Death Cab for Cutie - What Sarah Said

This song is incredibly depressing. There's no doubt about it.

Even though this song isn't the most difficult to understand, the song is still notable because of the amazing use of descriptors. Through the entire song, there's nothing the song writer tells us - we infer everything from the description he gives of the situation. We get such a vivid picture of the place he is describing.

Go ahead and take a read at the lyrics as you listen. By the end I guarantee that you'll have a mental image of something not-so-delicious.

And it came to me then
That every plan is a tiny prayer to Father Time
As I stared at my shoes in the ICU
That reeked of piss and 409
And I rationed my breaths as I said to myself
That I'd already taken too much today
As each descending peak on the LCD
Took you a little farther away from me
Away from me

Amongst the vending machines and year-old magazines
In a place where we only say goodbye
It stung like a violent wind that our memories depend
On a faulty camera in our minds
But I knew that you were a truth
I would rather lose than to have never lain beside at all
And I looked around at all the eyes on the ground
As the TV entertained itself

'Cause there's no comfort in the waiting room
Just nervous paces bracing for bad news
Then the nurse comes around and everyone lifts their head
But I'm thinking of what Sarah said
That love is watching someone die

So who's going to watch you die
So who's going to watch you die
So who's going to watch you die

Imogen Heap - Hide and Seek

This song is kind of like a Mirror of Erised in that everyone who hears it interprets it differently.

To me, the song is about being abandoned by someone who you love. "Crop circles in the carpet" are from furniture that was there but is now gone. "Oily marks appear on walls where pleasure moments hung before" - pictures that are no longer there.

"What'd you say?... That it's just what we need - you decided this" tells us that the loved one who left is the one who broke it off, and is now gone.

All in all, a very sad song. Very poetic and lyrical, however.

Where are we?
What the hell is going on?
The dust has only just begun to fall
Crop circles in the carpet
Sinking feeling

Spin me around again and rub my eyes
This can't be happening
When busy streets a mess with people
Would stop to hold their heads heavy

Hide and seek
Trains and sewing machines
All those years
They were here first

Oily marks appear on walls
Where pleasure moments hung before
The takeover, the sweeping insensitivity
Of this still life

Hide and seek
Trains and sewing machines
Blood and tears
They were here first

Mm what'cha say?
Mm, that you only meant well
Well of course you did

Mm what'cha say?
Mm that it's all for the best
Of course it is

Mm what'cha say?
Mm that it's just what we need
You decided this?

Mm what'cha say?
Mm what did you say?

Ransom notes keep falling out your mouth
Mid-sweet-talk newspaper word cutouts (paper word cutouts)
Speak no feeling; no, I don't believe you
You don't care a bit
You don't care a bit

Sources: SongMeanings