pregnant at 15 not by him but finally at barely 16 i lived in a run down trailer park raising a baby. Then my whole adult life domestic violence. Bad. Not going into details but in 2010 I had the worst thing anyone could possibly think of and I tried to die not sure how i made it but after that i was in survival mode and was a craigslist hooker living in motels getting enough to pay for my room and i had a friend who was a big deal so he used to give me my drugs for free. Alone already dead then and got with another person who was a mastermanipulator pathalogical liar for 10 years and we split in May and what he is doing now- well i realized he never loved me wanted me just used me as his meal ticket. I was sober over 9 years but i had major surgery in april we split in may in june i got terminal from a blood clot that busted and went in my lungs and 6 days till i got to a hospital then 10 more with no oxygen. i am in an apartment but its no different then the motels. Then July 5th my only friend who cares about me went to jail. I got brain damage some and on my anniversary in July i said screw it and broke my sobriety. I am 43 alone dying and nobody really cares. SO I spent all my time waiting for that 2nd chance for a break that would make it ok- got called worthless stupid ugly fat daily my whole life so there's always some reason to feel not good enough and it's hard at the end of the day. I need some distraction a beautiful release memories seep through my veins...From this dark cold hotel room .... we were pulled from the wreckage in 2010.... everywhere you turn there's vultures and thieves at your back and the storm keeps on twistin HE kept on building the lies... now it will be over soon and i will be in the arms of my angel.

  6. anonymous
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    Jun 17th 2022 !⃝

    Well to me the song is about drug addict and the word angel there signifys the drugs,when an addict takes the drug he feels comforted forgetting everything,he finds comfort in the arms of the angel (drug)

  7. anonymous
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    Apr 10th 2022 !⃝

    Sarah's come out and stayed at this song is about musicians turning to heroin to deal with the stress of Fame and stress of the music industry ...for those saying it's about suicide I'm sorry you're wrong it's about drug use

  8. anonymous
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    Oct 4th 2020 !⃝

    Sad song about drug addiction and loneliness .. and memories of good times ...and then peace of being in the Arms of The Angels ...Overdose ..

  9. anonymous
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    Nov 29th 2019 !⃝

    "Angel" is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan about the heroin overdose death of Jonathan Melvoin (1961–1996), the Smashing Pumpkins touring keyboard player,[1] as McLachlan explained on VH1 Storytellers. The song first appeared on Surfacing, the Canadian singer's 1997 album. It is sometimes mistitled as "In the Arms of an Angel"[2] or "Arms of the Angel".

  10. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Feb 16th 2019 !⃝

    Okay, I have 3 interpretations for this song.

    1. It's about a young person witnessing
    his/her grandmother's peaceful death.

    2. It's about a baby who just got aborted and
    his guardian angel takes him back to
    Heaven.

    3. It's about a person who can't get their
    life together and one cold night he/she
    dreams about an angel comforting him/her.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  11. anonymous
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    Feb 16th 2019 !⃝

    Words can't express my feeling first time I heard Angel by Sarah,broke my heart and tears just drop instantly.When you see her sings with a black dress that match the mood she's in she look's like an Angel from heaven herself.Thanks Sarah you can be a great peacemaker in these crazy world.May God bless you.

  12. Gods_Friend
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    Sep 26th 2018 !⃝

    I can see why some might think this song is about suicide or receiving a new soul. But the truth is an angel would try to rescue a soul from suicide, not participate in it. And you have, and will always have, only one soul. So “Angel” is God rescuing a soul from hopelessness and depression, offering a new alternative in Christ. There’s hope, even for the most troubled souls, in Jesus.

  13. anonymous
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    Dec 5th 2017 !⃝

    Its about suicide you already wanted to go to heaven because you're tired and broken you don't know what's or who's going to fix you because you always feel alone and sad you're depressed from your traumatic problems then in the end you thought about death because you want peace and comfort maybe angel is one of your guardians and that angel will comfort you,that is my perception about the song...

  14. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jun 29th 2017 !⃝

    this song is beautiful and needs no interpretation. You feel what the song says to you, dont over complicate it. i know what it says to me and therefore i do not need to interpret something that speaks loud and plain enough

  15. anonymous
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    Nov 2nd 2016 !⃝

    Sad sad song. Secret sorrows. Can we get by with a little help from our friends

  16. kooljohn176
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    Jun 21st 2016 !⃝

    One of the most beautiful and soulful enduring songs for the soul to escape ''In the arms of the Angel'' sung by SARAH McLachlan written and inspired during a time when she and we lost a known musician to a accidental heroin death overdose that I've heard with sorrow. Also on the overall with a known personal experience this song sounds and feels that the soul is going through the ''walk-in'' transformation experience for the Reciever to ''try-on'' this new soul. Usually this takes place in the times when The Reciever is in severe depression, feeling fatigue and tired during the illness, like during times of culture and emotional shock, or certaintly when in a coma, The Personality sometimes receives a new soul in the exchange. For instance, this can take place when the person you love dearly ''accidently commits suicide'' by heroin or whatever, this can be very painful for the loved one to let go of him or her. Then one day you meet someone raised around the same area that went through the ''dark night of the soul'' sort of speaking around the same time when your loved one passed away and the soul departed. Where now the soul[giver] and the Reciever that has been very ill, thinking that is losing the original soul that could've had this soul exchange between themselves, but usually it is never known what's really happening, unless the person is very intuitive and perseptive of how in the arms of the Angel the soul is brought back to the loved one or to be taken back to Heaven and God.

  17. anonymous
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    Apr 25th 2015 !⃝

    The song is about suicide. In the beginning it talks about waiting for your live to get better, but you are not good enough, you suck at life and no matter how hard you try you fail. You need to be released from the world. All the memories of failure are leaving from the veins in your wrists that you slit till it's empty of blood. You are pull from the wreckage of your miserable life and you feel like you are now floating drifting out of consciousness hallucinating angels taking you away.

  18. anonymous
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    Jan 8th 2015 !⃝

    So sad, to me its when you are feeling hopeless, and no one cares, angels would comfort you if you died

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