The 88 - At Least It Was Here Lyrics Meaning

IMO, it's about facing death in contemplating suicide.

"Give me your hands
Show me the door
I cannot stand
To wait anymore
Somebody said
Be what you'll be
We could be old and cold and dead on the scene"

The song personifies Death, and the singer asks Death to give him their hands, and to show him the door (a common phrase for helping someone exit, in this case exiting life). The singer cannot stand to wait anymore, suggesting that waiting is all he does in life, i.e. he lives a mundane existence. He alludes to the prevalent live-and-let-live attitude in society (society represented by the ambiguous "somebody") which many people adapt to "not get involved", "stay out of it", etc. "Be what you'll be", but then suggests that that is not the best way forward. "We could be old and cold and dead on the scene". Essentially, he asks people to take interest in bettering the world before it's too late, instead of choosing not to help out when it inconveniences themselves.

"But I love you more than words can say
I can't count the reasons I should stay"

The singer expresses his love for life, representing a loved one/loved ones, who are his entire "life" -- the entire world to him, and that that is the only thing that is stopping him from committing suicide (hence the use of the word "but" - it's him arguing with himself reasons to stay alive).

There's a bit of ambiguity when he says he can't count the reasons he should stay (living). It could mean that he has a lot to live for, and even though he suggests the only things he lives for are his loved one(s), they mean a great deal to him. It could also mean that he doesn't want ("can't" used in place of "won't" being used to enforce his strong feelings against it) to try counting, because he's afraid that there won't be any actual reasons to stay.

"Give me some more
Time in a dream
Give me the hope to run out of steam
Somebody said it can be here
We could be roped up, tied up, dead in a year"

The singer wants some more time to be happy, with his loved one(s)/his life. He compares his suicidal thoughts/intentions as a steam-powered train, and asks for hope to run out of the steam (fuel, i.e. causes of suicidal thoughts) before reaching his destination (death). Once again, he references society on a whole -- that society warns people about staying alive and the hazards of life, but ends up blowing things out of proportion, "we could be roped up, tied up, dead in a year," is verbal irony, and the singer is subtly mocking the exaggerated risks that many people accept.

"I can't count the reasons I should stay
One by one they all just fade away"

At this point, the singer -- who has been lost in thought about the things/people he loves in his life (reasons to keep living) -- finds that his positive outlook on what his life is about fades away when he thinks about how he's feeling himself, and stops thinking about others.

"I'm tired of the wait-and-sees
I'm tired of that part of me
That makes up a perfect lie
To keep us between
But hours turn into days
So watch what you throw away
And be here to recognize
There's another way"

The singer is tired of waiting for things to get better or happier. He's tired of lying to himself and saying that he and the people he loves are happy. Again, the song uses the word "but" to indicate him arguing with himself to keep on living.

The last two lines of the stanza seem to trail off unexpectedly. The singer's reasons for staying alive are getting more and more irrational, and he's just regurgitating commonly used arguments against suicide now, ("don't throw away your life," "there's another way," etc.), instead of actually having a reason to live.

Give me some more
Time in a dream
Give me the hope to run out of steam
Somebody said it can be here
We could be roped up, tied up, dead in a year

The singer is uncomfortable by the innate realisation that he has no reasons to live, and so reverts to the last time in his argument that it was reasonable to stay alive (hence the repetition of a stanza).

"But I love you more than words can say"

The singer tries to hold on to the time when he wanted to live, repeating his sentences in an effort to not go through with suicide.

"I can't count the reasons I should stay"

The ambiguous phrase is repeated. Before, the singer could lie to himself and say that it was because he has so many reasons to stay, too many to count. He lets his guard down because of the phrase's past success and repeats the it, but in his agitated state of mind it jolts him back completely to where he knows that he has no reasons to keep living.

"One by one they all just fade away"

The singer begins to resign himself to suicide.

"Oh I love you more than words can say"

The argumentative "but" is replaced by a resigned "oh". The singer is happy with the positive things in his life in the past, but he has stopped using them as arguments to keep going in the future. He kills himself.