Breathe Underwater – Placebo
July 29, 2009I’ve been listening to the new Placebo album, Battle For The Sun, a lot lately. It’s their first album with an overall theme. As you may have guessed from the title it’s battling for the sun. Acknowledging life is painful and downright horrible at times but striving to always find the sun. The titular song is something I listen to a lot when I need that bit of extra strength but the song Breathe Underwater really just speaks to me (cheesey I know, but true).
So here it is:
Breathe Underwater
Here comes another fall from grace, I’m always falling on my face
This attitude that I embrace with a love I’m trying to replace
Try to kill this song ’cause the melody’s all wrong
And there’s a fever comin’ on
It’s hard to reconcile what I’ve become
With the wounded child hiding deep inside
Breathe underwater, I’m comin’ up for air
I wanna see another dawn, comin’ up for air
Sick of the slaughter, I’m comin’ up for air
‘Cause I’ve been floating here too long
Take my ego for a ride ’cause there’s nobody by my side
It’s getting hard to justify and it won’t be long till I collide
My weakness laid bare as people stop and stare
But it’s the last time I swear
It’s hard to reconcile what I’ve become
With the wounded child hiding deep inside
Breathe underwater, I’m comin’ up for air
I wanna see another dawn, comin’ up for air
Sick of the slaughter, I’m comin’ up for air
‘Cause I’ve been floating here too long
Stop breathing, stop breathing
Stop breathing, stop breathing
Breathe underwater, I’m comin’ up for air
I wanna see another dawn, comin’ up for air
Sick of the slaughter, I’m comin’ up for air
‘Cause I’ve been floating here too long
I’m coming, I’m coming, I’m coming
Comin’ up for air, comin’ up for air, comin’ up for air
I remember something like “the ambulance” song from one of Placebo’s albums not too long ago. It wasn’t a bad song, but I didn’t understand why it upset me so much (it was the sirens).
I never realised how meaningful Placebo’s lyrics are. I’ve not heard this song, but simply reading the lyrics made me want to cry; especially for the “wounded child inside.”
Coming to terms with how that child was wounded can be so painful. But each new dawn is an opportunity to tend to those wounds and mend.
One can only hope.