This is relatively a short song, but one of my favorites on anthology.
This song to me is more than just literal windows, but also the idea of comparison. Walking on the street and noticing a couple and their interaction, seeing a coffee date across the room, witnessing new love all around you when you had recently lost yours. Not that it matters, but because the tone of this song is so gentle, I lean towards the fact that it is possible more related to her long term relationship ending.
Lyrical Analysis
I had died the tiniest death
I spied the catch in your breath
Out, out, out, out, out, out
You know when you ask someone a question, and they take a sigh or breath before answering… or they take a pause, a moment, before knowing what to say. To the one waiting for the response, it kills them just a little bit. Knowing they weren’t chosen.
North bound I got carried away
As you boarded your train
South, south, south, south, south, south
This also makes me think about England a bit- although we definitely have trains in New York – but the idea of separating in two physically different locations, but more important, emotionally as well.
A feather taken by the wind blowing
I’m afflicted by the not knowing so
A feather is affected by the most gentle and hardest gusts of winds. It’s unpredictable. When a love is given up on – the what if’s – will always be so loud.
I look in people’s windows
Transfixed by rose golden glows
They have their friends over to drink nice wine
I think everyone who has had a break up that they felt either abandoned by or jaded by can relate to this feeling. You look at other couple’s with ‘rose colored glasses,’ thinking everything is always better on the other side, when in reality every couple, family, situationship has issues. However, to the person in pain, it doesn’t matter – they are all warm, cozy, entertaining guests and having fun.
I look in people’s windows
In case you’re at their table
What if your eyes looked up and met mine
One more time
This feels very cinematic. I know we have seen this in a movie somewhere. Someone walking by a large window, gazes in and sees people sitting around a table. She spots the person she has been seeking at the table – sitting towards her. He slowly lifts his head and their eyes meet. Does he move towards her? Does he let her continuously walk by? But because its Rose Golden Glows – it isn’t real. If anything, it’s someone else.
You had stopped and tilted your head
I still ponder what it meant now, now
Now, now, now, now
I assume this is still during that last conversation that she is reflecting back. Honestly this is my favorite sets of line in the song. It feels so gentle and full of reflection. Like as she asked a question or made a remark, they tilted their head back as in ‘oh’ or sideways as in ‘oh?’ – you know what I mean? [lol]. She didn’t know what it meant then, or now.
I tried searching faces on streets
What are the chances you’d be downtown
Downtown, downtown
A lot of us have gone to places in hopes to see someone after the fact. Maybe they’ll be at that coffee shop, that party, that park that you knew they loved. Maybe you’ll get a glimpse of them to be able to have a conversation again. Maybe they’ll realize they made a mistake?
Does it feel alright to not know me?
I’m addicted to the ‘if only’
Please don’t ever become a stranger, who’s laugh I could recognize anywhere
So I look in people’s windows
Like I’m some deranged weirdo
I attend Christmas parties from outside
Even before this line, I almost could ONLY see this song happening in an area that feels cold. You can see the breath of the person outside, the glass is fogged up from the heat of their mouth, and there is snow gently falling around. But again, it also feels like this could be outside of the literal. It could be in a dream, or a daydream also. Thinking of the what if’s.
I look in people’s windows
In case you’re at their table
What if your eyes looked up and met mine
One more time
Visual Representation
I had to use my best friends window for this, lol, because my windows are all too modern, and I did think about a store front but that wouldn’t be very ‘cozy homey.’ However, I did feel like the lights needed to be warm or have some sort of christmas feel. I wanted to keep bodies out of my image, but in my mind, if I was a cinematic director I definitely would have a group of four people at a table, with someone sitting at the head of it, facing the window staring back.
But I wanted this to feel a bit dreamy and like it wasn’t a real scenario – So I wanted the light to feel a bit warm, dreamy, and to create this scenario of what if.
p.s. it was so cold.