A Narry Fact:
It took me quite a long time to write that one, but it's finally here! My interpretation of Flicker!
First, I'd like to cite Niall's words abut his work.
Niall: I wanted this album to be completely personal.
No doubt why...
Niall: It's written about one person. Most of it is. There's obviously songs that are not particularly about anything, just scenarios I've made up in my head or situations I've seen among my friends. But yeah, for the most part it's about that one person.
What caught my attention is 'one person', he didn't say a girl, we don't know whether it's a male or a female.
Niall: I live most of my life out the public eye. I try to keep as much of it shut as possible, because if you let it out, people start asking you loads of questions and it becomes uncomfortable. That's why I wrote the album I did - because I'm not the greatest talker in the terms of emotion. But I found that I'm good at writing it down on paper and putting it on the record. It's still a hard thing to do but I found it better to do it that way.
Out the public eye? I understand Niall, but how much is a person like him able to keep to himself? In the world of paparazzi and social media? I think that we would have seen him on the streets with his love. And has Niall had girlfriends and has it been actually a serious relationships? I don't think so. But he's been seen with Harry, lately we see this two together quite a lot, don't we?
In Harry's songs not once is mentioned communication, or actually absence of it. Niall may struggle with talking about his emotions and that partly might've been the cause of their breakup?
Niall: When people ask about what the song is about, basically they want to know who you're shagging.
Quite a nice words you used here. But being honest, that's the truth.
1. On The Loose
I think we all can agree that this is a story Niall made up or at least it isn't about him personally so I won't say much about it. Quite coincidental it just started playing at the moment.
2. This Town
CHAPTER 130 >>> my interpretation of This Town
Niall about This Town:
"Niall says that he always writes the melody first, and the lyrics come later. But for "This Town," he had the title planned for a while – a sign that it's certainly close to his heart.
Niall: A lot of people can relate to it, because it's such a relatable song. If you come from a small town, you get that straight away. Every time you go home...it's like, there's the girl that you fell for when you were 12. It's a real-life honest story.
We know that Niall after releasing This Town wasn't as open as he is now and he feared talking about his emotions and relationships. And I don't blame him for it. But I think that he might've mean something or someone else. What happened in Mullingar 2010?
This Town is the first song Niall's written solo and it was, in my opinion, not too long after the breakup and it describes the feeling of loneliness and emptiness shortly after losing love efficiently.
3. Seeing Blind
All Niall shared with us about that song is just the way he produced it and how he found Maren so there isn't much we can tell about what inspired him.
I think that the narrator tells us about how he knew love only from books, movies, but he's never experienced it before. But now, someone who falls in love with him shows up out of blue and, I can say, turns his life upside down.
"I have seen, I've seen it all in paper dreams / I watched it unfold on the screen / But I never understood"
"I was young, my heart was always on the run / But you make lovin' fun I never knew it could be"
"Feels too good to be true / I found my missing piece"
"You're too good to be all mine"
This are my favorite quotes from the song and to me it just describes that stage shortly after falling in love, when you're head over heels for someone, and you're just blindly in love with them.
4. Slow Hands
Niall: The whole song was pretty off-the-cuff. I wanted it to be a little bit cheeky with the lyric. We wrote this concept about being in the bar. The first line of the song is 'We should take this back to my place' -- usually that's what the guy would say, but we flipped it that the girl would say that, and that's what she said right to my face. With the song, before we even wrote lyrics, we had this big track and it sounded quite sexy. So we thought that this concept would match the vibe of the song, and I think we might have been right.
A story Niall made up? And come on, we all know Niall isn't as innocent as we all thought he was. I just wonder if he was writing a certain parts of the song from his experience.
Like:
"No, no chance that I'm leaving here without you on me / I, I know / Yeah I already know there ain't no stopping"
"Wanna be with you all alone"
"'Cause I want you bad / Yeah, I want you baby"
5. Too Much To Ask
CHAPTER 126 >>> my interpretation of Too Much To Ask
I don't know about you, but this song kind of gives me the same feels as This Town. It's obviously the same story, story about that one person for Niall. It's all just heartbreak and hope to start it all over again; there are things Niall regrets and as he sings - he ain't over that person yet.
6. Paper Houses
This songs has one of the most beautiful lyric I've ever heard, I don't know what, but something just makes Paper Houses so special to me.
For me it's like narrator feels that breakup is unpreventable, their love isn't like it used to be, it isn't what they were expecting it to be and they're literally falling apart.
