Imagine Dragons Song Meanings

Nothing Left to Say

This song is the last of Night Visions.

On the original album, the record label only allowed them 11 songs, so that's the reason they tacked on Rocks. According to the band, they wanted Nothing Left to Say to have a happy ending, given the dark nature of the song.

((Later, when they exploded into popularity, they added more songs to the album, such as Working Man and Fallen.))

If you look at the song itself, it's interesting how Imagine Dragons placed it last. Because in this case, the title fits it perfectly. Nothing Left to Say finishes the album.

I find it masterful how these lyrics convey such melancholy, but ID manages to keep the surface-impression fun and catchy.

The overall feel of the song is dark and because of that I must include a trigger warning.

:::

/Intro/

/Who knows how long I've been awake now
The shadows on my walls don't sleep/
"Shadows" could mean dark thoughts or inner demons. In this case, they keep the artist up at night due to those thoughts never ceasing.

/They keep calling me, beckoning [x3]/
In other words, those bad thoughts keep invading his mind. They make the subject start to believe them and give in.

/Who knows what's right? The lines keep getting thinner/
The acknowledgement of how its not a black and white world. That it has so many grey areas which cannot be defined.
Could be the artist feels like they're losing their sense of right and wrong, the lines between them are blurring.

/My age has never made me wise/
Feels helpless. Because doesn't age correspond with wisdom?

It could also be a sense of self-depreciating. The artist is too hard on themself.
Chances are, they are wiser now than they were 10 years ago.
It's those "shadows". They're the ones giving rise to such pessimistic notions.

/But I keep pushing on [x4]/
The artist continues to live. They continue to fight those demons every day.
By choosing the word "pushing", it's obvious that it proves to be a struggle.
And the repetition could symbolize how long they've been "pushing on", perhaps even years.

/There's nothing left to say now [x2]/
Feels like they've done everything they could. Like they've run out of options.

/I'm giving up [x2]
Hey hey
I'm giving up now [[x2]]/
As foreshadowed in the previous lyrics, these heavily imply suicide. Or at least an end to fighting the inner demons. The tone here is defeated.

/There's nothing left to say now [x2]/

/I'm giving up [x2]
Hey hey
I'm giving up now [[x2]]/

/Below my soul
I feel an engine
Collapsing as it sees the pain/
The engine can refer to will to continue and "push on". But the pain mentioned here is so great that it utterly destroys anything else.

/If I could only shut it out/
The artist doesn't believe they have the strength to conquer the pain. They can only wish.

/I've come too far
To see the end now/
Almost as if they're trying to talk themselves out of "giving up".
They see that they've lived thus far and they should just keep fighting.

/Even if my way if wrong
I keep pushing on [x4]/
Artist says that even if the methods they take/don't take to fight are wrong, they continue to live.

/There's nothing left to say now [x2]/

/I'm giving up [x2]
Hey hey
I'm giving up now [[x2]]/

/I keep falling falling down [x4]/
Artist repeats this four times. This could mean they feel very strongly about it.
The meaning of this line could be that the subject feels as though they keep failing. Failing, with no sign of improvement. Like they keep failing at the same mistakes, over and over.
The tempo builds as the repetition continues. It could symbolize how the artist is getting fed up about this.
It prefaces the next line.

/If you could only save me
I'm drowning in the waters of my soul/
The artist's last plea for help. Hence the high note.
It really is a chill-inducing lyric. You can almost feel the emotion being conveyed. It encompasses every line before this one, the entirety of his battle, how powerless he feels, and how these inner demons torment him.

/There's nothing left to say now [x2]/

/I'm giving up [x2]
Hey hey
I'm giving up now [[x2]]/

/There's nothing left to say now [x2]/

/I'm giving up [x2]
Hey hey
I'm giving up now [[x2]]/