Christina Leary - Foy Vance: She Burns Lyrics Analysis

October 23rd, 2017

Christina Leary - Foy Vance: She Burns Lyrics Analysis

She's a little explosion of hope → explosions are quick but dangerous, and hope is a desire for something to happen

Never turns the lights down low, she can go there if you want to though → lights are on, everything is out in the open. However, she is capable of descending into a darker place, darkness because it is the opposite of light

There are no markings on her country roads → in the most raw sense country roads have this idea of being unpaved dirt roads, unexplored, in the context of this song I think it is implying some sort of innocence in her

No signs that show the way back home → again this idea of unexplored, lacking a sense of direction, getting lost in something

When you get there you won't wanna go → because it was hard to find, feel at home once you get there, well embraced, a time to rest  

I’ve frozen all my desire → trying to stop a desire or put it on pause

Covered up in virgin snow → snow pure, virgin pure, is she the virgin snow? Or is it something else?

But when I stand beside her → trying to hold back implied by the “but” moving away from the previous lines

She burns yeah she burns → bruning melts snow, hard to cover up desires with snow when something near you is burning

Like petrol soaked paper and fireworks → soaked makes us think of wetness and usually something that is wet can’t burn however it is soaked in petrol which burns very quickly it also burns our very quickly

And I’m burning yeah I’m burning → she caught him on fire, they united  

I’m burning so deep that just breathing hurts → here i imagine being on fire, makes me think of death and losing ability to breath, that type of feeling is what he might be applying here

I’m melting darling, I can’t let go → melting i.e. losing form, to me this implies that he can't grasp anything but he is saying he can’t let go, so he has some form. How can he hold onto something if he is melting?

She likes to lay under the covers though → so she's not a virgin? Seems as though he is trying here to be a virgin, reminds me of St. Augustine

Pretending everywhere’s our home → takes us back to that first feeling of finding home, and not wanting to leave, now he gets that feeling everywhere with her

Keeps me warm right to my very soul → warmth seems to be good in relationship to the soul, no one wants a cold soul.

We get so tangled up it's hard to know → lost in the moment, seems to be implying they are having sex  

What is hers and what’s my own → a sense of unity, they are becoming one

Vines at the bottom of an olive grove → makes me think of wine, vine of life, olive grove roots are tangles, giving life to the. Furthermore a quick google search led me to the information that the tree of wisdom was an olive tree. And in several cultures the tradition says that the olive tree was gifted to the people of a land from the gods. It is the symbol of goddess Athena the goddess of beauty and Irena, the god of peace, daughter of Zeus and Themed, was always depicted with an olive branch in her hand.

I’ve frozen all my desire → freezing implies keeping them exactly how they are, not letting them change in state

Covered up in virgin snow → after he has frozen them he covers them

But when I stand beside her → but the shield that is the snow is at threat when she stands beside him

She burns yeah she burns → heat melts the snow and it will eventually melt something that is frozen as well, it's also not very gradually it is quick

Like petrol soaked paper and fireworks → fireworks are explosions taking us back to the very first line

And I’m burning yeah I’m burning → he is becoming her because now he is burning, and melting and she's still burning

I’m burning so deep that just breathing hurts → bruning to his soul, is what I think of here

I’m melting darling, I can’t let go → lots of repetition seems to be emphasizing this point

I’m melting darling, I can’t let go → I’m confused of how he can hold onto something when he is melting

I’m melting darling, I can’t let go → maybe he couldn't let go of what was before but now he is melting implying a separation from it? Not sure.

I’ve frozen all my desire → I believe this means he froze his sexual desires  

Covered up in virgin snow → before it seems he was trying to be a born again virgin or he was one

But when I stand beside her → but implies that the previous situation made aware to us in the previous line is about to change

She burns yeah she burns → so she melts the virgin snow

Like petrol soaked paper and fireworks → petrol is the british word for gasoline, so she burns fast like paper soaked in gasoline, then fireworks also implies temporary, they explode and then they are over

And I’m burning yeah I’m burning → seems to like that he is burning

I’m burning so deep that just breathing hurts → it hurts at the same time but the feeling runs deep, not just surface level, it is consuming him

I’m melting darling, I can’t let go → maybe this is not in sequential order

I’m melting darling, I can’t let go → melting is different from falling apart, it's warm and doesn't seem painful

I’m melting darling, I can’t let go → I think he can’t let go of the melting feeling

I’ve tried to figure out what this song means for awhile. I cannot decide if the meaning is that he is trying to be pure in light of her? Is she the virgin snow? Do they unite through the act of love? I’m not sure but the strange tensions of the song make me think it is about him giving into desire with someone who it is new to, someone pure. I think it emphasizes the beauty of innocence but the trouble of different or more experiences in a relationship i.e. when one person has united themselves with another and the other never has, what does it mean for the relationship?