Is this song about rape?
Was just listening to it in Dunnes (I think) the other day and noticed the lines about being a gentleman then being bound and broken on the floor.
Also naked.
Always thought it was about heartbreak till now.
The lyrics were written by Anne Preven. I think I remember reading an interview with her in Spin back in the 90s but I don’t think she mentioned precisely what the song was about.
Some lyrics do seem to suggest that, but overall it seems more like the person in question was insincere.
“Illusion never changed/Into something real” and “don’t seem to know/or seem to care/what your heart is for.”
The video is similar, even though it does seem to have a few moments of creepiness thrown in: when he kisses her he starts to sort of put his hand around her neck, and he looks a little sinister at the end. It seems for the most part that they’re annoyed by outside influences though? I don’t know.
I don’t think the lyrics really support a rape interpretation. The lyrics are vague enough that you could make an argument for it, if you really wanted to, but I think you’d be trying to force it. You can make just as a good a case that the song is about heroin addiction, if you want, form the point of view of someone who’s just run out of her last fix. Now how does this line sound: "I should have seen just what was there and not some holy light/But you crawled beneath my veins "
No, I just think the song is about a relationship gone sour.
I always thought it was about the singer cheating. She’s torn about love affair that didn’t turn out how she planned and now she’s heartbroken about how things turned out. Then again, I’m always wrong about what songs are about.
I always thought the song was about a woman who was torn up emotionally over a love affair gone bad due to her partner losing interest in the relationship. “There’s nothing where you used to lie/conversation has run dry/that’s what going on…”
I always figured it was rape, too. Probably date rape: She started off thinking the guy was kind of nice, but then he pushed her way too far, way too fast.
You’re on a safe bet here, since that is what ~50% of songs are about.
Interesting idea, but I’ve always thought of it differently. I’ve always seen it as her falling for someone and finding out later that he wasn’t who she thought he was, and the heartbreak and disillusionment that followed.
So I guess the fortune teller’s right
I should have seen just what was there,
and not some some holy light -
Oh but you crawled beneath my veins…
I see it as her infatuation or love affair with someone, and being blinded by her feelings until she was already in too deep. Then again, I associate this song pretty heavily with a time in my life when that happened to me, so maybe that’s just my personal interpretation. I always identified especially with the “He was warm, he came around, like he was dignified” line.
I lovelovelove the Ednaswap recording of this song, the original as I understand it, although feel free to correct me if I’m wrong on that one. 
I don’t think the song is about rape of any kind. The “bound and broken” is about love’s dreams, in my interpretation.
I do, however, think the lines:
“I don’t care,
I have no luck,
I don’t miss it all that much.”
Were meant to be:
“I don’t care,
I have no luck,
I don’t really give a fuck.”
Obligatory Torn mime link. That act never gets old. 
I love that guy <3
That’s the original and it is completely different and awesome. I’m surprised on how the NI version is so different.
Here he is at the Secret Policeman’s Ball, and Natalie does the song live with him.
Ah. a little late.
What I love about that performance is that he’s miming and she’s dancing, and yet they manage to be doing almost exactly the same moves.
I always thought the song was about a one-way love affair - the singer was in love with a guy who didn’t love her. But she wouldn’t see that and kept imagining he felt something for her like she did for him. She’s singing about how she’s finally realized he never loved her (although he did have sex with her).
While the song was written by Ednaswap, the first release was this Danish one, apparently, in 1993. Ednaswap wrote the song in 1991, but it wasn’t released until 1995. The Danish version is almost exactly like the Natalie Imbruglia version.
^^^
Whoops that was my post above. And I should say “the musicians that became Ednaswap” wrote the song in 1991.
It’s a metaphor. She’s “torn” because she is attracted to a guy who she thought was perfect but was basically just using her for sex. Not because he litterally tore that ass up.
Pretty standard 90s alt-rock chick stuff actually.
Or maybe torn refers to the hymen. He’s a little late, she’s no longer a virgin.