Annotations for Falling Away with You

Lyric: Watching the fantasies decay
 Nothing will ever stay the same
Annotation:
A lot of relationships do not stand the test of time, thus someone may think it as a decaying. But we need to accept that relationships evolve with time, and the last day is not like the first one when two people meet and passion arises between them.

Lyric: And I’ll feel my world crumbling
 I’ll feel my life crumbling
 I’ll feel my soul crumbling away
 And falling away
 Falling away with you
Annotation:
Memories may fade with time, trying to grasp past memories that are not in your memory anymore may feel like the ground crumbling under your feet. But the song points at the importance of accepting this process and get over it. It’s important also to keep close the other person in a relationship, because they experience the same feeling. Both will fall away with the crumbling ground, but they will still do it together.

Lyric: So I’ll love whatever you become
Annotation:
Even though the relationships is broken and he has nothing left to hold on to, he will love the person she becomes because he has nothing else.

Lyric: And all of the hopes we’ve cherished fade
Annotation:
A much softer line, it is multi-interpretable, since the relationship itself is barely described in the lyrics. So the ‘hopes’ here could mean they went through a rough patch hoping it would get better or refer to the hopes they shared at the start of the relationship. In any way, it is the only point in the lyrics that refers to some positive common ground (in contrast with love thrown away or left behind and reckless things they’ve done, which both hold negative connotations). The line also connects with “making the same mistakes again” which could mean that even the positive they shared was nothing but an mirage.

Lyric: And all of the love we threw away
Annotation:
This is your typical Matt-goes-all-out-destructive line, the type which is heavily featured on this album. The described relationship amounts to nothing in the end, in such a worse way that all the love that they shared feels like simply thrown away. Matt implies here that love is a finite resource, a view not held by all. It also describes the way he feels for the other. Instead of looking back on the relationship as a lesson in life (and love) or a decent memory, it’s just trash.

Lyric: Tasting the air you’re breathing in
 I know I won’t forget a thing
Annotation:
The narrator won’t forget anything about their partner, and everything they see or do reminds them of their relationship when it was still good. However, “I hope I won’t forget a thing” implies that they’re acceptant of this, that they want to cling to that and perhaps reignite it.

Lyric: Making the same mistakes again
 Making the same mistakes again
Annotation:
The love life feels like it’s going in a loop, and this is shown lyrically with the repetition of the line. They continue messing up in the same ways.

Lyric: Staying awake to chase a dream
Annotation:
The narrator expresses ambivalence here: he wants to dream about having a former relationship and simultaneously live in a world where this dream is a possibility while still not having his lover back. He wants to struggle to recreate and relive the memories of his past. This line is heavily reminiscent of the film  Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, with its themes of struggling to rebuild a past that has been intentionally forgotten.

Lyric: Watching the flashbacks intertwine
 Memories I will never find
Annotation:
Memories of a past relationship have a tendency to bleed into one another, making it hard to distinguish one event from another. The protagonist is losing both the memories of his former lover and why he loved her in the first place.

