Don't touch the sleeping pills, they mess with my head
Dredging up great white sharks, swimming in the bed
Here comes a killer whale, to sing me to sleep
Thrashing the covers off, has me by its teeth
[Pre-Chorus]
And, oh, my love remind me, what was it that I said?
I can't help but pull the earth around me to make my bed
And, oh, my love remind me, what was it that I did?
Did I drink too much? Am I losing touch?
Did I build a ship to wreck?
[Chorus]
To wreck, to wreck, to wreck
Did I build this ship to wreck?
[Verse 2]
What's with the long face? Do you want more?
Thousands of red-eyed mice, scratching at the door
And don't let the curtain catch you, cause you've been here before
The chair is an island, darling, you can't touch the floor
[Pre-Chorus]
And, oh, my love remind me, what was it that I said?
I can't help but pull the earth around me to make my bed
And, oh, my love remind me, what was it that I did?
Did I drink too much? Am I losing touch?
Did I build a ship to wreck?
To wreck, to wreck, to wreck
Did I build this ship to wreck?
[Post-Chorus]
Ooh-ooh
Ooh-ooh
Ooh-ooh
[Bridge]
And good God
Under starless skies we are lost
And into the breach we got tossed
And the water's coming in fast
[Pre-Chorus]
And, oh, my love remind me, what was it that I said?
I can't help but pull the earth around me to make my bed
And, oh, my love remind me, what was it that I did?
Did I drink too much? Am I losing touch?
Did I build a ship to wreck?
[Chorus]
To wreck, to wreck, to wreck
Did I build this ship to wreck?
To wreck, to wreck, to wreck
Did I build this ship to wreck?
About
“Ship to Wreck” is the second song released from Florence and the Machine’s album, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful. It premiered on on the BBC Radio program Annie Mac’s Hottest Record on April 8th 2015 and the audio of the song appeared on the Florence and the Machine VEVO channel later that day.
“Ship to Wreck” is the one song on How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful with lyrics that focus on water, which was the dominant image in the band’s previous album, Ceremonials. Welch says the new album’s producer, Markus Dravs, told her not to write any more songs about water, but that she convinced him to make an exception for “Ship to Wreck.”
The music video for “Ship to Wreck” was filmed in Florence’s home and debuted on April 13th on VEVO, and is the 4th part in “The Odyssey”.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
When Florence played Coachella in 2015, she said that the song was inspired by “some time off I had in London where I had some drunken parties and trashed my house and said a drunken ‘I love you’ too soon.”
She further explained that she “was thinking about [her] own self destructive side, and how you can make something only to tear it down, enjoy/destroy, create/devastate etc. When you’re in that whirlwind, you often end up breaking the thing you love the most.”
- 3.Choreomania
- 4.Delilah
- 5.Hunger
- 6.Shake It Out
- 7.King
- 8.Cosmic Love
- 10.Falling
- 11.My Love
- 13.Drumming Song
- 14.Ship to Wreck
- 15.Free
- 16.Third Eye
- 18.Big God
- 22.Dream Girl Evil
- 25.Seven Devils
- 26.Blinding
- 27.The Bomb
- 28.What Kind of Man
- 29.Never Let Me Go
- 30.Mermaids
- 32.June
- 34.Mother
- 35.The End of Love
- 36.Cassandra
- 37.Heartlines
