If Things Were Perfect by Moby Lyrics Meaning – Unraveling the Intricacies of Isolation and Yearning
Lyrics
[sample: “give me summer”] x2
Broken darkness my cold end
I look for places I’ve never seen
Nothing moves but the quiet on the street
Now I open my eyes to this
Isolated walking long hard hours
Winter cold just brings me winter showers
It’s so brutal with the cold sky
Wrapped in cold late at night
[sample: “give me summer”] x2
Come clean there’s no sun yet
The only lights here are made
I can’t speak, I can’t hear, but I know I’m real
There’s no warm here anyway
The darkest lights before the dawn
You remember the sun but it sank
In the water that eats the light
Wrapped in cold late at night
[sample: “give me summer”] x2
I open my eyes, it’s cold
The only souls go by
Lift the bridge out of the water
The stone black light
Living is easy when it’s night
The cold has covered the rain
I can see forever, to the deep
Wrapped in cold, late at night
[sample: “give me summer”] x4
In a world where electronic music often remains entrenched in the beats and drops, Moby’s ‘If Things Were Perfect’ offers a stark departure into the chill of introspection and the warmth of distant hope. The song, a deep cut from 1999’s ‘Play’, delves into themes sprawling across the icy landscapes of isolation and the aching desire for change.
Moby, an artist hailed for his ability to coalesce the electric with the emotional, sends us on a journey beneath the surface of this track, exploring depths that resonate with the human condition. The repetitive invocation of ‘give me summer’ serves as a refrain around which the song’s deeper meanings orbit, providing both an anchor and a longing to the contemplative voyage that ‘If Things Were Perfect’ invites.
Winter’s Chilled Embrace: The Metaphor for Loneliness
From the opening lines, Moby delineates a narrative soaked in the solitude of winter. The ‘broken darkness’ and ‘cold end’ signify an escape from a past perhaps as unwelcoming as the coldness he faces. Yet, despite the bleakness, there’s a sense of searching, ‘for places I’ve never seen’, representing a yearning for change, for the unexplored promises of life despite the surrounding desolation.
The visuals of isolation are stark — ‘Nothing moves but the quiet on the street,’ a line that paints absolute stillness, a world paused. It’s as if all progress has been frozen over, leaving the protagonist in a state of suspended animation, enveloped in the ‘cold sky’ and ‘winter showers’.
The Absence of Light: A Dive into Despair
Moby masterfully uses light, or the lack thereof, as a motif for hopelessness. Sentences like ‘The only lights here are made’ and ‘The darkest lights before the dawn’ evoke a manufactured existence, where artificiality is the only source of illumination in a sunless reality. This reflects the artificial constructs we sometimes create to shield us from the stark truths of life.
Also telling is the phrase ‘You remember the sun but it sank,’ which is poignant in its reminder of better times that have elapsed, slipping away into a sea that ‘eats the light’, leaving the protagonist ‘wrapped in cold late at night.’ It’s a sharp contrast to the innate longing for ‘summer’ that punctuates the track.
Echoes in the Void: The Song’s Hidden Meaning
Beneath the surface of longing for seasonal change is a deeper, more spiritual longing for a shift in the human condition. The song hints at themes of existential dread and the inherent solitude of the human experience, juxtaposed with a desire for connectivity and warmth. When Moby repeats ‘give me summer’, it’s less a literal request for a season and more a plea for an internal revolution, a break in the endless cycle of cold detachment.
This cry for ‘summer’ becomes a metaphor for enlightenment, for personal growth and rejuvenation. It’s a raw exposure of the human soul’s intrinsic need for light, not just in a physical sense, but in emotional and intellectual fulfillment.
Resonant Reflections: Memorable Lines that Haunt and Heal
Certain lines in ‘If Things Were Perfect’ resonate with a chilling echo long after the song ends. ‘I can see forever, to the deep’ stands out as a harrowing acknowledgement of the insightful clarity that often accompanies deep sadness or isolation.
‘Come clean, there’s no sun yet’ is another striking line, alluding to a realization that precedes redemption. The call to ‘come clean’ suggests admission to the somber reality before being able to rise to the ‘stone black light’, an oxymoron that hints at the potential brightness in darkness, the possibility of finding truth in the void.
A Vision of Hope in ‘If Things Were Perfect’
While ‘If Things Were Perfect’ navigates through the shadows of the soul, it does not imprison the listener there. Moby instills a sense of movement towards something better, culminating in the act of opening one’s eyes — ‘I open my eyes, it’s cold’ — acknowledging the present chill while not resigning to it.
The resolve to ‘lift the bridge out of the water’, suggests a bridge not to nowhere, but to somewhere — a crossing over adversity into potential warmth and brightness, even if it’s not currently felt. The repetition of ‘give me summer’ becomes a mantra for those trapped within their own iciness, a clarion call to hold on until the sun rises once more.
