Hi babe!!! so i just read your bio and i am dying to know your interpretation of that Torch lyric because you always have a point™ and i love to hear your bvb theories
LYNN MY BELOVED… I AM SO SORRY FOR HOW LONG IT’S TAKEN ME TO REPLY, it is absolutely unacceptable!!! i was just listening to torch and heard the line you’re referring to (“who’s the holy one that i can kill to stay alone?”) and suddenly remembered that i’ve left this unanswered for nearly eight months 😵💫 there is no excuse and i’m so sorry!
to answer your (lovely and thoughtful!) question, though: in all honesty, i primarily chose that line as the quote for my description because it resonated with me but for reasons i can’t quite articulate or place my finger on? i recall that andy described this song as being about “reaching out and finding a lifeline of truth and hope when all feels lost and freeing yourself of the negative and destructive noise that can sometimes fill our minds and bring us down”, and to me that whole verse (“kneel and pray / what’s the world today? / and who’s the holy one that i can kill to stay alone? / and if i take them down / will my lies be found?”) seems to be the internal monologue of someone who has isolated themselves from the world around them for whatever reasons (self-loathing, shame, depression, a combination, etc.); the idea that they feel the need to shut out everything to protect themselves or those around them from whatever shortcomings, failures, or harm for which they feel they’re responsible. this questioning of what holy figure they can “kill” to remain in their isolation to me emphasizes the intensity of their desperation to be left alone.
and if the purpose of the torch is, as andy says, to be a light for those who feel alone, then this internal warring described in the line “if i take them down / will my lies be found?” is resolved in the last line of the chorus and the song as a whole: “to live is to lie / so light the torch”. it reads to me as the narrator’s acceptance that we have all done things of which we are ashamed or not proud, but that it’s no reason to close ourselves off from the light and to not strive to find meaning and hope in that chaos and to strive to do better.
at least that’s my onion!!! i could be way off, but art is subjective and that’s always how i’ve read it!
