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ialwaysknewyouwerepunk · 2 years

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lucky again - a close reading

this one digs deep my friends!!! join in for some good old heartache of which you can’t tell if it feels good or not ! sponsored by: home - one direction

faith in the future, track 4

LYRIC ANALYSIS

You give and give until it’s gone away Just tell yourself you’ve got another day

// "when you give so much and it's not enough", don't let it break your heart // "there are problems in this empty bottle but we drained all that", angels fly

WE HAVE TIME - recurring in this song, but also. alotofotherplaces // "time takes time to heal it," dlibyh // "time for us is never over", the greatest // "so one more night i'm gonna choose", face the music // "let's buy some time", face the music // "just have patience, it's not how you spend the time it's if you waste it", all this time // "the love it takes is worth it all this time", all this time // "maybe if you'd taken more time", headline // "sit down in the space and time", she is beauty // "i'm on my way with some time to borrow", angels fly // "and time can always heal ya, If you let it make its way into your bones", holding on to heartache

You’ve lived that life you just don’t see it yet I see how hard you’ve worked to be yourself

imposter syndrome - result of all of those voices constantly trying to mess with your brain and your idea of you - theme of being hard on yourself // hs1, walls

you have to work hard just to be yourself in a world that limits people like them

"you've lived that life" then in the context of the next line: you are living an authentic life, true to who you are. you don't need to prove it to anyone and you don't need to be out to have lived that life

If you believe that guy is superman There selling tickets at the cinema Whatever gets you through the darkest night Just find the light out In the madness Hold tight

general interpretation: "if you think that dude there is superman, if you look up to him, see him as an example, that's fine, really, bc it helps you get through hard times. i won't judge your way to cope."

and then we dig into the layers: (good post by @bluewinnerangel as well with more diggings)

just some guy. he's playing the role of superman, trying to sell tickets to his movie so he earns money with the job he's done

he's def not superman bc his main objective is to get rich doing those superhero movies

cinema as the grand symbol of playing pretend: that guy pretends he's all that but he's really just a regular ol dude. commonpeoplejustactlikeyoureoneofus

cinema/playing pretend seen as the best way to get through the madness/darkness of life

then a lil deeperdeeper into the larryverse layers: "that guy" is making you believe he's this amazing dude, helping you, he's selling tickets at the cinema, he's getting you out there and getting you on the big screen. but yeah idk i buy his sales pitch

DARK <> LIGHT: recurring images - dark as a symbol for depression, pain, tough times in life. losing your way, being lost to yourself -> metaphor of being lost in the dark "through the darkest night" // through the dark // "i was stumbling looking in the dark with an empty heart" "when you're lost, i'll find a way, i'll be your light", home (this is just. louis in short. louis in summary. yeah. this whole album and shit and. underlying message is. this. home. ye !) // all the lights couldn't put out the dark running through my heart", lights up // "you showed me a power that is strong enough to bring sun to the darkest days", matilda // "back dancing in the dark", the greatest // "because we faded into darkness" "that keeps me drifting back to darkness", holding on to heartache

"the light out" in this verse meaning hope - in whatever way possible, hold on (don’t think about frozen 2′s ‘the next right thing’ don’t do it)

"hold tight" // just hold on

Cos i’m a hard Man to lose But I figured it out Then made my way back To a life I would choose We were lucky once I could be lucky again

i'm a hard man hehe

i figured out how to lose myself, but i found my way back - the advice i'm giving you now is what i've had to follow myself in my life // "i've woken up from my sleep", bigger than me

"i'm a hard man to lose" - listener expects this is directed to "you", that it's hard for "you" to lose him. but the expectation is subverted by "i figured it out" -> double (possible) meaning of i figured out how to make you lose me. i figured out how to push myself away so far you had to let go // too young, walls, habit

