What People Are Made Of

"On the first page of the book of blue it read 'If you read this page, than that'll be your death' By then it was too late"

The book of blue is the rules of living on Earth: once you are born (open the book and read the page) then you're bound to the rules (that you'll one day die).

"And you wound up on an island of shells and bones that bodies had left"

This is not a metaphor at all. Land is dirt and rocks, which are from dead organic matter from millions of years ago. We are all bound to an island of the old shells and bones of all living things.

"And the one thing you taught me 'bout human beings was this They ain't made of nothin' but water and shit"

Again, this is not a metaphor. Literally, what is all life made of? We are essentially just matter recycled from what's already here. The land is literally made of the excrement of bugs and worms that have processed the mass of things once living.

Of course, when it's screamed out and with Issac Brock's attitude, this final sentence manages to be both empathetic to our biological-determinist earth-bound nature, and also scathingly harsh and pissed. Genius.

I swear I commented on this song before, so it must have gotten deleted. But anyway, I love the part where he talks about the clock. I get this image of a crowded room of people and they all turn to look at the clock as the guy tells them about it. Then its a mad race to see who can guess the age first.

Anyway.

The beginning is awesome too when he says, "What's up? Make love?" I love how he says that!

Firstly: Script Kiddie, what the hell? I don't know what's worse, if you meant that as analysis or as a cheap shot at MM. Sorry.

Anyways.

'Rag Weed Tall' I think that's a reference to 'Life like weeds', a person who thinks too much of themselves, and they better hope that the pedestal they put themselves up on doesn't break or the reality is really gonna hurt 'em, they're just a weed like the rest of us.

Similarly, I think 'The Battle at the Bottom of the Ocean' is a reference to '3rd Planet', the ocean symbolises something special in our blood, and way deep down in the roots of our existence the land (or shit, darkness, inevitablity of death at the seabed ---see later) is fighting with the 'water' and it's killing us , 'well the dead do rise'

I think the 'clock in the cage' is reality, time passing by for an eternity but trapped within the limits of itself, you can't win it or hope to understand it because it is un-understandable 'constantly changes'

The 'book of blue' I think is another image of the reality of everything, the book of blue is maybe the book of the ocean, the book of humans. And to be a human being is to die, and by the time you are human it's too late to escape your fate and it's unfair 'by then it was too late'

'The island of shells and bones that bodies had left' is any place on the earth, and like 'Tiny Cities Made of Ashes' everything we live on or create is made out of something else that's already dead.

So, when he says 'human beings ain't made of nothing but water and shit' it's actually not so depressing, IMO, the 'shit' is the dead stuff on land but the 'water' is something else outside the island we're stuck on, something maybe better?

Anyway, a soaring finish to possibly my favourite MM album. I love it.

The clock is a reference to quantum mechanics and/or chaos theory: when you look at a subatomic particle, you are unsure of its exact location and state because the very act of looking at it changes its location and state; and with chaos theory, things are just too complicated to figure everything in the universe out, because we are a part of this universe.

these beats are fresh. they're "spank," if you will

The water motif is plentiful here, and its interesting to see that Brock continues that with many of his songs as well as with his latest album. So what does water signify? Probably, in accordance with his existentialist beliefs, the source of all life and the source of our lives. And it connects back with the very start where he mentions that we were all animals swimming the ocean before we came to land. The very last line hits hard because while we come from water, that's all we are made of. As significant as we are to be alive, it's equally insignificant. And that fits right into the idea of the entire album. The Moon and Antarctica is so full of existentialist meaning and interpretations of life, but it is equally insignificant bullshit in the end. This song completely reverses the cathartic ending of Life Like Weeds just like an ending to a book that punches you in the face at the very end and laughs at you for believing all the bullshit you just read. That's really what makes M&A so perfect. It creates a ethereal world view and feeling within you and throws you back into the dirty reality at the very end, leaving you stranded and reviewing what you just listened to.

Love this song, especially the last line. THEY! AIN'T! MADE! OF! NOTHING! BUT! WATER! AND! SHIT!

;)

i love the last line, because it's way too true.

i love this song. it's so pumped up and it's damn awesome. i wish there was a guitar tab for this damn song.

Oh man is this a cool song or what. I love the music in this song and how it's just so "pumped up" like def linus said.