Ariel (Live At The Astoria, London 2002)

Song Meaning

The lyrics paint a picture of a precarious existence, caught between aspiration and reality. The opening lines suggest a struggle for self-definition, a process of stripping away the inessential to find a core identity. This is a place of raw, almost primal, consumption, where the narrator is "pick[ing] the bones clean" of something that was once pure or idealized. The tone is one of intense, almost desperate, self-examination. The verses introduce a disquieting cast of characters and a sense of societal decay. The invented words like "carnivaluate" and "tallerate" create a bizarre, distorted world where the weak are preyed upon, described as "6 feet sheep." There's a palpable sense of age and weariness, seen in "older than you look" and "cracked eyes, black as soot," hinting at a world worn down by experience or corruption. The recurring pre-chorus, with its invocation of "Ariel" and "Ariella," feels like a desperate plea or a mystical invocation. The name "Isadore" being a "door" that can "close the sky and holes" suggests a powerful, perhaps divine, force capable of both creation and destruction, or perhaps a way to escape the harsh realities presented. This contrasts sharply with the simple, hopeful refrain of "You rise / When you feel the velvet skies." The effectiveness of these lyrics lies in their unsettling blend of the abstract and the visceral. The invented language and fragmented imagery create a dreamlike, almost nightmarish, atmosphere. The repeated call to "rise" offers a glimmer of hope, a potential transcendence from the bleakness, but it's tied to a specific, almost mystical, feeling of the "velvet skies," making it feel earned rather than guaranteed.