Song Details
- Album Release Date: 2012
- Genre: emo
Song Meaning of “La vida en el barandal” by PXNDX
The song “La Vida en el Barandal” is the opening track off PXNDX’s biggest-hit album, Poetica, released in 2003. The song paints a beautiful picture of youth and finding oneself in life as you make your way through it. The central metaphor is that of life being on a balcony – from the balcony, you can take in the view, take in the experiences of life, but never actually fully let yourself be part of the action.
The song begins with the narrator describing the beauty of life on the balcony, and how they seem to “watch the world pass me by” and compares life to a relentless carousel. He descries how life passes us by at a dizzying rate and how difficult it can be to keep up with the pace of it.
The chorus speaks of the nostalgia and bittersweetness that comes with being stuck in one place while watching the rest of the world move around you. He warns against getting too comfortable with where you are and not risking the jump in order to grow and experience more of life: “My place in the world didn’t move until I took a jump”.
Throughout the music the guitars swell and crash, showing the emotion and intensity of this life squeezing past you. This is only heightened when the lyrics take on a more personal note, detailing that even though the singer may try “to keep living on my own barandal”, his heart will never be complete without love in it: “Yeah my blood ain’t burning, if your heat ain’t in there”.
This song is a beautiful mix of imagery, metaphor, and emotion, detailing the narrator’s understanding that entering into life and committing to it is the only way to achieve true happiness and fulfilment. While life does pass us by and it can be daunting to take chances and experience more, ultimately it is only by doing so that we grow as people and follow our true destiny.