It starts with that distinct, twanging guitar riff that sounds almost like a sitar. You know the one. For a lot of people, Alt-J’s 2012 debut album An Awesome Wave was the soundtrack to a very specific era of indie music, but Taro was always the track that felt different. It wasn't just another catchy, weirdly-structured song. It was a tragedy set to music.
If you’ve ever looked up the lyrics Taro Alt-J fans obsess over, you probably realized pretty quickly that Joe Newman isn't just singing random words. He’s telling a story. A real one. It’s the story of Gerda Taro and Robert Capa, two of the most legendary war photographers to ever live. They were young, they were in love, and they were documenting some of the most horrific moments of the 20th century until it eventually claimed both of them.
The Brutal Reality Behind the Song
Gerda Taro was a powerhouse. Born Gerta Pohorylle, she fled Nazi Germany and ended up in Paris, where she met Endre Friedmann. Together, they basically invented the persona of "Robert Capa," a fictional, high-flying American photographer. It was a marketing ploy that worked so well Friedmann eventually just became Capa.
But Taro wasn't just a sidekick. She was the first female photojournalist to die on the front lines. In 1937, during the Battle of Brunete in the Spanish Civil War, she was crushed by a tank. She was only 26.
The song picks up years later.
Capa survived Spain. He went on to photograph the D-Day landings—those famous, blurry "Magnificent Eleven" shots. He lived a fast, heavy-drinking, high-stakes life, but he never quite got over Taro. Then, in 1954, while covering the First Indochina War in Thai Binh (what is now Vietnam), he stepped on a landmine.
Understanding the Opening Scene
When Newman sings about "Indochina, Capa pounces," he’s setting the stage for that final moment. Capa was known for being restless. He couldn't just sit in the jeep; he had to get the shot. He "pounces" out of the vehicle to get a better angle of the troops advancing through the tall grass.
The lyrics describe the explosion with a strange, haunting beauty. "3.5 millimeters rears up," referring to his camera, and then the "leaden graves." It’s graphic but poetic. You can almost feel the heat of the blast.
The song isn't just about the death, though. It’s about the reunion. In the world of the song, the moment Capa dies is the moment he finally gets back to Gerda.
Deciphering the "Taro Alt-J Lyrics" and Their Meaning
One of the most confusing parts for people first hearing the song is the bridge.
Do, do, do, do... It’s catchy, sure. But then we get into the heavy stuff: "Do not spray into eyes, I have sprayed you into my eyes."
This is Newman at his most metaphorical. It's about the overwhelming, stinging, blinding nature of grief and memory. Imagine a warning label on a cleaning product or a canister of mace—"do not spray into eyes." Now apply that to a person. Capa has "sprayed" the memory of Taro into his eyes. He can't see anything else. He’s blinded by her.
The Mechanics of the Blast
The lyrics get intensely technical in a way that’s rare for pop music. "L-O-V-E, Terpentined, it's poison." Turpentine is a solvent, something that thins things out or strips them back. Their love has been stripped down to its most raw, toxic, and essential form by the war.
Then there’s the description of the shrapnel.
"Mine-is-a-mine-is-a-mine."
👉 See also: The Great Gatsby Movie Free Watch: How to Stream it Legally Without the Scams
It’s a play on Gertrude Stein’s "Rose is a rose is a rose." A landmine is just a landmine. It doesn't care about your legacy or your lost love. It just does what it’s built to do.
The physical description of Capa’s body after the blast is tough to hear if you’re paying attention. "Leg gone, arm gone, blind of the eye." This isn't an exaggeration for dramatic effect. When Capa was found, he was still clutching his camera, but the blast had been devastating. He died shortly after reaching a small field hospital.
Why This Track Hits Different in the Alt-J Canon
Most Alt-J songs feel like puzzles. You spend time figuring out why they’re singing about The Last Exit to Brooklyn or Maurice Sendak. But Taro feels more grounded because the stakes are real human lives.
I remember seeing them perform this live back in 2014. The lighting went completely amber, mimicking that "sepia" tone Newman mentions. There’s a line about "herringbone" which likely refers to the patterns of the era’s clothing or perhaps the way the light filtered through the trees in Vietnam.
The Sepia Reunion
"Taro, pink, tea, and ghost."
This is the afterlife. Or at least, Capa’s version of it.
He’s leaving the "gray-blue" of the war zone and entering a world of "pink tea." It’s soft. It’s warm. It’s the opposite of a muddy trench in Spain or a humid jungle in Thai Binh.
Newman sings: "To test the rice, to test the rice." It sounds like a domestic mundane task. Something you’d do in a kitchen with the person you love. After decades of war, the ultimate heaven for Capa isn't glory; it’s just testing the rice with Gerda.
Common Misconceptions About the Song
A lot of people think "Taro" is a person's name who is still alive, or maybe a reference to Tarot cards.
It’s not.
While the word "Taro" is the surname, the band also plays with the phonetics. Some listeners hear "Tarot" (like the cards), which adds a layer of fate and destiny to the song. But the official lyrics and the band's own interviews confirm it's 100% about Gerda.
Another weird theory that floated around Reddit years ago was that the song was about a drug trip. It’s easy to see why—the imagery is surreal and the "sprayed into eyes" line sounds like some kind of psychedelic experience. But when you look at the historical timeline of Capa’s death on May 25, 1954, every single line aligns with the history books.
The Significance of the Year 1954
Capa was only 40. He had survived the biggest wars of the century only to die in a conflict that many Americans and Europeans were barely paying attention to yet.
The song captures that sense of "finality."
- The Location: Thai Binh.
- The Weapon: A landmine.
- The Result: A reunion 17 years in the making.
How to Truly Appreciate the Track
To really get the most out of the lyrics Taro Alt-J put together, you have to look at Capa’s photos while you listen.
Look at "The Falling Soldier" (which may have been staged, but that’s a whole other debate). Look at the grainy, chaotic shots of Omaha Beach. Then, look at the few photos that exist of Gerda Taro—smiling, short hair, camera in hand, looking completely fearless.
The song is a bridge between the digital age and the analog trauma of the 1930s and 50s.
Actionable Ways to Explore Further
If this song moved you, don't just leave it at the Spotify play button. There’s a lot more to the story of these two that puts the lyrics into a much sharper focus.
🔗 Read more: Nicolas Cage Sonic the Hedgehog: The Fan Obsession and the Truth Behind the Rumors
- Read "Waiting for Robert Capa" by Susana Fortes. It’s a fictionalized account, but it captures the atmosphere of Paris and the Spanish Civil War that Newman is tapping into.
- Watch the documentary "The Mexican Suitcase." It tells the story of thousands of negatives taken by Capa, Taro, and David Seymour that disappeared at the end of the war and were rediscovered in Mexico City in 2007. It’s a miracle they exist.
- Listen to the "An Awesome Wave" 10th Anniversary live recordings. The way they play Taro now has a different weight to it. It’s slower, more deliberate.
- Check out the International Center of Photography (ICP) archives. Capa’s brother, Cornell, founded the ICP specifically to preserve this kind of "concerned photography." You can see the actual images that inspired the "sepia" and "herringbone" descriptions.
The beauty of Taro is that it turns a Wikipedia entry into a heartbeat. It takes two people who have been dead for decades and makes their longing feel current. It’s a reminder that even in the middle of a war, people are mostly just looking for a way to get back to each other and "test the rice."
When the song finally fades out with that repetitive, cyclical rhythm, it’s not meant to be a catchy hook. It’s meant to be the sound of two souls finally catching up to one another in the tall grass.