Is it snowing? Is it raining? What is that light in the corner of your mind and where is it taking you? What does it want? There’s a soft leading line on a guitar in the distance. “If I lay here, I just lay here, would you lie with me? And just forget the world. You remember the last person who hurt you said those words just the same. You say it, but It feels empty leaving your lips.

What are the words that one uses to say how they feel – how they truly feel about someone. “I don’t quite know, how to say, how I feel.”Īnd neither do you nor me nor anyone else. Just like the alternating notes and the three chords that underlie the tune. An honest declaration of something very simple. You instantly agree, without a moment of hesitation. “If I lay here, If I just lay here, would you lie with me? And just forget the world. He then goes on to ask the question he asks throughout the entire song: They come from a place where rhyme and reason don’t exist. It doesn’t rhyme, but it doesn’t have to, because the words are so honest. His voice is reassuring and serves as a pleasant reminder that all of it is possible: Gary Lightbody, the lead singer of Snow Patrol, and the mind and matter behind Chasing Cars sings very purely, almost as if he’s talking to you. Then, like a close friend, it holds your hand and guides you through this abyss. With alternating notes running back and forth throughout the entire song, the song welcomes you in its spaces and allows you to fill in the gaps with your words and memories. The song is three chords entirely – nothing overly complicated. Better than the earnest Just The Way You Are by Bruno Mars, better than the icy warm words of Perfect by Ed Sheeran, or the tumultuous Romeo and Juliet story of Love Storyby Taylor Swift – Chasing Cars is in a league of its own. This is the power of the best love song written in the 21 st century. When the repetitive questions are asked in the chorus, without once naming the song, you know what you’re listening to. When the breathy vocals fill in the void between the alternating notes, you know what you’re listening to.

When the two notes alternate between E and A, you know what you’re listening to.

Snow patrol chasing cars song meaning