I will gain an extra life, when I get the high score.
You could respawn anywhere
I am one with the furniture, more inanimate than amateur
Like a television set! Gangrene knuckle announced so audibly!
I will boost my
Attention span, soon my clock will have a minute hand
You've become a smithereen!
(I'm watching that!)
Foxhound frolic on the abattoir floor, up in
Heaven it's symmetrical oh

Airbrush!
What have you done with my father?

Why does he look like a carving?
How do I live in the present?
I make my
Own density?

And Ah-Ah-Ah!
Who did your Photoshop handsome?
You ready for
Reincarnation?
Gotta come back as something organic,
Or come back as
Something else!

Just come back as something else!

More dollar!
Less scholar!
Less time!

My teeth dazzle like an igloo wall,
I inhabit, I
Inhibit y'all!
Can you operate alone?
Chest pumped elegantly elephantine,
Southern hemisphere by Calvin Klein
Watch your dorsal fin collapse! I know
Nothing about my history!
I put a rain forest in an Oxo cube! Struck by
Lightning if I take the tube!
Thank your chromosomes for that
I have skin
Like a waxen peel,
And a face that I can never feel but

Airbrush!
What
Have you done with my landscape?
Flooding the fields with this clone
Shape?
Where is the country you died for?
And what is the century?

And
Ah-Ah-Ah!
Who did your Photoshop handsome?
You ready for
Reincarnation?
Gotta come back as something less frantic
You gotta banish
That army of panic
Gotta come back as something organic,

Come back as
Something organic, or come back as something else!

I will gain an extra
Life,
I will gain an extra

Airbrush!
What have you done with my father?

Why does he look like a carving?
How do I live in the present?
I make my
Own density?

And Ah-Ah-Ah!
Who did your Photoshop handsome?
You ready for
Reincarnation?
Gotta come back as something organic,
Or come back as
Something else!


Lyrics submitted by ceeyer

Photoshop Handsome Lyrics as written by Jeremy Joseph Pritchard Alexander Kaines Robertshaw

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

Photoshop Handsome song meanings
Add Your Thoughts

7 Comments

sort form View by:
  • +3
    General Comment

    i cant think of any othe rpiece of art that so brilliantly and poetically describes and forewarns of pitfalls of living in our current technological age (with the exception of some phil k dick books)

    mainly hinting at digital dissociation from reality like unreal expectations ( gaining an life (as in real life - you just dont get another one so dont fool yourself you might) + skin creams that give you the facial texture of acomputer animated avatar)

    and changing reality (touching up photos)

    its like a warning that we're walking into the first matrix movie - not abducted by aliens and forced to live like that but we're doing it by choice or just lack of awareness that its happening cos we're so immersed in the technology and we're missing what is real and our place in history or our culture

    can i add a few of my thoughts to your awesome and thorough line by line pumpkin?:

    I put a rainforest in an Oxo cube! [what a great line - i think its about distilling experience into a concentrated form which still undeniably ends up being full and impressive (like an oxo cube ??!!) but in no way can be compared to experiencing the original (a rainforest)

    southern hemisphere by Calvin Klein [he's talking about the lunchbox in his pants - his, er nether regions down in the southern hemisphere nudge nudge wink wink!

    • it comes straight after the 'Chest pumped elegantly elephantine' line about breast enlargements and its saying that guys do this too or at least have the expectation hoisted on them in a similar way to ladies being exposed to photoshopped images of women that could only be achieved through surgery, hormones or digital manipulation - to test this theory, next time youre buying boxers check out the dood on the box whos modelling the calvin klien ones - ffs this guy is like unbelievably ripped - you or i are never gonna look like this dood in those pants in fact i can guarantee youre never ever going to see someone who looks like that in the flesh (ok, unless maybe you stumble into a steroid takers convention) ] btw they are really nice pants tho

    Watch your dorsal fin collapse! [ i just thought this was like in free willy or (supposedly) any whale kept in captivity - it makes their dorsal fin go all limp and kinda fall over meaning that we're in danger of losing some mojo that we would have if were living wild or true rather that confined and cosseted in the over cosy embrace of modern technological living

    soon my clock will have a minute hand [ i think thats about the upgrade culture with phones and ipods - like in the 17C when watches started to be worn and everyone pleased with themselves if theyve got a watch - then suddenly some canny swiss watchmaker tinkers with the mechanism and - look that guys watch has got an extra hand thats zooming round - jeez - hes got a minute hand!!!!....... upgrade time ;)]

    rhizzlaon January 20, 2011   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    What a track this is man, what a track. This is pure genius...

    SoftMinton November 29, 2010   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    It's certainly worth noting what the band says about the song's lyrics. Off their youtube channel:

    " "Our new single Photoshop Handsome looks at the world of digital image manipulation and computer game re-incarnation. What would it feel like to come back to life as one of the 'perfected', false, immortal beings that adorn magazine covers, adverts and games?

