Welcome to Sober Studies, a more sedated and analytical review of certain essential songs that tend to define their respective albums. This is where I—contrary to the theme of this blog—listen to songs sober and, instead of discussing the artistic effect of melody, I focus more on dissecting the individual aspects that compose the track’s underlying connotation (lyrics, structure, composition, etc.). For each song, I’ll try my best to analyze and highlight the artist’s intentions, as well as summarize popular theories of interpretation from various sources around the web. Basically, this is my excuse to ramble on about a song I’m deeply passionate about for an extended period of time and perhaps even go into broader philosophical and abstract viewpoints—who knows. So, let’s dive right into an in-depth analysis of our first track: “Crown of Love” by Arcade Fire.

Released September 14th, 2004

The track “Crown of Love” is part of the masterwork debut album of Arcade Fire labeled Funeral and stands as one of the earliest examples of their ability to produce progressive dramatic builds while retaining a deep sense of lament. It’s one of the more emotional songs in the album that feature heartbroken lyrics through lead singer Win Butler, who serves as the woeful narrator. Win has said that the purpose of their album Funeral was to pay tribute to three deaths of close family members that occurred during the recording of the album. Funeral as a whole portrays the powerful distant pain that can follow after the death of a loved one—yet it also represents an idea of renewal and maturity as the band’s central members are slowly learning how to cope and move on. Four of the first five tracks in this album feature the concept of “Neighborhood” as Win reflects on the reminiscence of their faraway childhood. The compelling song “Crown of Love” brushes on the subject of lingered grief from a heartbreak that can perhaps be tied to “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)”, where Win opens with the discreet scene of his escape from his room to meet his girlfriend in the town square; there, they naively plan on a future that correlates with the theme of “escapism”. “Crown of Love” can be seen as some sort of sequel, as Win is expressing the lovesick guilt and psychological misery that corresponds with a breakup of unrequited love.

The slow serenade of Crown of Love promptly leads with the line:

[Verse 1]

They say it fades if you let it,

Love was made to forget it.

Right away, we find that Win is referencing a relationship that had just ended. He’s characterizing people (i.e. his mom) in his life that have told him “love was made to forget”—those that try to ease his heartache. They tell him that love moves on and that he’ll find another.

I carved your name across my eyelids

Win, however, feels that he’ll never find another girl that he loves as much as this one. He’s already “carved” her name, permanently, in his eyelids and is unable to “see” anyone else with similar affection. Every time Win closes his eyes, all he sees is her. This reflects on the the complexity of love, and how very often it occurs that you don’t love someone but instead the idea of them. The Nature of love (Eros, Philia, and Agape) argue that often love is conceptually irrational and that love is “an injection of emotion that defy rational examination” that lay on desires. This plays somewhat into Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night Dream, where the concepts of love and irrationality are explored through Theseus and Hippolyta. In this play, Shakespeare argues that irrationality cannot be ignored since it answers only to natural forces that go beyond our control. All Win can do is allow irrationality to persist.

You pray for rain I pray for blindness

Win loves her, even if their relationship is deteriorating and he understands that it isn’t rational to pursue; he prays for “blindness” to erase the carving from his eyelids. The nature of irrational love has taken him over and he’s beginning to feel hopelessness of his position. The girl, however, feels that she herself can move on easily, as she instead prays for rain to wash the stains of their love away. There’s nothing permanent that’s constricting her from moving on.

[Chorus 1]

If you still want me, please forgive me

The crown of love has fallen from me

If you still want me, please forgive me

Because the spark is not within me

Here’s where the track can leave some to misinterpretation. These are actually words from the girl—her “straight answer” (Verse 2, line 5). The girl confesses that “the crown of love has fallen from her”—that she doesn’t love him anymore—and asks for forgiveness. Simply, the “spark” that had once been potent has crumbled, like the “crown” which has languished and fallen from her head.

[Verse 2]

I snuffed it out before my mom walked in my bedroom

The only thing that you keep changing

Is your name, my love keeps growing

Still the same, just like a cancer,

And you won’t give me a straight answer!

These few lines may also be misleading since the listener isn’t informed that it was the girl speaking in the previous lines. However, it can be seen as an ingenious rhetorical device by Win, as he’s describing that he “snuffed it out” and hid his feelings from his mom, the same way he’s hidden them from the listeners by misleading them. Win thinks back to the days of their relationship where his love “keeps growing” while hers stagnated “live a cancer”—painful and slowly killing him. She couldn’t decide whether she loved him or not, hence the change of “name”. Win is growing impatient and asks for her “straight answer” as to whether she loves him or not.

[Verse 3]

I shrugged them off before my mom walked in my bedroom.

