Category Archives: 2000s songs

The top 500 songs from the 2000s. Lyrics, interpretations and meanings from your favorite bands. Coldplay, Christina Perri, Christina Aguilera, Death Cab for Cutie, Greenday, Arcade Fire, and all your favorite bands from the 2000s ranked.

Turpentine- Brandi Carlile

These days we go to waste like wine/
That’s turned to turpentine…

In Brandi Carlile’s “Turpentine”, the narrator is looking at childhood photographs and reminiscing about how things used to be better—specifically between her and a sibling. The memories brought about from the pictures are bittersweet; she sees how close and happy they were back then. How have things turned so wrong? Their relationship is not completely irreparable, but it is getting there.

She says she’d like to make amends as they are both getting older. Time is running out–and perhaps her patience is too.


Carlile describes their relationship “like wine that’s turned to turpentine”. Wine is great and useful; and if properly cared for it has many uses that can bring happiness. If left unattended it turns to a less precious material: turpentine, a varnish. There are cheaper ways to varnish your floors than by letting your good wine ruin.
She is asking that her sibling let her in—so that they can be close like they once were.

Turpentine Meaning
Brandi Carlile

Carlile and the band sound great. The sound is a mixture of folk and modern country music that most music lovers will adore. She sings the song sadly and at times exasperated. Shouldn’t it be easy to get on with your siblings? Sometimes it’s not, and we can hear the frustration in her voice.

If you like this song, check out her version of “The Chain” that she performs in The Highwomen. Also, “Ghost” by the Indigo Girls is a song that sounds like it influenced Carlile’s sound.

Turpentine Lyrics

I watch you grow away from me in photographs,
And memories like spies;
And salt betrays my eyes again.
I started losing sleep and gaining weight,
And wishing I was was ten again,
So I could be your friend again.

These days we go to waste like wine,
That’s turned to turpentine.
It’s six AM and I’m all messed up,
I didn’t mean to waste your time.
So I’ll fall back in line,
But I’m warning you we’re growing up.

I heard you found some pretty words to say,
You found your little game to play,
And there’s no one allowed in.
Then just when we believe we could be great,
Reality it permeates,
And conquers from within again.

These days we go to waste like wine,
That’s turned to turpentine.
It’s six a.m and I’m all messed up,
I didn’t mean to waste your time.
So I’ll fall back in line,
But I’m warning you we’re growing up.

We’re OK I know we’re OK.
These days we go to waste like wine,
That’s turned to turpentine,
It’s six AM and I’m all messed up.
I didn’t mean to waste your time,
So I’ll fall back in line,
But I’m warning you we’re growing up.

Source: Thegreatestsongs.com
Songwriters: Brandi M. Carlile

Lovin’s For Fools- Sarah Siskind

You’ll never know dear/
How much I love you.

“Lovin’s For Fools” by Sarah Siskind has this unique quality that I have only experienced with a few other songs. I get the feeling that “this song has to be a cover because I swear I’ve heard it before”. It’s a type of Déjà vu. Paul McCartney described that he had difficulty completing Yesterday because he was certain that that melody must already have been written already. I get that feeling with Siskind’s Lovin’s For Fools—“I must have heard this before”. A couple other songs I experienced this with is Sea of Love and The Pretender’s I’ll Stand By You. It speaks to a song’s timeless quality.

Sarah Siskind
Sarah Siskind

“Lovin’s For Fools” tells the story of a woman who is experiencing her home for the first time without her ex in it. They built the house together, but he left her for someone else. All her memories of this place contain memories of him. This is a fresh start for her, and it is bittersweet. She recognizes that things were not working between them, however, once there was a strong love. Who would put themselves in the position to feel this pain? Only fools.

Lovin's For Fools
Siskind

Siskind’s voice trembles slightly as she sings. Her voice very clearly betrays her feelings of hurt and confusion. She could have very easily belted out this song and made it sound more ‘pretty’: that would have been the wrong choice. This song is a country song: it has an acoustic guitar with a piano for background with a perfect amount of slide guitar. (Most songs that use slide guitar use way too much). I believe it would sound equally good with just an acoustic guitar and I would love to see her solo acoustic.

Lovin’s For Fools Lyrics

Crazy how I feel
Living without you
Inside this house that we built.
Seems like the window’s
Finally open
Letting the memories out.

Go on and love her,
Love her forever
I will not tell her
You told me too
You’ll never know dear
How much I love you.
Lovin’s for fools
Lovin’s for fools

Maybe you’ll find me
walking in the garden
Looking for something pure
Roots that are growing
deeper and deeper,
maybe you’ll pull them too.

Well go on and leave here
Leave here forever
No one can make you
Do what you do
You’ll never know dear
How much I love you
Lovin’s for fools
Lovin’s for fools

Written by Sarah Siskind

Maps- Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Oh say/
Wait, they don’t love you like I love you…

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs “Maps” is a song about a couple that is separating–it seems the woman is leaving town due to work obligations. The couples’ love is new. They are in that in-between stage: where they are not ready to commit to each other long-term, but not ready to just dismiss each-other as a fling. This parting will bring the narrator great pain: She has fallen for him.

She wants him to ask her to stay so that she can answer “yes”, and they can be together. Or perhaps he could come along. But, for whatever reason, these simple solutions do not appear to be options to her—though they seem obvious to us. Could they not have an adult conversation about the future? She already knows she want to be with him.

Perhaps they are young. Perhaps she is afraid of rejection. Perhaps they have had the conversation, and she feels stronger about him than he does about her. We don’t know.

Maps Meaning
Karen O.

The most interesting lyric is the one featured above, where the narrator explains that she wishes her lover to say, “Wait, they don’t love you like I love you”. This seems to be implying that the professional obligation could be a music tour and the song is autobiographical. This adds a level of intrigue to the song. Songs that are personal and describe experiences unique to that person tend to connect more emotionally with the audience.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have a unique sound because they are not a traditional “three-piece rock band”. In a traditional three-piece band, you have a guitar player, a bass player and a drummer. (Think Green Day, The James Gang, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Police, Cream, Nirvana, etc.)

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have Karen O on vocals, a guitarist and drummer. So, their sound is a little thinner (the studio version adds a bass in the chorus). They are more of a two-piece band. Also, Karen’s voice is extremely unique and she delivers a memorable, emotional vocal.

Maps Lyrics

Pack up,
I’m straight.
Enough.

Oh say, say, say.
Oh say, say, say.
Oh say, say, say.
Oh say, say, say.
Oh say, say, say.

Wait, they don’t love you like I love you.
Wait, they don’t love you like I love you.
Maps,
Wait, they don’t love you like I love you.

Made off,
Don’t stray.
Well, my kind’s your kind.
I’ll stay the same.
Pack up,
Don’t stray.

Oh say, say, say.
Oh say, say, say.

Wait, they don’t love you like I love you.
Wait, they don’t love you like I love you.
Maps,
Wait, they don’t love you like I love you.

Wait, they don’t love you like I love you.
Maps,
Wait, they don’t love you like I love you.

Wait, they don’t love you like I love you.
Wait, they don’t love you like I love you.
Maps,
Wait, they don’t love you like I love you.

Wait, they don’t love you like I love you.
Maps,
Wait, they don’t love you like I love you.

Songwriters: Brian Chase / Karen Lee Orzolek / Nicholas Joseph Zinner