EE Lyrics Study: teeth/bones/nails
Hello! This is my first "lyric study" for the band Everything Everything and the topic is: BONES/TEETH/NAILS.
Basically, when listening to their music, I kept noticing words related to this topic and I was curious if the topic actually existed across their discography. I marked every lyric that included key words:
bone, skull, teeth, vertebrae, fossil, etc.
I did a little research to see the cultural significance or any other meaning/symbolism of these words. I didn't want to dive too much into the actual meaning of the lyrics*** or the greater context of the song, but instead looked at the overall patterns of the key words.
I notice that in EE's lyrics, bones/teeth are mostly used to evoke images of graphic things being done to a body or to liken humans to other animals/creatures. There's mentions of bones both inside a living human and in someone/something that's dead.
Personally, I interpret these uses as a more shocking or uncomfortable way to refer to those parts of the body (e.g. teeth instead of smile, clavicle instead of collar, skull instead of head), which is pretty on-brand for EE's provocative lyrics/themes.
And half the street was under my nails -MY KZ, UR BF
Cos even now, there's a bone snapping -Leave the Engine Room
My teeth dazzle like an igloo wall, I inhabit, I inhibit ya'll -Photoshop Handsome
But right above my clavicle, the world becomes so laughably old -Wizard Talk
Teeth and nails your little anatomy -Luddites and Lambs
Past-tense -- what's a trilobite to anyone? -Kemosabe (marked because it only exists in fossil form)
Coiled heart, eye-tooth, feral child -Torso of the Week
And cloudy with potential, muscle mass and vertebrae begin... -Choice Mountain
While Princes fly drones that can see through your bones - Undrowned
The street is a boneyard she glances -Armourland
And now who's the fossil who gets the girl? -The House is Dust
Bic your head and show your teeth to them honey -Don't Try
And sweat runs up his neck and spine -Awe/Arc
You take the poleaxe out of your spine, push your shoulder back in its place -A.D.
Canine, fangs up out my throat -Distant Past
Teeth on a wire -Get to Heaven
Swing the hammer, the fragments, a skull exploding -Spring/Sun/Winter/Dread
Bone, to the blade -The Wheel is Turning Now
Bones in a bowl like a toad-in-the-hole, take the shape out of the mould -No Reptiles
And your spine is a glass spire -President Heartbeat
I can feel my bones screaming out -Yuppie Supper
Yet the concrete burns at the back of your skull -Night of the Long Knives
I'm just a knuckle dragger with a knuckle dragger grin -Desire
If my bones just fall away -Good Shot, Good Soldier
Skeleton boy with the skeleton girl souvenir -Big Climb
As fresh as my bouncing bones -Arch Enemy
The bones snap into place -Black Hyena
Stretching my lips over my teeth -SUPERNORMAL
I want the teeth of the enchanter - I Want A Love Like This
Drinking from a hollow skull -Cut UP!
But the seed inside your skull is now a watermelon -HEX
You can sing you can play my ribcage like piano -My Computer
***I feel like we'll never know exactly what Jonathan means when he writes (lol seems like he doesn't know sometimes either) so I didn't want to get caught up in guessing what he meant. I find it tiring to try to figure out 'why did he say that?' and instead just enjoy and find my own meaning :)
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