MULTIMEDIA-ENGLISH
Just for now (Imogen Heap)
click image to open video page
5:00
Video page URL
https://multimedia-english.com/videos/music/just-for-now-imogen-heap-14
Description

What this woman does with her voice and with the music machine is simply magic! This song was recorded during a private rehearsal in a music studio in London.

Transcript

(Just for now) (x6)

It's that time of year,
Leave all our hopelessnesses aside (just for a little while).
'Cause tears stop right here,
I know we've all had a bumpy ride (I’m secretly on your side)

How did you know?
It's what I always wanted,
Can never have too many of these.
Will ya quit kicking me under the table?
I'm trying, will somebody make her shut up about it?
Can we settle down please?

It's that time of year,
Leave all our hopelessnesses aside (just for a little while)
'Cause tears stop right here,
I know we've all had a bumpy ride (I’m secretly on your side)

Bite your tongue
Deep breaths
Count to ten
Nod your head


(sniff sniff)
I think something is burning,
Now you've ruined the whole thing,
Muffle the smoke alarm.
Whoever put on this music
Had better quick, sharp, remove it.
Pour me another.
Oh, don't wag your finger at me

It's that time of year,
Leave all our hopelessnesses aside (just for a little while)
'Cause tears stop right here,
I know we've all had a bumpy ride (I’m secretly on your side)

Will ya get me out of here, Get me out of here, Get me out of here (repeats till end)
Just for now
Just for now (repeats)

Explanations

HOPELESSNESSES= a complex word made up of HOPE, two suffixes and then in the  plural. The suffix -LESS means "without", so HOPELESS is an adjective meaning "without hope". The suffix –NESS makes an abstract noun out of an adjective, so HOPELESSNESS is the state of having no hope. And then you put it in the plural and we get HOPELESSNESSES. The use of plural for this word shows that we’re not talking about the abstract idea of being hopeless, but we’re referring to all the things in our life that we consider hopeless.

A LITTLE WHILE= a little time.

'CAUSE= Because.

'TEARS= the drops of liquid that come from your eyes when you’re very sad and weeping.

RIGHT HERE= exactly at this moment (RIGHT is often used to emphasize words of place and time: I want it right here right now!)

A BUMPY RIDE= when you travel by car (etc) on a very bad road with stones and holes, so you’re bumping all the time (moving up and down) and the journey is terrible. We use that expression metaphorically meaning that we’ve been through hard times in life. A bumpy ride is an experience full of troubles and difficulties.

(I) CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY OF SOMETHING= that thing is so good (or you like it so much) that the more you have of it, the better. So this sentence simply means: "I love it"

YA= you (colloquial), pronounced with the vowel SCHWA: /jə/ (see the section of phonetics).

QUIT + -ing= stop doing something

KICK= hit with your foot. When you say something inappropriate, they can kick you under the table to make you shut up.

WILL YA...?= "will" is sometimes used to express a future idea, but not here. It is often used to express volition, so here we're asking a favour= "do you want to...?". In fact it is a more polite way of giving an order, so that sentence really means: "stop kicking me!", but nicer

SHUT UP ABOUT IT= don’t talk about it anymore.

SETTLE DOWN= to stop all distractions and get ready to do something.

Here comes a paragraph with four figurative sentences:
BITE YOUR TONGUE= yea, they said something stupid but don’t say what you want to say because that would cause problems.
DEEP BREATHS= breathe deeply several times to relax and not lose control.
COUNT TO TEN= a good advice when you want to say or do something you'll regret is to count to 10 so that you calm down
NOD YOUR HEAD= to nod your head is to move it down and then up as when you mean yes. Here it probably means: "just nod and pretend you agree and everything's fine, don't let them know how angry you feel".

SNIFF= to sniff is to make a sudden aspiration of air through your nose to smell something, but here, the word "sniff" is used to represent the sound that makes (it is not a word).

TO RUIN= to spoil, to break, to waste, to damage.

THE WHOLE THING= THE ENTIRE THING.

MUFFLE= to muffle something is to put something over it in order to stop or reduce the sound it makes.

WHOEVER= no matter who, I don’t care who, it’s not important who. We can use the suffix -EVER with interrogative words to get the idea of "no matter wh-".
Whatever= no matter what / whenever= it doesn’t matter when / however= it doesn’t matter how, etc.

PUT ON MUSIC= play music, make it sound.

HAD BETTER+ infinitive without to= SHOULD (used to give advice). "You’d better go" = you should go.
HAD BETTER QUICK, SHARP, REMOVE IT= a not very correct construction. It should be "whoever put on this music had better remove it quickly and sharply"

POUR= to drop a liquid on a container, to fill a glass with a drink.
POUR ME ANOTHER= the usual thing one tells a waiter in a bar when you want to have another drink of the same thing you had before, it means "pour me another drink (same as before)".

WAG= move something repeatedly to one side and the other. Dogs wag their tales when they’re happy.
DON’T WAG YOUR FINGER AT ME= When someone is very angry with you, sometimes they tell you angry words wagging their finger at you to make their comment more impressive (especially to children).

WILL YA GET ME OUT OF HERE?= again, we find "will" expressing volition (what you want)= "do you want to take me out of here?". But in this case it's not an order, it is a request, so the meaning would be: "please, take me out of here".

OF= careful with the pronunciation, it's not /ɒf/, it's /əv/.

Meaning

Once again we may get two visions about this song:

1- the usual love vision: this song is about a love lost but yet always re-found. It is an old or a true love. It is about someone you have a history with but that always ends up falling apart but yet you keep coming back to them. It’s about forgetting everything from the past and just remembering and holding on. Then she remembers why it never worked out and it sends her back into a psychological trap.

2- a description of a non-unusual family reunion, very probably a Christmas celebration, where everybody gets together again but it’s difficult to put aside all the problems you get in all the families. Nevertheless, it’s worth making the effort because, after all, "it’s that time of year". The message of the song would be something like this: I can’t stand my sister, but she’s my sister and I love her anyway, but, oh, I can’t stand this, I want to get out!

You’ve got the usual present exchange "how did you know? It’s what I always wanted". Dinner is being prepared in the kitchen while the rest are chatting in the living room "sniff, sniff, I think something is burning". Some people say something inappropriate ("will you stop kicking me under the table?"), but everybody makes an effort to keep friendly "bite your tongue, count to ten". To sum it up, the song is reflecting, in a chaotic way, the atmosphere and little things going around at a Christmas family reunion with a lot of good-will and a lot of tension too. They start with good intentions but things start going bad and in the end she just can't take it anymore: please, get me out of here!