    We took the idea of photoshopping and digital re-imagining of the self to its most extreme conclusion with our new video. We laid out loose guidelines for a huge number of creative digital artists and let them run free with their imaginations, each editing literally only a few seconds of video in total. The result is a very colourful and diverse explosion of ideas, the image of ourselves re-imagined hundreds of times in 3 minutes. We hope to open the imagination and raise some thoughts about what it means to change our perceptions of ourselves to the extent we do." Jonathan Everything "

    SoftMinton December 15, 2010   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    Nice interpretations! Also:

    You've become a smithereen - a tiny broken piece, alienation, fragmentation, dissolution (RD Laing)

    Up in heaven its symettrical - 'As above, so below' Heraclitus

    How do I live in the present? - Zen: if you have to ask, you won't understand the answer

    Can I change my own density - pun/Malapropism on destiny

    What have you done to my father? - maybe connected to 'Where is the country you died for? (Lots of father references on this album)

    why does he look like a carving - effects of ageing, deeply lined face?

    Rainforest in a Oxo cube - deforestation for beef farming in S America

    Struck by lighning if I take the Tube - impressed (struck) by sparking rails (lighning)?

    A landmark in songwriting!

    hotratson March 07, 2011   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation

    At first glance this a nonsense song, it could have been written by Edward Lear!

    I will gain an extra life, when I get the high score. You could respawn anywhere� [people are ingrossed in video games, they think they can do anything - or indeed respawn anywhere] I am one with the furniture, more inanimate than amateur Like a television set! / Gangrene knuckle announced so audibly! [people anouncing everything on social networking sites, writing every little thing on Facebook or Twitter, but others don't want to hera this really, and people often say things they shouldn't] I will boost my attention span; soon my clock will have a minute hand [people are desperate to improve themselves, and the internet and other distractions are shortening my attention span] You�ve become a smithereen! (I�m watching that!) Foxhound frolic on the abattoir floor, up in heaven it�s symmetrical oh

    Airbrush! What have you done with my father? [pictures are all too often altered...] Why does he look like a carving? [...sometimes confusingly] How do I live in the present? [the narrator is confused by the modern world, doesn't understand how he/she can survive in it] I make my own density? [He/she doesn't know how to carve out their own identity]

    And Ah-Ah-Ah! Who did your Photoshop handsome? [most pictures in are adapted in some way, maybe this is said sarcasticly, saying that the photoshoped image isn't really that handsome] You ready for reincarnation? [pictures can be changed into something completely new] Gotta come back as something organic, Or come back as something else!

    Just come back as something else!

    More dollar! Less scholar! Less time! [poeple now want more money (dollar), without having to work for it (scholar) or for long time]

    My teeth dazzle like an igloo wall [an adapted photo], I inhabit, I inhibit y'all! [some people like they can't be as good as these images they see] Can you operate alone? [people think they don't need others but really they do] Chest pumped elegantly elephantine, [i think this is referring to breast enlargements, that seem as big as an elephant] southern hemisphere by Calvin Klein [too many things are endorsed by clebrities, or are designed by famous designers, as a gimmick] Watch your dorsal fin collapse! [only the writer knows exactly what this line means!] /I know nothing about my history! [some people are happy to be ignorant and flaunt it like a badge of honour] I put a rainforest in an Oxo cube! [ the impossibility of some images; possibly talking about the destruction of the rain forests]Struck by lightning if I take the tube! [perhaps referring to people over worrying, the nanny state, health and safety culture] Thank your chromosomes for that I have skin like a waxen peel, and a face that I can never feel but

    Airbrush! What have you done with my landscape? [it is hard to understand the reason behind some image alterations] Flooding the fields with this clone shape? [everyone should look the same (perfect, idealised) according to magazines and adverts] Where is the country you died for? [people don't care about their heritage, their country] And what is the century? [people aren't bothered about their heritage, about historic buildings]

    And Ah-Ah-Ah! Who did your Photoshop handsome? You ready for reincarnation? Gotta come back as something less frantic [modern life is busy and people often complain about this] You gotta banish that army of panic Gotta come back as something organic,

    Come back as something organic, or come back as something else!

    I will gain an extra life, I will gain an extra� [want more time, video game references again]

    Airbrush! What have you done with my father?

    Why does he look like a carving? How do I live in the present? I make my own density?

    And Ah-Ah-Ah! Who did your Photoshop handsome? You ready for reincarnation? Gotta come back as something organic, Or come back as something else!

    This is an awesome band so I don't see why they aren't more popular! It might be because their music doesn't fit the mould, I mean, the majority of boy bands (sorry if I offend you, but you are a band in which the members are male) only sing about being in or out of love. Its great to hear soemthing so different ans interesting.

    PumpkinFaceLovesYouon December 13, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    great band, great song. undeniably catchy and hard-hitting.

    spdoggyon February 22, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    It's a fantastic piece of work on what is for me the finest album of the 21st century to date. All the above comments are vlid and welcomed. I also feel it's partly about reincarnation, that we've gone too far into inauthentic behaviour and lost touch with what is wild and real (foxhound on the abbattoir floor) we eat meat but we don't kill it. The inauthentic is illustrated by the Photoshop pic of his dad, who died in the war ? If you believe in reincarnation, "come back as something organic" is a plea for a simpler, shorter (?) life, perhaps a smaller brain (less scholar, less time) but - "more dollar" ?? It's a plea for connection, like the punch in the face which finishes the video. I love it

    magicmenagerieon June 22, 2011   Link

Add your thoughts

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!

More Featured Meanings

Album art
Holiday
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday". I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
Album art
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
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.
Album art
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988. "'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it." "There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Album art
When We Were Young
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Album art
Plastic Bag
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.