Top 5 Misunderstood Songs/Lyrics

As a consumer of all sorts of media, I consume a lot of media. Like any normal person, I like to listen to music, and once you listen to a song enough times, you eventually start paying attention to its lyrics.

Before we get started, though, I'd like to give a big shout out to one of my besties, Liz. She recently restarted her own blog, and if you like my humor, then there is a good chance you'll like her. So check her out!

And with that promo out of the way, let's get started!

5. "Closer" by the Chainsmokers ft. Halsey

So baby pull me closer in the backseat of your Rover
That I know you can't afford
Bite that tattoo on your shoulder
Pull the sheets right off the corner
Of the mattress that you stole
From your roommate back in Boulder
We ain't ever getting older

Sounds pretty romantic, right? Wrong. The entire song is about "rekindling" a "lost romance," but the singers in the song are refusing to acknowledge why they ended their past relationship in the first place. They're trading learning from their mistakes for a hot fling in the back of his shitty car. This was a relationship that ended for a reason--one that we're not privy to, because the narrators "forget."

The line "We ain't ever getting older" at first sounds like the immortality of love, the feeling of indestructibility when young and reckless. But I think it actually refers to the phrase getting "older and wiser." Since they cannot learn from their mistakes, they're not getting "older."

The relationship in "Closer" is that relationship your two friends has when they date on and off constantly, sometimes for years. They'll break up in fantastic ways, then later they'll be back together. Rinse, repeat.

4/10 good but not good enough to be overplayed so much

4. "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" by R.E.M.

There's nothing here to really explain away. No one really knows what's going on in this song. I do know that the series of "L.B." names dropped in one verse came from a dream the lead singer had about being surrounded by celebrities sharing initials. But that's hardly a misunderstood lyric. I just wanted to share it.

Pair it with the Barenaked Ladies' "Odds Are" for an exceptional combination of flavors about smiling in the face of a changing world.

8/10 A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies

3. "Go Buffalo" by Like Swimming

Just go ahead and listen to the whole song. I'll wait.

Look up the lyrics if you didn't catch them the first time.

I had downloaded this song for free from Amazon Prime when Amazon Prime still allowed weekly downloads of free songs. I listened to it for probably months, not paying close attention to the lyrics and instead being swept up by its poppy rhythm. It was "Semi-Charmed Life" all over again when I decided to actually listen to the lyrics.

This is the kind of song that you share with your two friends as you carpool from Ohio to Florida, in between all the cow-spotting and horse-spotting and cow-shaped-bush-spotting. And maybe, just maybe, it's the kind of song that the three of you love so much that you play it several times and call yourselves the Buffalo Herd, much to the confusion of the other friends you meet up with in Florida.

Is the song about coaxing a scaredy cat to just confess infatuation to a subject, perhaps even gearing up for a first kiss? Or is it about something more... sinister? The world may never know. It remains, however, a total bop.

10/10 what an oddly specific story

2. "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival

Don't go 'round tonight

It's bound to take your life

There's a bad moon on the rise

This song is a lie? It sounds like it's telling you there's a bathroom on the right. There is no bathroom on the right. There is only moon.

0/10 therrrrre's a bathroom on the right~

1. The entire Of Monsters and Men discography

I never have any idea what they're saying. It's very poetic, though. So you can interpret it how you like, or just find peace in not understanding.

10/10 cover your crystal eyes