Annotations for Sing for Absolution

Lyric: Our wrongs remain unrectified
 And our souls won’t be exhumed
Annotation:
These lines have an afterlife theme to it, suggesting that the singer is also dead or dying – perhaps he’s committed suicide and is singing this song as he lays dying.  He may be killing himself to escape worldly punishment or escape from his own overwhelming feelings of guilt, but he is tormented by the thought that he dies carrying the burden of his sin. This theory would be supported if you interpret  the truth burns deep inside / and will never die as a comparison between his and her worldly bodies which are dead/dying, and  the truth which will survive bodily death.  It’s possible that no suicide is involved, and that he’s simply referring to his belief that he’s committed a mortal sin that he will bear forever. The suicide theory seems more likely though; the resigned way in which he says that there is no salvation for him suggests he has just reached a point of no return – he will never get the chance to pay for his sins because his own life is over.

Lyric: [Outro]
Annotation:
In the two final climactic lines, the story has developed. Whereas his earlier reflections on guilt and sin referred only to himself, now it encompasses his dead beloved as well.  He’s begun projecting his own feelings of guilt onto her in a desperate attempt to connect with her at some level, and this was likely triggered by something new happening.

Lyric: The truth burns deep inside and will never die
Annotation:
The singer never explains whether his guilt is over his forbidden desire for the person when she was alive, or over murdering her, or over his possible necrophilic desires. The  truth that  burns deep inside could be any of those possibilities. The phrasing is also ambiguous – maybe he’s pointing out that no one knows this truth but him (an emphasis on  deep inside), or he’s pointing out that the truth hurts him (an emphasis on  burns).

Lyric: There’s nowhere left to hide
 In no one to confide
Annotation:
There are two alternate theories. The first is that those lines mean the authorities are hunting him down for his crime, and he literally has nowhere to run to.  The second, is that he’s saying that he has repressed his desire to love or kill her for a long time because he knows it’s wrong, but he’s reaching the point where his obsession overtakes his rationality and he loses control. There was also nobody he could talk to, meaning nobody to rescue him as his psychological state deteriorated.

Lyric: Sing for absolution
 I will be singing
 And falling from your grace, ooh
Annotation:
The hook expresses his guilt – he knows he has wronged her. Exactly what he feels guilty about is left unstated.  The obvious answer would be that he feels guilty about killing her, although it’s not unimaginable that he feels guilty about loving her (if his love for her was socially forbidden), and wanted to solve this  problem by killing her instead.  Also, in his troubled mind he has projected her into something more than a normal human. The religious language used suggests that he almost worships her, and has mentally transformed her into something angelic, as if he were praying to a God.

Lyric: Tiptoe to your room (Tiptoe to your room)
 A starlight in the gloom (A starlight in the gloom)
Annotation:
This is indicative of someone stuck in the past. The room could be the room of the person who has passed away, and “a starlight in the gloom” could be the starlight shining in through a window of the empty room where the singer’s love once slept. Also, check out the lyrics of  “Starlight” from Black Holes and Revelations. Seems to be some overlapping themes.

Lyric: I only dream of you (I only dream of you)
 And you never knew (And you never knew)
Annotation:
More background information is revealed: there’s never been in any form of romantic relationship between the two of them, and she was never even aware that he had feelings for her. Maybe he was too shy to approach her or there was some social barrier preventing him from approaching her (she is already in a relationship, she is a child, etc).

Lyric: A kiss that can’t renew
 I only dream of you, my beautiful
Annotation:
The singer desires her and can’t fully come to terms with that fact that she is dead – he kisses her dead lips and mourns that it doesn’t awaken her, the line is a reference to fairytales where the  prince kisses the sleeping princess and she awakens from her magic slumber.  The repetition of  I only dream of you throughout the song reinforces his obsession for her. His desire also entails a certain degree of possessiveness about her – he refers to her as  my beautiful. The possessiveness/jealousy is likely what is driving him to kill her – he sees her as an object of desire that he will do anything to get hold of, even if it means murdering her.

Lyric: Lips are turning blue
Annotation:
The song opens by describing someone who is dead, likely from some form of  asphyxia. The muffled, distorted singing (admittedly a technique Muse uses in a lot of their songs) sounds suffocating, and the third drumbeat in each bar sounds a little like a sudden halt in the music, as if someone’s stopping breathing.  Interestingly, the previous track in the album, “ Time is Running Out”, also mentions asphyxiation and similar themes as well (“I think I’m drowning, asphyxiating”; “I won’t let you smother it”; “you will squeeze the life out of me”).

