Song interpretation.

Like tears in rain
*WARNING: spoiler for the movie Blade runner.*

The song is from a Swedish band called Covenant. I wasn't aware that hey were Swedes before I looked them up on wikipedia, for the reason of writing this. The band formed in 1986 and is still active today according to wikipedia. I've heard a few good songs of theirs, but I'm not really familiar with their work.

I really like the beat the song has, and I think the lyrics fit in well with it. Being rather musically ignorant I can't say much about how the vocals, rhythm, tempo etc go together. wikipedia puts this sort of music into the genres of futurepop, synthpop, darkwave and electronic body music.

Judging from the title of this song I can imagine the song being a homage to the movie Blade runner. I'm going to approach my interpretation of the lyrics through the looking glass of Blade runner. It's been a while since I've seen the movie, so I might remember something wrong, but alas, I'll give it a shot.

The events of the movie Blade runner take place in a dystopian future earth that, if my memory serves me correct, has been ravaged by nuclear war and industrial pollution, killing of most animals and made some humans emigrate to mars. In this world technological advancements has allowed the creation of androids so advanced that the only way to differ them from humans is a test that scans bodily functions during being asked question made to instigate emotion. Some androids have been planted with false memories, to give them a history and to possibly fool them to think they are human. Some androids were used for dangerous work in places such as space and for fighting wars. In the movie several androids, with a life span of only 4 years, have come to earth illegally to seek to lengthen their lifespan.

And the first set of lyrics is what I think Roy Batty, the leader of the group of androids, could be thinking after arriving to earth. Wondering how many others like him there are, with false memories, doing essentially slave labour in the name of whatever human advancement or expansion in space.

“Go to the empire state and watch the city lights
hear the noise of millions struggle in the sprawl
stare into the sky we're few and far between
black eyes full of stars wide with memories”

In the next set of lyrics I imagine to be about the loss of everything he has had, be it the people and places in his false memories, or the other androids he came with to earth that were killed by the android hunters.

“Every street I ever walked
every home I ever had
is lost

Every flower I ever held
every spring I ever had
has dried

Every man I ever knew
every woman I ever had
is gone

Everything I ever touched
every thing I ever had
has died”

The first part of the last set of lyrics I don't really see fitting the interpretation of mine, but the last part sort of does. I imagine this being the part in the movie where the android Roy dies of old age, after saving Deckard and after he said what he did.

“Lie down in the park and watch the satellites
hear the children sing just a breath away
dance in the heavy air along the interstate
black lung full of fumes choke on memories”

I don't think this interpretation is too solid, and I feel it perhaps was a bit forced, but I wanted to put it through that perspective. I would probably gotten a better interpretation of it all if I had watched the movie again.

Overall the lyrics are sad, and the music fitting. The song does not have an official video to go with it, so I won't be looking to make any analysis of such sort.

Here in the end I feel like I must link this video: