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.
I made her from pieces of stars
The ones that fell when you shot through
A sky that burned not to return
No other element would do
Her soul was grown in the bathroom
Her heart is just a red balloon
I gave her lips from wild orchids
When she came out of the cocoon
Not the real thing
Not the real thing
Not the real thing
I can barely see the sun
Now it's blue
I can barely see the sun
Because she kisses like a prototype
I programmed her with eye color
Majestic emerald green
Uploaded with your attitude
She will do it like a machine
But no matter how hard I've tried
She never smiles unless she's high
And just like you
Won't ever stop crying
Not the real thing
Not the real thing
Not the real thing
I can barely see the sun
Now it's blue
I can barely see the sun
Because she kisses like a prototype
Kisses like a prototype of you
Please come back and rescue me from the machines
And I'll be wondering why you do it with somebody else
Please come back and rescue me
And I'll be wandering while you do it with somebody else
Not the real thing
Not the real thing
Not the real thing
I can barely see the sun
Now it's blue
I can barely see the sun
She's a prototype of you
I can barely see the sun
Now it's blue
I can barely see the sun
Because she kisses like a prototype
Kisses like a prototype
The ones that fell when you shot through
A sky that burned not to return
No other element would do
Her soul was grown in the bathroom
Her heart is just a red balloon
I gave her lips from wild orchids
When she came out of the cocoon
Not the real thing
Not the real thing
Not the real thing
I can barely see the sun
Now it's blue
I can barely see the sun
Because she kisses like a prototype
I programmed her with eye color
Majestic emerald green
Uploaded with your attitude
She will do it like a machine
But no matter how hard I've tried
She never smiles unless she's high
And just like you
Won't ever stop crying
Not the real thing
Not the real thing
Not the real thing
I can barely see the sun
Now it's blue
I can barely see the sun
Because she kisses like a prototype
Kisses like a prototype of you
Please come back and rescue me from the machines
And I'll be wondering why you do it with somebody else
Please come back and rescue me
And I'll be wandering while you do it with somebody else
Not the real thing
Not the real thing
Not the real thing
I can barely see the sun
Now it's blue
I can barely see the sun
She's a prototype of you
I can barely see the sun
Now it's blue
I can barely see the sun
Because she kisses like a prototype
Kisses like a prototype
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This song can be interpreted from a love perspective, but I believe the meaning is more than that. I think this has more to do with the Information Age and the loss of humanity when we get enthralled in the Information Age.
The fact that the singer/author "made her from pieces of stars" and "he gave her lips from wild orchids when she came out of the cocoon" recognizes the creation of her through an unrealistic means, as if she was processed or generated, rather than born, similar to robots or computers being created by mankind. Hence she is the "prototype" or robot f this age, and this idea is further rendered from "I programmed her with eye color" and "she will do it like a machine." The fact that the singer tells this in the first person recognizes that he is indeed a human, yet he creates her aside from the way humans normally wouldn't.
And then there's the idea of dystopia thinking. "A sky that burned not to return" and "I can barely see the sun, now it's blue" recognizes that the world isn't the same as it should be. Instead, it has been rendered and changed from the past, become this sort of future dystopian computer world where we create robots to have human thought.
Essentially, the world is Earth, but no longer fruitful, so the author makes this "prototype" as a way to bring some sort of humanity into the world. The author/singer tries to program nature into this "prototype" with "majestic emerald green" and "her heart is a red balloon." Yet, all of this majestic emerald green and red balloons are just metaphors of the past, feel good images that are now only artificially rendered (they no longer exist in the new world, so the author/singer tries to bring them back so that the world is still Earth-like and not all robotic).
Lastly, I interpret this song as if the author's immediate youth was lost. The author/singer seems to realize the world has changed in the past, and he's bringing back his lover into a world that has vastly changed through information and industry. It's not so much that he ost his love to another man or woman, it's the fact that the world has changed and taken away everything Earth-like, and this "protoype" he creates is his way of re-experiencing the past world in an artificial way. He wants to go back to the past world of "wild orchids" rather than be consumed by machines, so he makes the best of what he has, even if it's artificial.