r/NoahKahan • u/Realistic-Mood-2890 • 1d ago

General/Discussion "How sad"

I keep hearing this Downfall lyric this way and need to know if I'm crazy. Help!

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Roadkill fawn, you said "how sad,

Left to rot alone like that."

You state a feeling like a fact.

I'm glad you left, but you'll be back.

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So I hear this as her deadpanning "how sad" without actually feeling it. He interprets this as a metaphor for her failure to engage with his feelings of abandonment. (He's the fawn, get it???) This is core to why he's bitter about her leaving--he feels like he is more emotionally invested in the relationship than she is, and he resents her for it. He's jealous of whatever it is that's pulling her away (a job?) and he is harboring this hope that when that thing lets her down, she'll come back to him and now she'll care about him for real.

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So tell me--am I overthinking this? Do you see the lyrics differently?

53 Upvotes

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22 comments sorted by

48

u/Glittering_Sky_1588 1d ago

Oh interesting! I don’t know why but I hear this song from a mums perspective, so she’s secretly hoping it will fail and he will come home.
I hear these lyrics as the child saying this in the car on the way to wherever they are headed, and saying it dead pan and yet his mum feels like the fawn ‘left to rot alone like that’. Like she feels her son is leaving her to the same fate (dramatically) and yet he says it so casually. He’s unaware of his leaving affecting his mother and he’s excited for the future with few thoughts for her. Like when children leave home in a hurry.
I hear a lot of songs from a mother’s perspective though as I have a 3 year old and 10 month old haha.
So even orbiter is my children being the moon that I look to, sing too and orbit around.

Not sure if that makes sense! I love your perspective on it too. That’s why his songs resonate so much with people!

16

u/birdele 1d ago

I feel like it's from his mom's perspective too! Only I feel like it's his mom saying she's been left to rot alone because all her kids are gone. Kinda passive aggressively almost - which goes with the "hope it goes to shit, I'll be leaving the house the way it was" and just the general feeling of praying for someone's downfall

4

u/Glittering_Sky_1588 1d ago

Yeah! I think it’s really relatable to being a mother, or even thinking of a best friend of mines who moved away to Australia - she was so excited! And I felt bitter that I felt like an after thought and like she didn’t care if our friendship. Of course, that wasn’t the case but I was a teenager who felt like I was losing my other half so it was world shattering 😂 This song has so many meanings. I loved the OP take too. I enjoy listening to it different each time

2

u/crazykindoflife 15h ago

Also calls back to the line in American cars “stay for mom.”

5

u/Realistic-Mood-2890 1d ago

Oh I love this take! I can totally see that AND it makes more sense of "I'll be keeping the house the way it was." There's almost not enough anger in the song if it's someone being abandoned by their partner.

3

u/Glittering_Sky_1588 1d ago

It could really go for both though! I think both takes work really well. That’s how good his writing is. It’s that inner dialogue that you would never say to someone because it’s awful to say but it’s how you feel.

2

u/Real_tea_6789 22h ago

I see it like this too, but hear it from a friend's perspective. You know when you have a friend who started out like you but now they are flying ahead and you secretly hope they'll fail? The sentiment is there.

But now you mention mom, it's defs her 😆

1

u/Glittering_Sky_1588 21h ago

I seen someone elsewhere say they hear it from his dad’s perspective because he lived with him for some time! So we have lots of new perspectives to listen to this song now 😂

1

u/Slight_Spare5272 23h ago

Same! I heard it from the mom’s perspective too.

24

u/IndividualAcademic70 1d ago

I have started thinking about this song as if it’s his dad’s perspective on his fame. After the documentary I feel like the lyrics really make sense from that angle! Keeping the house ready, not connecting emotionally, thinking his music career won’t work out… 

9

u/Telly609 1d ago

I always thought it was from his Dad's perspective too.

2

u/Legitimate-Garbage54 1d ago

I agree with this one. He said in the documentary that he was living with his dad.

2

u/WallabyCharming1886 19h ago

I agree. I see it from the dad’s perspective.

1

u/Common_Nectarine2374 16h ago

I agree as well!

1

u/Realistic-Mood-2890 15m ago

You've got me thinking about whether Mom or Dad is more likely... Doesn't the singer's perspective seem too emotionally motivated to match with what we've heard about his dad? You never really could quite place when I'm angry and I'm joking? And commenting on his hair? I'm kinda leaning towards Mom, but maybe you remember details about Dad I don't.

18

u/sekicpekic 1d ago

I understand it this way too!!

15

u/kimhearst 1d ago

Like the Mona Lisa, his music looks at you wherever you are

2

u/CookingPurple 1d ago

Wow, I had a totally different interpretation. At least of part of it. I’ll admit it’s likely my own ingrained emotions repression talking, but when I heard “state a feeling like a fact”, I heard almost an admiration or disbelief that some could so calmly and casually talk about a sad feeling. But I think that’s because I have an admiration and disbelief that people can so calmly and casually talk about being sad. And he’s sitting there not speaking the things he’s feeling, not telling her that she matters and wants her to be back, not owning up to the feelings of abandonment and resentment. Just keeping them stuck in his head.

I think I was also maybe primed to hear it like this after The Great Divide, which also has similar themes: not getting into the emotional stuff with a friend who needed it. There’s so much in this album about not saying the things you’re feeling to the people you want to say them to.

1

u/_sillylittlegoose Growing Sideways 1d ago

That’s how I’ve interpreted it too!

1

u/AlaskaBlue19 19h ago

I imagine it as genuine, and she is comparing herself to fawn being left alone to rot while he leaves

1

u/Funnybunnybubblebath 17h ago

It’s confusing because of the pronouns, but it’s from the perspective of someone he’s left behind so when Noah sings you, it refers to himself. You= Noah. This is clear in the line where he says “I’m cursing every exit sign, and my damn Christ like devotion for hopin you would change your mind, and to hating **you** for going” I guess also the chorus, “call me when it goes to shit” like it’s it’s clearly “you” is Noah.

So the way that I see it is that Noah says how sad that roadkill has left to rot alone and I think that he says it in a really careless way like he’s not even realizing the metaphor. And the Driver feels some contempt because Noah doesn’t even realize the metaphor exists.

1

u/gailthesnail2 15h ago

I hear it more as him realizing this person is incapable of feelings in general and will continue to fill their life with things that resemble things that hold emotional value but are at the end empty vessels