"Daylight" by Matt and Kim

One of my favorite songs is "Daylight" by Matt and Kim.  It is one of the duo's most popular songs, and it is very catchy, but it also has a unique meaning.  In the song, Matt sings about what he does during the day time, and in each stanza he mentions something new and interesting that he is doing durning the day, clearly living his life to the fullest and facing everything with a positive attitude.  The tone of "Daylight" is the carefree and optimistic attitude that you might expect to see for someone who's relationship with the daylight is one that is inspiring, because you can tell that the narrator believes that daylight is a gift and it should be used to its absolute fullest.

The techniques that are used in "Daylight" are:
- Repetition of the word "daylight"
- Repetition at the end of each stanza except for the chorus
- Dense imagery in the 4th stanza
-Rhyme pattern in each stanza - last words rhyme in the first two lines of each non-choral stanza
- Contrast between day and night

The repetition of the word "daylight" plays its part throughout the entire song, as it plays the biggest role in the story.  In the non-choral stanzas, the narrator tells a "mini" story about what he does during the daylight.  The 2nd and 3rd lines of these stanzas are the main points about daylight, and there are four of these main points mentioned throughout the song:

1st stanza -
We cut the legs off of our pants
Threw our shoes into the ocean
Sit back and wave through the daylight
Sit back and wave through the daylight

2nd stanza -
Slip and slide on subway grates
These shoes are poor man's ice skates
Fall through like change in the daylight
Fall through like change in the daylight

4th stanza -
These sidewalks liquid then stone
Building walls and an old pay phone
It rings like all through the daylight
It rings like all through the daylight

7th stanza -
Open hydrant rolled down windows
This car might make a good old boat
And float down grand street in daylight
And float down grand street in daylight


In the 4th stanza, there is a bit of imagery going on. The lyric is, "These sidewalks liquid then stone, building walls and an old pay phone".  This creates a visual image for the reader of what the narrator sees while he's walking down the street, which is wet sidewalk turning into dry sidewalk, and his observations of his surroundings, being the walls beside him and the old pay phone.

In this song, it was hard to notice but there is contrast between the day and night.  In the 8th stanza, the last two lines are "step back and here comes the night time", repeated.  This technique was used so that the reader got a sense of what he did during the day, and now that his day was over the night time was coming.

Lastly, I found deeper meaning in the chorus, which is the main part of "Daylight", as it is repeated 3 times throughout the song.

And in the daylight we can hitchhike to Maine
I hope that someday I'll see without these frames
And in the daylight I don't pick up my phone
Because in the daylight anywhere feels like home

The chorus analysis that I came up with was that the narrator is living his life during the day time, because anything in the daylight is comfortable for him.  Basically, in the chorus the narrator states that he can do anything in the daylight.  From hitchhiking to Maine to one day seeing on his own without glasses, he can do anything because in the daylight "anywhere feels like home".