Rilo Kiley – Silver Lining lyrics

I believe that this song, which opens their most "commercial" album to date, is a declaration to their more cultish 'indie' fans. Let's start with two factors that don't appear in the lyrics, but set the tone for the whole song: the choir clapping and the opening guitar riff. Both refer to religious/cultish practices: clapping along obviously; the guitar riff is from George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" (hare krishna, hare, etc.). They are references to those who treat the band like a religious cult leader. "I'm not going back to rags or in the hole" refers to the (relative) poverty and obscurity of an indie band. The "our" in "our bruises" refers to the band collectively, who will "take their bruises" from fans (a la when Dylan went electric), but "will never fold," or give in to what their indie fan cult wants them to be. They are (somewhat sardonically) glad -- "Hooray hooray" -- that some obsessed fans found them to be the "silver lining" in the dark cloud of their otherwise unpleasant existence, but now they are (going for the) "gold" (record). I interpret "You were running through fields of hitchhikers" as follows: a hitchhiker is someone you pick up for a while and then drop (off) -- an observation on the behavior of this kind of fan, who is always searching for the newest "cool" unknown band. The last verse shows her mixed feelings of exhilaration ("ticking grass," "rising sun") and guilt ("I never felt so wicked") at this latest career move. Rk will not be wedded to any ideal of "indie purity" that the former fans who give "Blacklight" one star on Amazon want to tie them to. This interpretation makes it a somewhat churlish song -- but that is often the pose this band cops.