I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
My exit, observed, my homesickness, absurd, I said "water," expecting a word would satisfy my thirst! talking all about the second and third when I haven't understood the first. jonah, where's that boat going- your ship set with eager sail? there's a swirling storm soon blowing, and no use, fishermen, in rowing from a consecrated wale! just like the clouds bring a darkness and a hard rains gunna fall I felt the crowds bring a loneliness and a hard rain's gonna fall. she always weighed me down, but, afraid I might need her, I dragged her around (it's best to keep close sackcloth and ash in a whitewashed town) she wore that phony smile on her face, I guess I like a bandageon a wounded place while I kept the keys to every old lock just in case, rehearsed indifference tossed aside out narrow arms spread wide, "what unseen pen etched eternal things on the hearts of humankind - but never let them in our minds?" like the clouds bring a darkness and a hard rain's gonna fall and all my laughter ends in emptiness and a hard rain's gonna fall. my every medicine caused more illness and a hard rain's gonna fall but until I let you go I didn't know. you were never mine at all but now I spend my days in ever-increasingly complicated ways convinving myself of the rightness of each word I say my exit. unfair if unobserved! ya sabur subhannallahi a'udhu billahi minash-shaitanir-rajim. al-hamdu lilllah. bismillahir rahmanir rahim
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More Featured Meanings
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
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.
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“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.
way to not stanza.
an Islamic prayer: "O Patient One, geatness belongs to God. In the name of God, I renounce Satan. All praise belongs to God. I begin in the name of God, most compassionate, most merciful."
there you guys go. i love this song so much. it's probably my favourite on the album at the moment.
" Oh Most Patient, Glory be to Thee (you), I seek refuge in you from Satan the accursed. Praise be to Allah (God). In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Compassionate/Merciful."
The quote "what unseen pen etched eternal things on the hearts of humankind, but never let them in our minds?" is another way of phrasing the Biblical passage Ecclesiastes 3:11
I absolutely LOVE this song, but there's one thing about it that bothers me... a "great fish" swallowed jonah, not a whale. just saying, just saying.
im pretty sure aaron knows it was a fish, i would think they just changed it because there is more music in the word "whale" then there is in "fish". . . as the daughter of a poet thats my assessment, but who knows
really good song. does anyone know what the last part means?
i have no idea i really want to know though
i love the way he says.. "when i haven't understood the first" hahah SO GOOD. im so obsessed with this cd. I wanna see em' live.
I just saw mwY last night in Cleveland. Before they played this song Aaron mentioned that it is about his mom.
aaron weiss and josh scogin are possibly the two best lyricists in music today. well, they are in my opinion, and, mine is the only one that counts for me.