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Afraid

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I'm America's sweetheart

Trying to get away

You make it hard to leave

But it's easier for me to stay

Boy, I'm so afraid

 

And I've had it up to here

With the fighting, baby we're not

Fooling anyone these days

I don't want to stray

But boy, I'm so afraid

 

But it's not love that keeps me here

And it's not what you want to hear

 

So I'm going

Back to Santa Monica

New York to L.A.

Never coming back, boy

No matter what you do or say

'Cause I'm so afraid

 

And I've

Had it up to here

With the panic and the fear

There's nothing in your heart

Thought that I could make you change

I'm so afraid

 

But it's not love that keeps me here

 

We were just teenagers

When we fell in love

Driving in your fast car

Looking at the stars above

But it was not enough

 

You should never come between a

Woman and her dream and

A man who never knew his place

There's no easy way

To come back from where you came

 

But it's not love that keeps me here

And it's not what you want to hear

 

So baby now I'm going

Back to Santa Monica

New York to L.A.

Never coming back, boy

No matter what you do or say

'Cause I'm so afraid

 

Oh, I've

Had it up to here

With the panic and the fear

Nothing in your heart, boy

I thought that I could make you change

But I'm so afraid

 

And it's not love, it's just the fear

That you've put down for all these years

But I'm leaving now

 

I'm going

Back to Santa Monica

New York to L.A.

Never coming back, boy

No matter what you do or say

I am deathly afraid

 

Oh, I've had it up to here

With the panic and the fear

There's nothing in your heart

I thought that I could make you change

But I'm so afraid

 

Oh, it's not love that keeps me here

It's not love that keeps me here

I'm done being afraid

I am done being afraid

Oh, oh, oh...


last.fm  

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deathray, thanks for posting the lyrics! i hadn't really paid attention to them, and now i see they're great.

 

I think this is a really amazing song that likely describes her thoughts/feelings/emotions when she broke up with Mike Mizrahi (the Video Games guy) and went to LA (early 2010).

 

you may be right...what she says and the timeline could fit! my only doubt is, did they meet when they were teenagers? it might be irrelevant, though, cuz she does sometimes add verses that sound good, so we should remember that her songs are not 100% biographical...

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deathray, thanks for posting the lyrics! i hadn't really paid attention to them, and now i see they're great.

Don't give me credit for this! I got this from some other site, but I can't remember wich, so it's kinda hard to give credit! The only thing I edited was the "No matter what you do or say" part, since the lyrics I had said "No matter what you do I'll say". Hahhah.


last.fm  

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I was just listening to this song while making a sandwich. Gosh, it’s such a good song. It’s so tender and heartbreaking. It’s an especially great song for nighttime. I love the loose quality it has, how it sounds like it was just a quick and spontaneous thing, recorded one night in a sudden flash of inspiration, like it just needed to come out. I love how understated but unique the backing track is with that incongruous drum machine and the little weird noises. I wouldn’t change a thing about it. 

 

These lyrics, i think, are some of her most heartfelt. It’s just chock-full of such simple yet powerful and poignant lines that i think a lot of people can relate to. I especially love the line “the panic and the fear.” Anyone who suffers from panic attacks knows that it’s one of the worst feelings in the world. 

 

Doesn’t the chorus sound like something you’ve heard before in another life? That melody seems to perfectly capture the song’s sentiments, that sense of feeling trapped and that realization that you have to do something, make some sort of change in your life. Your dead-end relationship has sort of become your comfort zone. You think you can change the relationship or even the other person, but you know you’re just lying to yourself. 

 

Her falsetto in this song has a strange quality to it, it’s almost hysterical. And at the end when she abruptly comes out of it back into her lower register (as she’s repeating that she’s done being afraid), it makes me think of, like, when you’ve been crying for hours and you just suddenly snap out of it because you just physically cannot cry anymore.  

 

What a fucking song.


"The limits of my language mean the limits of my world." -Wittgenstein

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monicker, you've captured the essence of why this song is so affecting. if i'm not mistaken, she co-wrote "afraid" with bernard butler (yes, the talented suede guitarst and later solo artist) and i know they worked on more tracks together. if they are anything like this one in their emotional core, i really hope they see the light of day.

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I think Afraid's a pretty underrated song (well until I read Monicker's essay). Whenever I hear it, I have to stop whatever I'm doing and really focus on the lyrics. Her vocals sound really emotional and heartfelt and I like the fact it's not perfectly produced, it's still a bit raw.


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I was just listening to this song while making a sandwich. Gosh, it’s such a good song. It’s so tender and heartbreaking. It’s an especially great song for nighttime. I love the loose quality it has, how it sounds like it was just a quick and spontaneous thing, recorded one night in a sudden flash of inspiration, like it just needed to come out. I love how understated but unique the backing track is with that incongruous drum machine and the little weird noises. I wouldn’t change a thing about it. 

 

These lyrics, i think, are some of her most heartfelt. It’s just chock-full of such simple yet powerful and poignant lines that i think a lot of people can relate to. I especially love the line “the panic and the fear.” Anyone who suffers from panic attacks knows that it’s one of the worst feelings in the world. 

 

Doesn’t the chorus sound like something you’ve heard before in another life? That melody seems to perfectly capture the song’s sentiments, that sense of feeling trapped and that realization that you have to do something, make some sort of change in your life. Your dead-end relationship has sort of become your comfort zone. You think you can change the relationship or even the other person, but you know you’re just lying to yourself. 

 

Her falsetto in this song has a strange quality to it, it’s almost hysterical. And at the end when she abruptly comes out of it back into her lower register (as she’s repeating that she’s done being afraid), it makes me think of, like, when you’ve been crying for hours and you just suddenly snap out of it because you just physically cannot cry anymore.  

 

What a fucking song.

 Okay, but like...how was the sandwich?


X----into me, into you----X

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Essay! Four short paragraphs? Lawd  :thumb:

 

Look, i was feeling things while making my sandwich last night, alright? 

Haha, well I was deliberatly exagerating but anyhow, it's a fair bit to say about your feelings towards a song whilst making a sandwich, that being a good thing though :P   


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