Crown of Love
Now that you’re free of the neighborhood nest, why not try a pseudo-love song? “Pseudo” I said and that’s not accidental. “Crown of Love” have sounded so pop and stereotyped until I dug a little deeper in the lyrics. So far, I merely sang along with “If you still want me, please forgive me, the crown of love…”, unaware of the upcoming tragedy of “falling from me”. Funeral is an album of teen worries and youth passions, therefore our protagonist in this anthem is again a teenager dwelling in a haze of doubt and uncertainty, generated by a teen-crush and now vanishing away.
Teen-romance is mostly unified with restless and fast emotions towards an opponent that is again undecided and naïve. So it involves a diminutive amount of logic. Now that this romance is finally formed, the boy has his own brain malfunctions and regrets the whole thing. He had carved her name on his eyelids, so everything he used to see was her name. Now that it’s getting colder the boy is praying for blindness. This could be as simple as that if we were not involved with upcoming traumas on the song. There are elements that make the song a bit intricate once more. I guess this is a premise in all Arcade Fire songs. Let’s see!
We are all more or less familiar with teen era’s shameful habit. At least I am. And in fact it will never leave you alone. To cut a long story short, I’m talking about “masturbation”! Yeah, the good old jerking/jacking off or saying hello to your monster, whatever you like! There are two equal lines on the song that badly reminds us of that: “I snuffed it out before my mom walked in my bedroom.” and “I shrugged them off before my mom walked in my bedroom.” I honestly couldn’t relate them to anything more profound and besides, what’s really wrong with the safest way to satisfy yourself.
But “Crown of Love” can also be an ode to all the boy’s past and present lovers. That’s inducted from the lines “The only thing that you keep changin’ is your name, ” it’s just the same story that repeats over and over again. They all gradually become look alike. But it’s still vague to tell who’s dumping who. It’s not only a boy in grief and despair. Since the girl is not giving him a straight answer, too. Is there a pregnancy case involved? No, we’d better wipe that off our minds, we’re not here to make this more complicated. A straight answer can simply be a “yes/no” one around enduring the current situation.
I haven’t found a single Arcade Fire song that changes the tempo willy-nilly and “Crown of Love” is no exception. This time it’s the boy struggling with his own ego and making himself convince there has to been a loyal and complete match out there to offer true and mutual love. “You gotta be the one” triggers more confusions in his brain. But he’s too worn out and drained to stay faithful and in love.
