#flipturn

rodeo clown wip

background!

the song is swim between trees by flipturn. the album it's on is called burnout days, and it’s supposed to be about how life feels on tour, according to this interview. one of the band members wrote this song about their relationship with their partner. oh and i found a reddit thread discussing people’s interpretations of the song, so check that out if you want.

please take everything i say here with a grain of salt. i'm a random kid on tumblr talking about a song i like. with that being said, we'll proceed to the other thing (such a smooth transition. i know)

lyric by lyric!

betting on angel numbers

knowing that the clouds would cover

stormed in and stole my thunder

we still learned about each other

i know you like to sing

and i’d say i’m more of a hummer

the day i learned your tune, i knew

i’d never hum another

pretty much standard relationship stuff. storms, thunder, and cloud cover are all generally related, but i’m not sure if that means anything. according to first editing, storms could symbolize change and transformation. this would tie in nicely with the dragonfly thing mentioned later.

bungeed the jungle bummer

swam between the trees of summer

my love’s a dragonfly that paints her eyes in every color

”bungeed the jungle bummer” - bungee jumping? taking a leap of faith and trusting that everything will work out. blind optimism, like what’s discussed in the next section. the line about swimming between trees could imply that they made it out alright. according to thrive global, dragonflies symbolize transformation and adaptability. “my love’s a dragonfly” could be about the changing nature of their relationship, or their willingness to adapt to life’s circumstances. painting her eyes in every color could also be about optimism, because color = bright = happy.

self-care, not self-obsession

learned from your self-expression

wag my tail with aggression

dumb or happy? that’s the question

no idea what the first two lines mean. maybe they’re not supposed to be read too deep into by overzealous children on tumblr. ”wag my tail with aggression” sort of seems like a contradiction. wagging one’s tail usually means one is happy, and aggression =/= happiness ”dumb or happy? that’s the question” could be about blind optimism (credit to @/niitroglycerin for this interpretation. he’s so cool go follow him). this would support the theory about what painting one’s eyes in every color could mean.

all our friends are wednesday drinkers, makeshift shamans, overthinkers

if a problem starts to linger

point the way and suck the finger

not too sure about this one as well. there’s a tradition of getting really drunk on the wednesday before thanksgiving, so that could be what they mean by “wednesday drinkers”. shamans are spiritual advisors in some cultures. i actually looked up the thing about pointing the way and sucking the finger. it could be from a buddhist proverb that alan watts expanded upon in “the finger and the moon”. the proverb itself is “the doctrine is like a finger pointing at the moon, and one must take care not to mistake the finger for the moon”. no real idea what this means, but it could be something about getting too hung up on the rules of the religion rather than feeling any spiritual connection. and sucking the finger would mean taking comfort in all the rules and things while disregarding the actual purpose of practicing said religion and being unable to adapt to any changes because they weren’t explicitly stated in the rules. in this context, it doesn’t necessarily have to be about religion, although a spiritual interpretation would go with the shaman thing mentioned earlier. if there’s a problem, just apply the same overdone strategy again and again without innovating or addressing the root cause of the problem. slap a spider-man band-aid on a stab wound and call it a day. it’s like giving a starving person free food for one day. it helps for the time being, but it doesn’t do anything to solve the cause of the person’s food insecurity. their friends’ tired, stale mindset kind of contrasts with the more dynamic nature of the relationship, symbolized by the storms and dragonflies and whatnot

swinging our solution swords

made from steel we can't afford

i get pissed and say we're poor

then i get kissed, pulled to the floor

"swinging our solution swords" could tie into the thing about repeating the same tired strategies to solve problems without addressing the root cause "made from steel we can't afford". probably not about how capitalism fundamentally screws society over, especially young people who don't have the same resources/prices/idk man anything that older generations might have had (housing crisis, student debt, i know nothing about this so please take it with a massive grain of salt). it could be saying that they can't afford to keep using the same uncreative solutions over and over again or that their habits will eventually destroy them, but they're incapable of fixing them/doing anything different. so that might be where "i get pissed and say we're poor comes from" - being mad at this lack of solutions and their friends' inability to fix anything getting kissed and pulled to the floor could then serve as a distraction from being poor/from the fact that they can't fix anything. the solutions will only work for so long, and you'll be right back where you started eventually, so why not invest in something exciting to break the monotony? kiss someone, pray to a sheet of paper, drink away the rest of your burnout days. screw everything. it's all temporary and meaningless. why bother?

yes, you have me on my knees

yes, you can do what you please

'cause you bought into everything,

commercial as the cold foam cream

more relationship stuff! "commercial as the cold foam cream" - i saw a reddit comment that explained their interpretation of this line pretty well. cold foam cream is a pretty shallow, artificial thing. goes with the shallow, artificial lifestyle described above. like the people are only in the relationship to break up the monotony of the cycle they’re stuck in. they bought into each other’s performative depictions of what “real” love is supposed to look like, and now they’re stuck with each other. purely to fill a gap. entertainment for the rest of their burnout days /ref. kind of like what’s talked about in the song affection (my guy’s out here drawing parallels all over the place. buddhism to a between friends song. get a hobby). also similar mood to if it is and burnout days (they’re from the same album so kind of expected But Anyways)

all this time i can't believe

you're still coming home with me

my mind's a river draped with leaves

and you're still swimming through the trees

okay so you know how i said the relationship was purely shallow and performative? take that interpretation and set it on fire. it might've been at first, but now it's evolved into something both people care about. in a world where everything seems fake and stale ("cold foam cream", "solution swords"), this relationship could be the only real thing keeping them from slipping into madness. the last two lines could be about mental health stuff. if their partner's mind is draped with leaves and they're still swimming through the trees, the other person in the relationship could be taking the time to understand what's going on in the partner's head, not just trying to slap a tired solution on it like the rest of their friends. from there, the first two lines could be the person wondering how they're still together if this is the state of their mind. not that they're complaining. shaking their head in bewildered amusement like a grandfather on tv. does that make sense? my brain's kind of fried right now.

washing over you

every afternoon

in every monsoon

washing over you

more storm symbolism. i don't know what else to add here, or if it even means anything.

(after this, it's an instrumental, then "washing over you…” layered over “all our friends…” then, it ends with “all this time…” to “...swimming through the trees”, iirc because i'm too lazy to check)

conclusion!

Thank you for the mention @lovvvender, sorry I’m like a month late to this