The pains of love, and they keep growin’,

In my heart there’s flowers growin’

On the grave of our old love,

Since you gave me a straight answer.

Verse 3 finally reveals that the chorus is actually the girl’s “straight answer”. We are given that his love continued to grow long after her love was dead—like “flowers growing on the grave”. Even so, Win might be reflecting on these memories with a hint of happiness, rather than grief. The “flowers” illustrate that his unrequited love wasn’t necessarily all bad, and that perhaps he had grown emotionally from the pain after all these years. Pain, grief, sorrow—these are signals that can cause a realization to turn inwards and change: all factors of growth. After all the years, maybe the psychological despair has resulted in him becoming a better person. With this simple line, Win is stating that we should embrace the pain of heartbreak, even if the song’s overall theme and message seems contrary.

The girl’s straight answer:

[Chorus 1]

If you still want me, please forgive me,

The crown of love is not upon me

If you still want me, please forgive me,

Cause this crown is not within me.

It’s not within me, it’s not within me.

[Outro]

You gotta be the one,

You gotta be the way,

Your name is the only word that I can say

In the outro, Win remains convinced that the girl is the only one he’d ever love and that he would never get over her, however the explosion of the track’s crescendo ending suggests otherwise. Did Win eventually move on? Has the Crown of Love finally fallen from him? Considering that he started the band Arcade Fire with his wife Regine Chassagne, this could be a real possibility. Perhaps the theme of this song isn’t about one girl, but about our general tendencies to fall in love with those we’re unlikely to be happy with. Sometimes we fall in love for reasons we can’t seem to understand, and for those that are the most incompatible for us. One of the main themes of the song is that the nature of love is irrational. So long as we’re unable to move on—to allow the Crown of Love to fall—we’re left with the “pains of love” that can’t easily be washed away. And maybe sometimes it’s best to embrace that pain rather than to fight it, even if it can feel like it’s slowly killing you on the inside—like cancer.

Here’s a personal story that I didn’t think I would share today: back in high school I, like many of you, fell deeply in love (or what I thought was love) with an individual. I knew that we weren’t meant for each other, yet I still held a deep and painful unrequited love for her. I wanted badly to wash this love away—to ease the pain, however dopey that may sound—but it was permanent. This love—although it caused many things to deteriorate—made me become a better version of myself. Because of this agonizing love, I did everything I could to impress this girl. I took better care of my body and became a better student. It was her dream to go to study at a top institution in the U.S (someplace I hadn’t even heard of before at the time), so I stupidly thought that if I could get into this school with her, we could be together. Unrequited love, irrational love—these things do crazy things to you, especially if you’re a developing teenager, and I remember the many nights I stayed up studying for exams I wouldn’t have cared about otherwise. Things didn’t work out with this girl. She got a boyfriend, and we drifted apart. It made me realize that, if you embrace it, the torment and pain of love can be positive, similar to how Win Butler emanates positivity in one of Funeral’s darkest tracks. Although the Crown had fallen from me long ago, I often wonder of where my life would be if it had never been perched tightly upon my head. She never got into her dream school, yet here I am—spending a morning writing about unrequited love at Columbia.

Full Lyrics

They say it fades if you let it,

Love was made to forget it.

I carved your name across my eyelids,

You pray for rain I pray for blindness.



If you still want me, please forgive me,

The crown of love has fallen from me.

If you still want me, please forgive me,

Because the spark is not within me.



I snuffed it out before my mom walked in my bedroom.



The only thing that you keep changin’

Is your name, my love keeps growin’

Still the same, just like a cancer,

And you won’t give me a straight answer!



If you still want me, please forgive me,

The crown of love has fallen from me.

If you still want me please forgive me

Because your hands are not upon me.



I shrugged them off before my mom walked in my bedroom.



The pains of love, and they keep growin’,

In my heart there’s flowers growin’

On the grave of our old love,

Since you gave me a straight answer.



If you still want me, please forgive me,

The crown of love is not upon me

If you still want me, please forgive me,

Cause this crown is not within me.

It’s not within me, it’s not within me.



You gotta be the one,

You gotta be the way,

Your name is the only word that I can say



You gotta be the one,

You gotta be the way,

Your name is the only word,

The only word that I can say!







This entire blog is being run anonymously by me for no monetary purpose—instead, I hope to spread my passion for music and philosophy in ways that are healthy and stress-relieving. Along the way, I’m wishing that I can inspire some of you to listen to some of the brilliant pieces that have define parts of my life, as well as help you to listen to music in a newer and more introspective way. If you’re enjoying the content, please consider following for daily posts and contacting me with your own philosophical music viewpoints and theories.