"And yes, we tried to hold on tight / 'Cause we knew our love was hard to find"
"And our paper houses reach the stars / Till we break and scatter worlds apart / Yeah, I paid the price and own the scars / Why did we climb and fall so far"
"So turn your face and let us go / I'll learn to breathe on my own"
"I don't wanna lose your touch / I don't wanna hurt this much / I can feel you slipping away"
It was hard to choose my favorite, but my absolute number 1 are the last lyric. It's really heartbreaking - that moment when you know you can't prevent it, that this is happening and you're already hurting and missing that person and there's nothing you can do to get that someone back...
7. Since We're Alone
There are 2 things that came to my mind when I heard this song: 1) since we're alone - as they are no longer together, they went their separate ways; 2) and since we're alone - as just the two of them, finally together, out of public eye (meaning paparazzi and all).
I think it might be even the complication of it both. Like the two is after a breakup, but they're seeing each other again, trying to fix things and start all over again, but something is bothering one of them and he(/she) doesn't want to open up and talk about it. And in the chorus there's that promise of not breaking one's heart...
I'm sorry if that doesn't make sense, I don't even understand myself.
"I don't know what made you so afraid / Don't you know you got the best of me? / Yeah, you're everything I want"
"Anyone can see you're hiding / You can talk to me, it's more than skin deep, I'm trying"
"Since we're alone, yeah you can show me your heart / If you put it all in my hand, no I swear no I won't break it apart / Since we're alone, show me all that you are / And if you get lost in the light it's okay, I can see in the dark"
"All your thoughts running through your head / Things you think better left unsaid"
8. Flicker
Niall: For me personally, the title track 'Flicker' is the most important track I ever wrote.
It explains everything.
Niall: I'm very excited about one song in particular. Best song I've ever written, I think. The most beautiful and the most precious and delicate song I've ever written. I wrote it on a day when I wasn't really trying to write. I was just sitting at home, watching TV and I just picked up a guitar, put the recorder of my phone on my knee and just started playing. I started singing lyrics that were an idea that I had. It's my favorite song that I've ever written.
Niall: We were recording my favorite song on the album, which is quite an emotional one. On these songs, 30-40-year-old men who go to the studio every day and play on everyone else's music and they don't really have to care about any of the songs they actually do. It's just their day job is to go and play. Well, one time I was recording my favorite song and I was sitting down at the booth and I was playing the guitar and I played along with the band. And it's quite an emotional song. After two takes of the song, the producer just came into our ears and said, 'Okay, we need to go and take a break now. Everyone's getting a bit emotional.' So we all walked outside and nobody spoke a sentence for twenty minutes. It was very emotional. Everyone was taken aback by what had just happened. I think that was quite a poignant moment in the making of the album because I was waiting for an emotional wrecking ball to come in like that and I think it did.
It was just so beautiful that I had to put it here.
Niall: It's probably the song that means the most to me lyrically.
Shall I continue?
But honestly, there isn't much to say about Flicker, my words won't convey the magic of this song so I suggest you just go, listen to it, close your eyes and try not to cry.
It's like that dark time in the relationship, when everything is falling apart and you've got no control over it, so you can just watch and pray it won't end. That beautiful beginning is only a memory - love shared between the two is just a memory, a dream... and there's only a flicker of hope that the both is going to be strong enough to get through this, that they won't let their love die off completely.
I really can't describe it, I think that the songs means different things to every single one of us, so I'm just going to put the lyric here.
"When you feel your loves been taken / When you know there's something missing / In the dark, we're barely hanging on / Then you rest your head up on my chest / And you feel like there ain't nothing left / I'm afraid that what we had is gone"
"Then I think of the start / And it echoes a spark / And I remember the magic electricity / Then I look in my heart / There's a light in the dark / Still a flicker of hope that you first gave to me / That I wanna keep, please don't leave / Please don't leave"
"When you lay there and you're sleeping / Hear the patterns of your breathing / And I tell you things you've never heard before / Asking questions to the ceiling / Never knowing what you're thinking / I'm afraid that what we had is gone"
"Then I think of the start / And it echoes a spark / And I remember the magic electricity / Then I look in my heart / There's a light in the dark / Still a flicker of hope that you first gave to me / That I wanna keep, please don't leave / Please don't leave"
"I want this to pass / And I hope this won't last, last too long"
"Then I think of the start / And it echoes a spark / And I remember the magic electricity / Then I look in my heart / There's a light in the dark / Still a flicker of hope that you first gave to me / That I wanna keep, please don't leave / Please don't leave"
9. Fire Away
It's telling us the story a bit similar to the Flicker one, but it's definitely happening earlier. It's just the beginning of that hard road (I had to) for the two. And it's clear that communication is that Achilles' heel in their relationship. Narrator's lover is obviously hurting here and probably hiding something from their partner and narrator wants to encourage him (I can't say her, okay?!) to speaking.