LIFE central theme on fitf - what is a full life? seems to be a lot on louis's mind "back to a life i would choose" - i lost my way but found my way back, because this life isn't one i stumbled in my chance, it's one i actively want and choose // walls (album) -> connects to "you've lived that life" as something he's had to tell himself too in connection to his career: this is the career i choose, not just keep doing because i don't have a choice/alternative. i know who i am and i know what i want to do in life, i'm not just living blindly stumbling through the dark

-> career angle adds up to the "we" vs "i" pronouns there: "we were lucky once", as in together with one direction we got really lucky with our careers -> i could be lucky again

// "i roll and I roll 'til i change my luck", fireproof

Before the world it got so serious Before the time it got away from us I’d meet you at the favourite subway stop We’d grab some food and meet the lads for one

serious world, serious life, responsibilities getting in the way of himself/themselves, their relationship - lost sight of the simple things in life -> bringing that back into focus is a big thing on fitf as well as harry's house

+ focus on friendship making a life flourish, feel real

If you believe that guy is superman...

Cos i’m a hard Man to lose But I figured it out Then made my way back To a life I would choose We were lucky once could be lucky again

we -> i: underlines again his focus on himself, on how he found his way back to his core, his desires and dreams -> adds to career angle: group -> solo

possible interpretation of 2nd chorus can also be: we were lucky once, we could be lucky again - no strict exclusion of "we" - aren't we all always part of larger entities anyway? + stricter about 1d: the band could be great again someday

I’m a hard man to find But you figured it out And I love you for that Look back On a time I was lucky once, I could be lucky again

more directed to “you” than to himself, although that meaning still adds up imo

he was lost in the dark and “you” found him / they were both lost in the dark and “you” found him -> he was the light in the darkness

“that guy” playing superman is long forgotten - “you” also found their way to what’s really important in life, and knows that the best way to get through the dark is together, following love

SYNTHESIS

In a first layer of this song, it’s about Louis and his relationship with his career. Especially thanks to the ‘superman’ line, a dude just making money, finding ways to success through fame and money. He’s talking to “you”, but he might as well be talking in the mirror. On Faith in the Future it is a common theme that the advice Louis is giving is as much to someone else as to himself. He’s gone through a lot of ups and downs in terms of his career, obviously closely related to his personal life and identity, so it’s all intertwined, and this song reflects that. He’s lost his way, then found it again. He’s been at the bottom, felt like he gave it his all with nothing to show for it. Most of all: he’s kept trying, trying, trying. Giving it another day. He finds his current reality complicated and hard, and sometimes he looks back to earlier, simpler times with a bit of nostalgia, or even melancholy. But he figured out where his priorities lay, where his heart is, and knows a little better how to listen to it now. Fame and money are not the main objectives, and achieving those alone doesn’t mean success (anymore). He doesn’t look up to that guy/superman. And a good work-life balance, as literal that sounds, is translated into Louis’s work. All of these emotions, that he’s been applying to his own life, is something he then directs to “you” in this song, which I think is equally valid. His “you” has the same struggles, the same identity <> career hurdles they have to get through. So, Louis is holding out the palm of his hand.

The twist in the song, in the last chorus, is what really makes this song special and what makes that deep, personal connection between who he is and what he does even clearer. Who he loves and what he does individually are so deeply related that he can’t see success in one area without the other. Being lost to himself is just as lost as being lost to his “you”. He found his way back to himself - and this is where I fucking love this song - when “you” also found him. It’s not even clear anymore who got lost first, who lost who, when he lost himself or the other, or “you” lost him, because it doesn’t even matter. Who’s counting, when in the end you’re both found?

So, the luck involved here, that could reflect on his career going well, is supported by the chosen path to love and self, his heart where “you” and he are nestled in the core. The foundations are stable, so now we can grow again.

bc their art is at its best when they’re together bc together they’re the greatest and when they’re true to themselves they’re true to love and then the art just fucking follows

listening to: too young, dlibyh, satellite, keep driving, through the dark, fireproof, home

#HAHAAAAAAA PAIN #i always think it won't go that deep or far and then it just always fucking does #i LOVE THIS ALBUM I LOVE THEIR AAAART #fucking hell #lyric analysis #lucky again

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