What is hide and seek by imogen heap about?

Answer 1

I think this song is about a divorce but from a child's point of view.

"trains and sewing machines"- as in train of a wedding dress and the machine that made it.

"all those years they were here first"- the years of the marriage, they came before the divorce so its like a child speaking as if why should those years have to end.

"crop circles in the carpet"- like when furniture has been on the carpet for a while, but now one of the parents are moving out so the furniture is moving, there fore revealing the crop circle marks

"oily marks appear on walls where pleasure moments hung before the takeover"- again similar to the furniture, just this time pictures off the wall being taken down, leaving a mark.

but then when it repeats the chorus of trains and sewing machines, she then says "you wont catch me around here", because for her as a child "blood and tears were here first" as in she has witnessed all the bad moments in marriage and so for her she can only remember the tears by her parents which now has lead to their divorce, and so she now doesn't want to get married. "wont catch me around here".

and then with the whole "mmm whatcha say" bit, there shes just repeating what the parents have said to her "its all for the best" and then goes "you decided this", as in they didn't even consider what this divorce is doing to her, like she doesn't think this is the best thing for her.

so then later it says "you don't care a bit" because if they did care they wouldn't be putting her through all of this

but anyway that's just ONE interpretation, there are loads of other ones thinking this song is about her breaking up in a relationship, just this one is my favorite.