Those three words/
Are said too much/
They’re not enough.

The mystery about this song is what the “chasing cars” lyric has to do with anything in the rest of the song. In the rest of the song Snow Patrol does a great job of expressing what the narrator is feeling. In “Chasing Cars”, the narrator contemplates his feelings while lying next to his love in a field or bed. He feels love for her, but feels saying “I love you” express too much; and too little. The song is about young love and the inability to express your feelings to another person. Love is ineffable.

There are so many lines in this song that are perfectly expressed, like the above, and:

All that I am/
All that I ever was/
Is here in your perfect eyes, they’re all I can see.

The girl clearly loves him too and he can tell by the way she looks at him. It makes him imagine his best self that he can see in her eyes. He imagines that laying here with her would be enough for him to satisfy him forever.

“Chasing Cars” has simple instrumentation with the standout being the two-note alternating guitar pattern that continues throughout the song. In order to add variety, light distortion is added to the guitar in later verses, and piano in others. I have always thought that the ending was appropriate. While not something that immediately jumps out at you, the song just stops. Kind of like the author is being snapped back to reality from his reverie.

Chasing Cars Lyrics

We’ll do it all
Everything
On our own

We don’t need
Anything
Or anyone

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

I don’t quite know
How to say
How I feel

Those three words
Are said too much
They’re not enough

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we’re told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that’s bursting into life

Let’s waste time
Chasing cars
Around our heads

I need your grace
To remind me
To find my own

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we’re told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that’s bursting into life

All that I am
All that I ever was
Is here in your perfect eyes, they’re all I can see

I don’t know where
Confused about how as well
Just know that these things will never change for us at all

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Songwriters: Natah Connolly / Gary Lightbody / Jonathan Quinn / Tom Simpson / Paul Wilson

Vows are spoken/
To be broken.

There is a common trope in movies where two lovers are in bed and usually the woman will say to the guy just stop talking and come here (and have sex with me). Hinting that more words are likely to seal the deal in the wrong direction. Why? Because sometimes words get in the way of communication.

This can also take place in a loving relationship with a significant other. There are several songs written about this. “Enjoy the Silence” riffs on that motif. Martin Gore is saying “as long as I am holding you, nothing else needs to be said. I have everything I want.” But he is also saying “don’t ruin a good thing by speaking.

Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence” is an 80s classic which means heavy on the synthesizer and drum machine. It works well with Depeche Mode’s somewhat unfeeling or monotonous vocal delivery. To be fair, the synthesizer is used much better here than in most songs. It is used as a supplementary instrument for the most part—except for the solo.

The use of the “choir” sound is especially good. The laser sounds are a bit over the top, but that was the time and place. Overall, the great melody holds together some of the idiosyncratic choices of production.

Lyrics Enjoy the Silence

Words like violence,
Break the silence.
Come crashing in
Into my little world.

Painful to me,
Pierce right through me.
Can’t you understand?
Oh my little girl.

All I ever wanted,
All I ever needed,
Is here in my arms.
Words are very unnecessary,
They can only do harm.

Vows are spoken
To be broken.
Feelings are intense,
Words are trivial.

Pleasures remain,
So does the pain.
Words are meaningless,
And forgettable.

All I ever wanted,
All I ever needed,
Is here in my arms.
Words are very unnecessary,
They can only do harm.

All I ever wanted,
All I ever needed,
Is here in my arms.
Words are very unnecessary,
They can only do harm.

All I ever wanted,
All I ever needed,
Is here in my arms.
Words are very unnecessary,
They can only do harm.

Songwriters: Martin Lee Gore

The look of love/
Is saying so much more than/
Just words could every say.

“The Love of Love” is another Burt Bacharach classic, this time sung by the amazing Dusty Springfield. Springfield might have the sexiest voice of all time and it is best demonstrated on this song. There are a couple other singers in the running, but this song is an amazing demonstration.

Notice the restraint with which she sings. No one does that like her.  She gets the proper credit she is due. Most would recognize five of her songs but only music geeks would recognize her name. She doesn’t have the name recognition of her peers like Aretha Franklin or maybe Patsy Cline.

This is a song as overtly about lust as you can imagine, and yet it was still a hit in pop music in the late 60s. Though, if you compare this to the rock of that period this is about on par. Nothing on the pop side was close to as sexual as this. Consider “Son of a Preacher Man”, or Warwick’s “Walk on By”. This song was released in the seminal year of 1967 too, but we usually don’t think of it as a big year for pop, but a big year for rock. There was a lot going on in music that year.

The Look of Love Lyrics

The look of love
Is in your eyes
A look your smile
Can’t disguise

The look of love
Is saying so much more than
Just words could every say
And what my heart has heard
Well it takes my breath away

I can hardly wait to hold you
Feel my arms around you
How long I have waited
Waited just to love you
Now that I have found you

You’ve got the look of love
Is on your face
A look that time can’t erase

Be mine, tonight
Let this be just the start of
So many nights like this
Let’s take a lovers vow
And seal it with a kiss

I can hardly wait to hold you
Feel my arms around you
How long I have waited
Waited just to love you
Now that I have found you

Don’t ever go
Don’t ever go
I love you so

I can hardly wait to hold you
Feel my arms around you
How long I have waited
Waited just to love you
Now that I have found you

Don’t ever go
Don’t ever go
Don’t ever go

Songwriters: Burt Bacharach / Hal David