Ranting and raving about my favorite song lyrics, vol. 1

So, ever since I started posting here, I've wanted to share some of my favorite lyrics with you guys, and explain their importance, try to analyze them, or just tell you why I like them. There aren't any real guidelines to how I wrote about these lyrics, so be prepared for all sorts of rambling and gushing. Will there ever be A volume 2? Probably not, but we can dream, can't we?

Radiohead-No Surprises

A heart that's full up like a landfill,
a job that slowly kills you,
bruises that won't heal.
You look so tired and unhappy,
bring down the government,
they don't, they don't speak for us.
I'll take a quiet life,
a handshake of carbon monoxide,

with no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
Silent silence.

The first thing that you notice about ‘No Surprises’ is that there are two people represented in the song’s lyrics. In the last six lines you have your average tired, defeated member of the American working class, sitting in his cubicle, staring at his computer, giving into the isolation and lack of fulfillment that comes with working in the modern technological age. The first six lines are made to represent the voice inside that person’s head, trying to spur him towards an escape from his misery, the government, or any sort of submission to the environment he’s living in. The voice inside his head is defeated in the end, and Thom Yorke makes his point: Technology will only lead man into more isolation, vacuousness, and inescapable agony. Seven years after the release of OK Computer, after the Dot Com bust, and as the internet and e-mail plant themselves even further into the mainstream, we can finally start to grasp what Thom was trying to tell us.

Modest Mouse-Paper Thin Walls

Its been agreed, the whole world stinks
So no ones taking showers anymore

This kind of pessimism thinly disguised as humor is what is going to define our generation (Generation Y, or what ever buzz word people are using to describe us these days). Our mantra is: The world is full of ugly things, why even bother trying to do anything about it? The answer is, of course, why not? Any kind of optimism is seen as stupidity or immaturity to us, when in actuality, the opposite makes a lot more sense. Who would you rather be around: A pessimistic or optimistic person? We can’t complain our whole lives. Yeah, the world can be a shitty place, but there are enough of us out there to change that, or at least clean it up a little. ...but don’t try telling Isaac Brock, the lead singer of Modest Mouse, that.

Article Author: Matthew Parten

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