Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
My name is Leslie Anne Levine
My mother birthed me down a dry revine
My mother birthed me far too soon
Born at nine and dead at noon
Fifteen years gone now
I still wander this parapet
And shake my rattle bone
Fifteen years gone now
I still cling to the petticoats
Of the girl who died with me
On the roofs above the streets
The only love I've known's a chimney sweep
Lost and lodged inside a flue
Back in 1842
Fifteen years gone now
I still wail from these catacombs
And curse my mother's name
Fifteen years gone now
Still a wastrel mesallied
Has brought this fate on me
My name is Leslie Anne Levine
And I've got no one left to mourn for me
My body lies inside its grave
In a ditch not far away
Fifteen years gone now
I still wander this parapet
And shake my rattle bone
Fifteen years gone now
I still cling to the petticoats
Of the girl who died with me
Who died with me
Who died with me
Who died with me, oh no, no, no, no
My mother birthed me down a dry revine
My mother birthed me far too soon
Born at nine and dead at noon
Fifteen years gone now
I still wander this parapet
And shake my rattle bone
Fifteen years gone now
I still cling to the petticoats
Of the girl who died with me
On the roofs above the streets
The only love I've known's a chimney sweep
Lost and lodged inside a flue
Back in 1842
Fifteen years gone now
I still wail from these catacombs
And curse my mother's name
Fifteen years gone now
Still a wastrel mesallied
Has brought this fate on me
My name is Leslie Anne Levine
And I've got no one left to mourn for me
My body lies inside its grave
In a ditch not far away
Fifteen years gone now
I still wander this parapet
And shake my rattle bone
Fifteen years gone now
I still cling to the petticoats
Of the girl who died with me
Who died with me
Who died with me
Who died with me, oh no, no, no, no
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No Surprises
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Ed Sheeran
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“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
This song is a counterpart to the song "We Both Go Down Together". "Leslie Ann Levine" was written first, making "we both go down together" the Prequel.
In 1842 Leslie was a mans name, and he is "clinging to the petty coat of the girl who died with [him]" his "un-touched Miranda" (see "we both go down together")
The line "Born at nine, dead at noon" likens ones life to the hours on a clock, the narrator is a teenager. This is why He repeats "Fifteen years gone now" he died at 15, making those years a waste.
In "we both go down together" the narrator says, "You come from parents wanton, a child hood rough and rotten, I come from wealth and beauty, untouched by work or duty". He also speaks of his parents forbidding there love; because of this they meet at his veranda, jump off the cliff together and commit suicide.
This explains many things: 1)Why he still "wail(s) from these catacombs and curse(s) [his] mothers name", it is her rejection which forced the suicide. 2)He says "The only love I've ever know's a chimney sweep" one of the lowest forms of work in 1842 3)Why he is "wandering this parapet". 4)Why he is buried in a dry ravine 5)Who the "wastrel" is in the line "This wastrel mislead, has brought this fate on me"
Just a side note the Decemberists hail from Portland, I don't know what it is that makes Portlandiers more imaginative, creative and all around more awesome...must be something in the water.