Demons by The National Lyrics Meaning – Unmasking the Shadows Within
Lyrics
The sight of you among the sights
Get this sudden sinking feeling
Of a man about to fly
Never kept me up before
Now I’ve been awake for days
I can’t fight it anymore
I’m going through an awkward phase
I am secretly in love with
Everyone that I grew up with
Do my crying underwater
I can’t get down any farther
All my drowning friends can see
Now there is no running from it
It’s become the crux of me
I wish that I could rise above it
But I stay down
With my demons
I stay down
With my demons
Bats and buzzards in the sky
Alligators in the sewers
I don’t even wonder why
Hide among the younger viewers
Huddle with them all night long
The worried talk to God goes on
I sincerely tried to love it
Wish that I could rise above it
But I stay down
With my demons
I stay down
With my demons
I stay down
With my demons
I stay down
With my demons
Can I stay here? I can sleep on the floor
Paint the blood and hang the palms on the door
Do not think I’m going places anymore
Wanna see the sun come up above New York
Oh, everyday I start so great
Then the sunlight dims
Less I look the more I see the pythons and the limbs
Do not know what’s wrong with me
Sours in the cut
When I walk into a room
I do not light it up
Fuck
So I stay down
With my demons
I stay down
With my demons
I stay down
With my demons
I stay down
With my demons
The National has long been synonymous with melancholic wisdom wrapped in haunting melodies. Their track ‘Demons’, a standout from the album ‘Trouble Will Find Me’, offers a profound reflection on the struggle of internal battles and the acceptance of one’s darker aspects. Delving into the nuanced lyrical landscape of this stirring song unveils a deep emotional journey resonant with many.
Musically rich and lyrically potent, ‘Demons’ is a tough knot of emotions. Through its candid self-reflection, the song finds a universal voice to express personal angst. The layers of meaning in ‘Demons’ are worth unfolding, promising an exploration of one’s psyche and possibly a mirror to the soul.
The Descent into Emotional Turbulence
When lead vocalist Matt Berninger delivers ‘a sudden sinking feeling / of a man about to fly’, we’re immediately transported to the precipice of emotional upheaval. ‘Demons’ effectively captures the dichotomy of yearning for flight while being pulled into an abyss. This complex imagery sets the stage for a deep dive into the psyche, revealing an intense struggle between aspiration and the weight of one’s darker emotions.
Lingering on the verge of losing control (‘Now I’ve been awake for days’), the song captures the torturous awareness that comes with recognizing one’s own inner turmoil. The narrative doesn’t shy away from exposing the vulnerabilities one faces when navigating the dark waters of the mind.
Embracing Our Darkest Companions
Most haunting is the chorus, where Berninger confesses to staying ‘down with my demons’. The lyric suggests a resignation to, and possibly an acceptance of, the darker parts of the self. Far from a defeatist sentiment, it’s an acknowledgment of the demons’ permanent residency, highlighting how integral, if disquieting, they are to one’s identity.
In music, as in life, embracing one’s flaws can be a profound form of self-awareness. The National captures this ethos by turning it into a somber, yet oddly comforting mantra, a recognition that sometimes cohabitating with our demons is the only way to move forward.
The Hidden Meaning: Water as a Metaphor for Suppressed Emotions
Berninger’s lyrics utilize water imagery to convey the submersion of feelings (‘Do my crying underwater / I can’t get down any farther’). This suggests an overwhelming force, one that subjugates the narrator, leaving them helpless to sink deeper. It paints a portrait of someone fighting against, yet consumed by, their own submerged, overwhelming emotions.
At once alluring and terrifying, the motif of water in ‘Demons’ reflects the complexity of the human emotional landscape and how the struggle against one’s innermost fears can feel like a drowning, an unstoppable force pulling us beneath the wave of consciousness.
The Eerie Resignation in the Evocative Imagery
The verse, thick with evocative lines (‘Bats and buzzards in the sky / Alligators in the sewers’), creates an almost apocalyptic backdrop, rendering the world as a place filled with threats both seen and unseen. Yet there’s a calm acceptance woven into the narrative—the narrator no longer wonders ‘why’, signaling a weary awareness that fighting or understanding is futile in the face of what simply is.
Adding to this atmosphere of haunting resignation is the paradoxical desire to ‘rise above it’, juxtaposed with the gravitational pull of being stuck in place, ‘down with my demons’. This speaks to the universal human battle of aspiring to transcend our lesser selves while being firmly rooted in our inherent nature.
Memorable Lines: The Striking Confession of Desolation
The imagery in ‘I wish that I could rise above it / But I stay down with my demons’ offers an explosive glimpse into the tug-of-war within the narrator’s soul. It’s one of the song’s most memorable lines, encapsulating the essence of its melancholic acceptance.
As the song heads towards its conclusion, stripped of any pretense (‘Fuck’), the language becomes raw and denuded, exposing the core of the human condition: the struggle with inner demons, a battle that transcends lyric and enters into the realm of the deeply personal.