"You keep saying that you're alright / But I can see it through your fake smile / You're not"
"Darlin' you don't have to hold it / You don't have to be afraid / You can go ahead and unload it / 'Cause you know it'll be okay / Fire away"
"You might be lost, but I ain't losing you"
"And I will steady your hand / When you're losing your grip / And even if I don't understand / You can talk to me"
10. You And Me
It's like Fire Away with a promise that they both will be fine, that they will make it together?
"I don't know where it starts, but it ends with you and me / It's a hard road as far as I can see / I don't know where I'm going, but I get back to you and me"
"Times never been on our side so won't you wait for me / I lead a selfish life because that's what I need / What do I have to do to make you believe? / It's all for you and me"
"From a distance, I can hear you cry"
11. On My Own
So Niall once said that it was very selfish song that he wrote when he was hungover (at least that's what I remembered).
I think he might've been drinking away his worries and then (maybe he was a bit upset) just decided to be selfish and write that song to show everyone how happy he is on his own (which we know he is not).
"Everybody's got somebody / I just wanna be alone"
And yeah that's basically the theme of the song and now time for the best lyric of the year that inspired me to propose to my bed (I might be happily cuddling with my bed rn).
"I'll wake up at midday and marry my bed"
12. Mirrors
Niall: I had this idea. Obviously you see a lot of stuff online, and I know girls in general. I was in Pret and I was just looking down at my phone. Then I see this girl over in the corner who looked a little - this probably me assuming. It just sparked something in my head. She looked a little bit upset or whatever. She was kind of on her own, looked a little but lonely, and then the waiter came over and just really made her laugh out loud. For some reason, her laugh made me look over and then I just wrote that down on my phone and picked the story up a few days later. Sometimes the songs are personal, and sometimes they come from imagination and stuff."
It may be inspired by a girl, but it isn't only about her or even about women in general, it's about every single one of us - about everyone. We all want to be loved and told we're beautiful. It's a song that everyone can relate to. (I can even relate to the part 'her coffees cold' right now.)
"I need love to hold me closer in the night"
Yes, that's what I want and I got it thanks to my loving bed (yeah, I'm crazy and On My Own, to not swear, messed me up).
13. The Tide
I don't know, but whenever I hear The Tide I imagine One Direction talking about going on hiatus.
"Crying in a crowded bar" >>> "In the pub that we met he's got his arms around you, it's so hard"
I'm exhausted, but I want to finish this today. So... the tide for me equals the end, something is about to end and narrator begs for it not to end here, for that tide not to separate them.
"Every time we get this close / It's always pulling us apart"
"Don't let the tide come and wash us away / Don't let the tide come and take me / I just want a safe place to hide us away"
"Oh no, get ready / I feel it coming, it's coming again / Don't give up, don't let me / 'Cause I'm needing you to understand"
"When I go, all I ever seem to fear / Is that you're gonna find someone / And slowly watch me disappear"
"No I don't want it, don't want it to end"
Okay, we're here and I just want to quickly sum everything up, I don't know if you noticed, but I hasn't said anything about Harry... yet. I didn't want to make any assumptions, I just wanted to interpret and leave it to you for further consideration. But since it's in this story, we all know I'm going to say that Flicker is about Narry. It's just my opinion, I have the right to say it out loud. What's true only Niall and his mysterious lover knows.
But Niall never said anything about any girl, whether it was in his songs or interviews, it was (in songs) always you or (in interviews) that one person. But I'd take a close look at songs; in personal ones there's always 'you' while the stories Niall made up (like On The Loose or Mirrors) here we can see 'she'. Isn't that a bit suspicious or am I just being delusional?
And The Tide, by meaning One Direction going on hiatus I imagine all boys in tears, Niall's blue eyes looking straight into that green irises and saying "Do you really want this to end? Do you want to separate us? I don't want us to be over."
So that'd be it. What do you think? I hope you didn't fall asleep in between because it was so boring.
Anyway, I'll try to write interpretation of Harry's album soon.
Love,
Jade