I have always loved this song but lately it's been on repeat. Once again, as I was driving (at night) and listening to the song I was suddenly struck by the notion that this one is about her family. After revealing that she was estranged from her parents, I see that the lyrics can be related to that, especially "you've got a knife-throwing kind of love but your silence cuts the deepest." To me that's desscribing a family that will fight and yell but make up -- but this time there is nothing - no talking, no fighthing - and that hurts worse than the fights. I have always loved this line. I always thought it pertained to a lover of sorts. But then I started having a familial issue of my own: my sister who lives in AZ (me in NY) was in NY but never even told me! I found out on facebook of all places. So I totally relate to silence hurting worse than fighting words. Then there are all the lines about faith - at least in my opinion they are about faith - "after all these years I'll never learn that heavenly creature never come" could be the reason they had been estranged - Vanessa coming to her own conclusions about religion and faith that differ from her parents.
The album version of the song is not the best version, but I think it's still my fav on this album.