Love this guy. Clearly he knows a lot about 3D modeling, but he does not know the language. He uses vertice as singular of vertices and called the magnetic tool (which clearly depicts a magnet) the horseshoe
Let me tell you, did they tell you what happens when you touch it? Did they tell you? Let me tell you what happens when you touch it, let me tell you, let me, let me, let me, let me, let me, let me, let me, let me, let me, let me, let me, let-
In this part he begs his ex to let him be part of this process of growing up, of touching the painstar. He cannot let go of the idea of meaning something to his ex. He cannot live without a justification for living and just starts pathetically, emotionally begging his ex to let him mean something to them.
Call it blackstar, call it painstar The same thing happens when you touch it
The painstar, is of couse a reference to Wurtz's Lamezone 001, in which the painstar is described as a star that you could touch to feel extreme pain for just a short moment. In this case, he relates the mirror breaking to the painstar, saying growing up and growing out of a relationship is an intense, meaningful pain for a short moment. There is more to this but I find it hard to explain.
And when the mirror breaks I wouldn't miss it for the world
The mirror breaking if growing up. This is a theme that constantly comes back and is reimposed in the end by the quoting of 1 Corinthians 13
At the end of my childhood, I put these ways behind me. For now, we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
He's saying he wants to witness the part of growing up. I think, personally, this refers to his ex growing up. Even in this forced rejection of the relationship, he wants to see what he meant for his ex, witnessing when his ex's mirror breaks.
I could sing another song I could watch that hammer swerve
He could just write songs about it, of course. I think the hammer is a reference to Pink Floyd's "The Wall" in which hammers serve as a metaphor for creative work (roughly). He could focus on his music and translating how he feels about it to music in order to avoid his feelings, really.
I could give you what you want I could give you what you deserve
He could also try to crawl back and try to appease his ex and do whatever he can to get the relationship back. This line is a reference to "Art gets what it wants and art gets what it deserves", a line that first comes up in "Times To Die" to justify his existence. He thinks of himself as worthless but tries to cling to the worth of art as the reason he's allowed to be alive in his view.
All of my friends are getting married All of my friends are right with God All of my friends are making money But art gets what it wants and art gets what it deserves
This comes back up in "Nervous Young Inhumans" as a motif clinging back to this, in which the "art" of the sentence is his ex/relationship. His justification for being alive is now his boyfriend/ex. In that song he deals with being bereft of this meaning, but in this song he deals with this yearning of going back to having a meaning like that, being the artist of his art, his ex.
I could fill back in that grave I could hammer in that nail
As he's feeling a bunch of different emotions, he has different impulses on what to do. He could move on from it and try not to think about it. The grave comes up repeatedly in the album as reference to the painful emotions of relationships and breakups. In filling in the grave and nailing the coffin he's saying he could try to block it out, living a life of not feeling anything (hammering in the nail). But he's unsure if he wants that.
So descend into cliché If you've found your holy grail
For the first two lines, online sources will talk about succesful artists finding their thing (their holy grail) and then becoming cliché, but they don't really talk about what it means. Since Will refers to relationships and his ex as art often, I think this means that in this context, Will's "holy grail" is the break-up. It's what this whole album is about, so it's literally his artistic inspiration. But now, almost at the end of the album, Will has gone through all of the emotions a lot and these have now become cliché to him. He falls in emotional repetition and he now acknowledges this, but he isn't emotionally over it yet, so he descends into cliché. He's still feeling all the feelings.
Lyric Posting (Famous Prophets (Stars) by Car Seat Headrest)So descend into cliché If you've found your holy grail I could fill back in that grave I could hammer in that nail I could give you what you want I could give you what you deserve I could sing another song I could watch that hammer swerve And when the mirror breaks I wouldn't miss it for the world Call it blackstar, call it painstar The same thing happens when you touch it Let me tell you, did they tell you what happens when you touch it? Did they tell you? Let me tell you what happens when you touch it, let me tell you, let me, let me, let me, let me, let me, let me, let me, let me, let me, let me, let me, let-
I had a conversation with a friend that went like "Sometimes I want to write a poem but then I'd be writing poetry" "When I want to write a poem I just imagine myself writing my own Car Seat Headrest song so I feel cooler" "...that could work"
