Top 10 Nickel Creek Songs

Most of Thile's songs are filled with self-loathing, heartbreak and tragedy. This one is a lot of the first. In "Helena," the narrator womanizes while simultaneously wanting to be alone.

"You are good Helena / Guys like me never sleep alone at night / I don't need your sympathy / Cause I'll always be / Just fine / Yeah I'll always be / Just fine"

Penned by Thile, "When in Rome" is about "burning it all down," and instrumentally matches its lyrical themes more than most of the trio's other tracks.

A breakup song featuring Sara on lead vocals, "Destination" is centered on the type of relationship that people often hurry back to as soon as another one fails. But this time, the narrator is determined to move on for good.

"I've got to make a destination / Find a place I'll be loved / This time I've got no hesitation / And I'll be moving on"

Sean Watkins wrote this one from the perspective of Harold Camping, a California preacher that forecast the world's end for May 21, 2011. In "21st of May," he approaches the narrator's cries with a heavy dose of cynicism.

"They laughed when Noah built his boat / Then cried when came the rain / They mock me now but I will float / On the 21st of May"

This is arguably Thile's darkest song, with an accompaniment and tone that makes it seem like a much happier love story than what it is in reality. The story is told from the perspective of a lighthouse that watched its keeper find and eventually lose his soon-to-be wife to the sea.

"I saw him crying / Watched as he buried her in the sand / And then he climbed my tower / And off the edge of me he ran"

"You Don't Know What's Going On" is centered around a codependent relationship in which the narrator believes that he has been wronged, even though he should have seen it coming. But when he finally finds a new relationship, he immediately demands that his partner carry the weight of relationship, repeating a toxic cycle.

"I just know that I tried and I tried and I'll try for you / If you want me to/If you can be the girl who / Believes in me / Who believes I can turn it around / Who keeps bailing out the water while the ship goes down / Who keeps calling my name when we're starting to drown"

"Ode to a Butterfly" is the instrumental track that introduced Nickel Creek to a mainstream audience. It's an up-tempo, traditional bluegrass jam session that allows each member to shine -- Thile on mandolin, Sara Watkins on fiddle and Sean Watkins on guitar. When the track and album debuted, Thile and Sara Watkins were still just teenagers.

"Beauty and the Mess" is a metaphor built on the music business and likely inspired by events from Nickel Creek's own career. Sara handles lead vocals here, but she bounces the refrain off of Thile.

"Behind the melody, the words don't mean a thing / But every tone I play will give whatever I've not said away"

In this Sean Watkins-fronted song, the narrator explains how they are afraid of change. Slowly, a new way of life begins to feel more familiar and becomes easier to embrace as time moves on.

"It's foreign on this side / But it feels like I'm home again / There's no place to hide / But I don't think I'm scared"

"Smoothie Song" served as the lead track from the 2002 album This Side. During a concert recorded for their album Live at the Fox Theater, Thile joked on stage about how difficult it is to name instrumental tracks, since there are no lyrical phrases to reference, a conundrum that led to this track's unique title.