Song Meaning
The lyrics paint a picture of a mind grappling with a profound shift, perhaps a spiritual awakening or a significant life change. There's a constant sense of transition, articulated through phrases like "slipping away, it's fading away" and "changing track." This flux is met with a curious calm, a "nothing to fear, nothing to say," as the narrator observes the world, or perhaps their internal landscape, "watching the clouds drifting away." The recurring "New heaven, New heaven" suggests a yearning for or arrival at a different state of being, a fresh perspective that feels both imminent and already present.
The central tension lies in the narrator's simultaneous embrace and resistance to this new reality. While the "New heaven" is called for, the narrator admits, "I see Angels every Wednesday / But I try to play for time." This suggests a reluctance to fully surrender to the experience, a desire to hold onto the familiar even as the new beckons. The image of the head as a "harbour for dreamboats" and the heart as a "bird enshrined" points to a rich inner life, perhaps one that is now being disrupted or reordered by these celestial visitations.
The most striking craft element is the juxtaposition of the ethereal with the mundane, and the vivid with the muted. The narrator sees "Angels every Wednesday" and experiences "Ice cream for breakfast / On Christmas Day," blending the extraordinary with everyday occurrences. This is powerfully contrasted with the stark imagery of "Cut to colour... / Fade to gray..." This shift from vibrant hues to a desaturated state mirrors the internal conflict, the potential loss of vividness that might accompany a transition into a "Cool blue heaven."
Ultimately, these lyrics resonate because they capture the disorienting yet captivating nature of profound personal change. The narrator's internal monologue, oscillating between wonder and hesitation, makes the experience feel deeply human. The writing effectively uses contrasting images and a sense of temporal ambiguity to convey the feeling of standing on the precipice of something significant, a "New heaven" that is both desired and perhaps a little frightening.