If you still want me, please forgive me/
The crown of love is falling from me.

Arcade Fire’s “Crown of Love” is a conversation between a guy and a girl as their relationship is ending. The guy is clearly still in love and the girl is not. He understands intellectually that time will heal his wounds, but she is all he can think about and he finds himself crying in his room.

He tries explaining this to her…perhaps if she knows his feelings she will change her mind. However, she has lost that spark. She says “The crown of love has fallen from me”. She says if you really love me, forgive me and move on with your life.

The outro to “Crown of Love” is the best part. The song goes into double-time as the guy just keeps obsessively repeating (perhaps to himself): you’re the only one, there’s got to be a way. It sounds like he is kind of losing it.

I wonder if it would sound better if the girl’s lines were sung by one of the girls in the band, or if at least his lines were doubled with a female voice. It might help convey the meaning a little better; they experiment with this a bit, but they are not consistent with it. Conveying the meaning of a song isn’t everything, but I find that it is often rewarding to the listener when they understand what is being said.

Crown of Love 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 blowin’
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 the spark 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
Only word that I can say

No, no, no, no, no
No, no, no, no

Songwriters: Regine Chassagne / Richard R Parry / Tim Kingsbury / William Butler / Win Butler