Perfect Blue Buildings is the fourth song from Counting Crows debut album, August and Everything After, released in 1993.
"The verses are about how horrifyingly gray and mundane and pointless life in general can be. Nothing catastrophic. Little horrors. Envy of other people. Deep need that is unsatisfied. And so the chorus is about how seductive coma-visions are: these dreams of placidity, colors, shapes that are so clean. But the peace is a trap to the person in the song; he doesn't want to fall prey to the visions."
- Adam Duritz
This song, is just so incredibly beautiful, and meaningful. Adam Duritz sings the different parts of this song so perfectly, that it's almost like the sound of his voice holds as much meaning as the lyrics themselves. The verses are gray, sung with a haunting voice, almost like the words are coming out of a deep trance. If you could see the eyes behind the voice, they would stare straight through you - not blinking, not wavering....maybe not alive at all.
Then the chorus begins, and it's a thing of life. It soars above the desolation of what has gone before, it introduces hope. The songs drifts as though through a dream, rather than trying to tell a story, it feels as though it's trying to pull you in, and feed you an emotion.
Finally, the song trails off, the repeated line "how am i gonna keep myself away, how am i gonna keep myself away from me..." And the song doesn't feel like it simply finishes...it feels like it dies. And I wonder...did he fall asleep...or just disappear?
CST Approved