Everything Starts

Song Meaning

The lyrics paint a picture of profound disorientation and lingering attachment after a significant departure. The opening verse establishes a sense of decay and internal chaos, with "broken hands" and "empty streets" setting a somber mood. This feeling is amplified by the surreal imagery of "clouds where giants fought," suggesting a mind overwhelmed by past conflict or internal struggle. The narrator is clearly adrift, grappling with a reality that feels unstable and muted. The central tension lies in the narrator's inability to move on, fixated on the remnants of a relationship. Standing in a place associated with the departed person, the narrator questions their own stability and the moment when things began to unravel. The line "I'm left with what you couldn't take away" is particularly poignant, highlighting an enduring connection or memory that persists despite the physical absence. This suggests a deep-seated emotional residue that the narrator cannot escape. The craft here is in the juxtaposition of external stillness and internal turmoil. The "barely scented air" and "soft colors" contrast sharply with the internal "swarm of dreams" and the disorienting feeling of the world spinning. The repeated parenthetical asides, like "I don't know if I can walk in a straight line," act as a direct window into the narrator's fractured state of mind, underscoring the difficulty of maintaining composure or clarity. The transformation into "glass" in the second verse further emphasizes a feeling of fragility and vulnerability. Ultimately, these lyrics resonate because they capture the disorienting aftermath of loss and the persistent echo of a past relationship. The narrator's struggle to find solid ground, their fixation on "photographs," and the recurring phrase "everything starts to, I don't know" convey a powerful sense of being stuck. The ending, with its blend of laughter and spinning, suggests a complex, perhaps even manic, attempt to process overwhelming emotions, leaving the listener with a feeling of unresolved, lingering pain.