Flip by Glass Animals Lyrics Meaning – Unraveling the Psychedelic Tapestry of Emotion and Identity
Lyrics
Running through my head with a bolo knife
Chopping up the threads made up from looms
Of love and blood and hate and some empty tunes
Eyes killer cold and black and bare
Freaky little tooth hanging solo
Sucking at the walls like a rolo now
Making a cocoon when my brain fits
I wanna go back
I wanna go back
I wanna go back with a club and attack
I wanna take to my guns and break you
I gotta make my little foe take his own
I wanna go back, I wanna go back
I wanna go back with a club and attack
I wanna take to my guns and break you
I gotta make my little foe take his own
I’ve overgrown with a yellow mold
Just fizzing drones in a hollow dome
My funny nose dripping little groans
I’m so so cold in the marrow of my bones
I look at you as you take a snooze
Your skinny lips dripping rabid goo
I lift your chin and I grin at you
As you come to, man
I’m running ’round your head with a bolo knife
I’m gonna go back
I’m gonna go back
I’m gonna go back to a face, no more mask
I was in full bloom until I met you
I’m gonna shake my fetters I’m breaking loose
I’m gonna go back
I’m gonna go back
I’m gonna go back to a face, no more mask
I was in full bloom until I met you
I’m gonna shake my fetters I’m breaking loose
I’m gonna go back
I’m gonna go back
I’m gonna go back to a face, no more mask
I was in full bloom until I met you
I’m gonna shake my fetters I’m breaking loose
Glass Animals, known for their kaleidoscopic musical journey, once again prove their prowess in spinning complex narratives with their track ‘Flip’. This song, a melodic cornucopia of introspection, takes listeners through layers of personal confrontation and transformation; it’s a cerebral voyage with a haunting refrain that echoes the deepest recesses of human emotion.
The narrative within ‘Flip’ is both visceral and symbolic, sharpened by poignant metaphors and a dark tonal palette. The ebb and flow of the lyrics suggest a deep inner turmoil and a desperate quest for change. In dissecting this track, we delve into a liminal space where past conflates with present, woe mates with rage, and the very fabric of an individual’s being is at stake.
Unsheathing the Bolo Knife: An Ode to Internal Strife
The visceral imagery of ‘running through my head with a bolo knife’ ignites a sense of violent self-reflection. The bolo knife, often a symbol of survival and aggressive confrontation, is wielded here not against others, but within the psyche of the protagonist. It represents a wanton desire to sever the tangled ‘threads made up from looms of love and blood and hate and some empty tunes’—a lyric revealing a struggle to cut through the chaotic outcomes of past relationships and personal history.
This internal violence suggests a yearning to dismantle the shackles of emotional complexity. Whether it is hate, love, or the haunting emptiness of unfulfilled connections, these threads constitute the very being of the person in question, and the attempt to disentangle them is as painful as it is necessary.
Cocooned in the Mind: The Transformational Chamber
The ‘cocoon’ mentioned in ‘Flip’ acts as both a haven and a prison—the duality that defines the process of metamorphosis. Within its walls, the protagonist’s brain ‘fits,’ hinting at a self-imposed isolation carved from the need for change. As cocoons portend the emergence of something anew, the character seems at the cusp of a transformation, eager yet encased in the larval stages of rebirth.
The stark references to cold, mold, and hollow domes further the image of a person feeling trapped within their own stagnation, underlining a desperation to break free. The cocoon, though a space of potential growth, can also be a tomb if one cannot emerge from it transformed.
Peeling Back the Masks: A Reclamation of Identity
Repeatedly, the protagonist expresses the desire to ‘go back to a face, no more mask,’ which alludes to an authenticity lost amidst life’s masquerades. ‘I was in full bloom until I met you’ expresses a confrontation with an external catalyst for change—an individual or experience that has precipitated the protagonist’s current state of quandary.
The intention to ‘shake my fetters I’m breaking loose’ is the antithesis to the initial visceral aggression. It is a declaration of emancipation from the restraints of otherness that have influenced perception and being. This is not violent rebirth but a reasoned, conscious shedding of inauthentic layers.
The Insidious Echo of Memorable Lines: ‘I wanna go back’
The refrain ‘I wanna go back’ is a haunting siren song that resonates with the human condition of regret and the fantasy of undoing. Yet this yearning is not simply for reversal—it’s an aggressive assault against the forces that have shaped the current self. ‘I wanna take to my guns and break you’ is as destructive as it is cathartic, hinting at the irreversible nature of confronting past demons.
Under this mantra, ‘Flip’ encapsulates the struggle between the need for change and the gravitational pull of familiarity. To ‘go back’ is the all-too-human paradoxical desire to progress by retreating, to find the future in the past.
Deciphering the Hidden Meaning: Layers of Psychosomatic Warfare
Beyond the concrete images of knives and cocoons, ‘Flip’ navigates the realms of the subconscious. The ‘freaky little tooth hanging solo’ or ‘dripping rabid goo’ can be seen as malignant thoughts or parts of the psyche that gnaw at inner peace. The attack against these thoughts and the subsequent regaining of control signifies a psychosomatic battle against the elements within that corrupt self-perception and sap vitality.
Ultimately, ‘Flip’s narrative is a profound collage of inner conflicting impulses. It portrays an intense psychological journey, charting the course from chaos to clarity, constraint to freedom, and malaise to a possibly hopeful or destructive future, leaving us pondering on our own state of metamorphosis.
