Depraved

This song is quite possibly a masterpiece. It's absolutely brilliant and entirely left to the listener to decide it's dual meaning

Meaning 1- As this song is up to the listener's prerogative, this first time I listened to this I knew that it was about someone he knew that really always made him feel sorry for them, Depraved because that person was feeling left out and not cared for in there own warped sense. He leads on to saying "Are you depraved or are you deceived", in turn saying that deprivation is like being deceived one way or another- like they had been hurt before which led to deprivation. And in this meaning I quite took it literally about him saying "You're not a slave so get off your knees" meaning that so much other people could have worse than how you're doing right now. And through the chorus-like part it's almost like he doesn't know that person anymore.

Meaning 2- In the second prerogative of this song the meaning is quite literal if you knew the kind of humanitarian work Stephen does for his non-profit Faceless. Which spreads awareness on the hazards of human-trafficking of all kinds. So in this meaning it's describing someone he's met (most likely a refugee) who mistakes depravity for being deceived because it's happened to them for so long and the excuses which has kept them in containment. "Stop saying please" saying that they are so much better than whomever has deprived them and that they shouldn't be ashamed for the unreliable circumstances that they were dragged into. "Someone tell me your name" is literal because it's like Stephen asking this person's name who has gone nameless for so long.

The caps off the album so well- considering that it entirely is about struggle and the light that can shine from it. Utterly a magnum opus

Looking over their last couple of albums, Anberlin's album closers (not counting any of their bonus tracks, of course) have had the slow-building formula we know and love, but have also been about God or faith in some fashion. *fin was about Stephen's struggles with God throughout his life, and Miserabile Visu was about the End of the World and the book of Revelation.

If I look at this from a religious perspective, I get the feeling he's speaking of somebody who's using their religion to do harm, rather than spread love and the word of God, or somebody who believes in a false doctrine. I'm leaning toward the former, but the song could be about either.

"Are you depraved, or are you deceived?" He's asking whether or not this person is wicked and depraved, using God as a means to some despicable end, or if they're simply deceived. We see this all the time, these days. People claiming God and the Bible to hate race, sexual orientation, or whatever else. Muslim extremists, too, use God to justify what they do. Really, he's talking to anybody from any religion who's using it to only do harm, when God's all about love. He wants to know why they do what they do, and if they know or not what they're doing is wrong.

"Excuses aside, stop saying please." This person is asking them to please leave them alone. This is their religion. This possibly all they've known. They feel as though this is the right way, so they don't want to deviate from it. They're attached to the belief, and just want to be left alone to believe it in peace. But their beliefs aside, they're doing nothing but perpetuating pain and hatred. He wants them to stop saying 'Please leave me alone' and listen for a minute, to realize that they're not glorifying God, but spitting on all he stands for.

"You're not a slave, so get off your knees." If they were deceived, then they're praising God and using his name for all the wrong things. They're not a slave to this hateful doctrine they were fed and believed in, so they should get off their knees and stand on their own to feet to find their way. They need to stop being a slave to the hatred they've contributed to for so long.

"Are you ashamed that you were deceived?" He's asking whether they're ashamed of what they've done, now that they know the truth. Are they ashamed of everything they did, or are they vile and depraved, and knew all along but simply wanted an excuse for their hatred, and to get others to help perpetuate it.

"Someone tell me I'm wrong about you." He's come to the conclusion that they knew and they are simply depraved, but he was friends with or related to this person, and wants desperately for someone to tell him he's wrong about them. He wants somebody to tell him that his friend or loved one was deceived, and that they didn't know, even if the evidence points otherwise.

"Don't feel chained up" goes back to "You're not a slave, so get off your knees." This person isn't a slave to what they believe in, and they shouldn't feel as though they're chained up. They don't have to feel as though they have no choice because it's what God wants, because it's not. He wants to believe that this person was deceived, not depraved.

That's my interpretation, anyway. I could be wrong, but if the last couple of closers are any indication, this song is religious in some way, so who knows?

I interpret this song as coming from a guy whose best female friend is involved with a mentally/verbally abusive man (perhaps a narcissist) who took a naive, young girl (or a highly sensitive person) and turned her into something she's not. The narrator/singer is crying out to his friend because of the lifestyle she is now living with this man, and he knows who the girl used to be ("Are you depraved, or are you deceived?"). He knows she is not morally corrupt--she is just being manipulated by this man. The friendship is probably going through a rocky stage due to the disagreement between the friends on the girl's actions. The girl is begging her lover to stay with her/give her attention/forgive her for something he made her think she did wrong, and her friend is telling her "you're not a slave, so get off your knees." It is upsetting her friend so badly that he doesn't know what to think about his best girl friend anymore, nor society in general after losing hope in her ("Someone tell me I'm wrong about you.")

the speaker isn't quite sure if the person in question has been raised to be they way they are, or if they are indeed wicked because they want to be. Either way, the speaker is sick of it. He knows there is something beyond this person than the evil that shines through so much. Even if they were raised that way, they can't be happy, and they need to learn to overcome this, or they never will be. People can change. They can. You aren't "chained" to who you are now. You can change if you want, be whoever you want to be.

This song is fantastic and so is the album.

I believe the line is "don't feel chained down" And I have to say that Anberlin is famous for their huge epic album closers, and this one does NOT disappoint. Even though it's not as long or wordy as Fin, Miserable Visu, or Dance Dance, they really perfected packing it into a spectacular five and a half minutes. Bravo.

I love the "you're not a slave, so get off your knees" part. This whole song is pretty great. Not as good as (*Fin), but still awesome.

I agree that the impact of this song comes from its having so few words. I noticed that on this album, the songs are less wordy and rely more on repetition and minor variations to make their points. In a way, this makes them more difficult to interpret, but it also means that there are more possible interpretations.

My take: this song is a confrontation. The person being confronted is, I think, entirely up to the listener to decide. It could be a friend who has harmed the speaker in some way, or who has created some kind of distance between himself and the speaker. The speaker clearly has been hearing of or witnessing the other person's downward spiral. The other person has obviously been influenced by some corrupting force, having been "depraved" and "deceived" by that force, and is feeling like a "slave" to that force. Whether that force is a vice, or another person, is up to the listener to decide.

I also think the person being confronted could be a lover. The word "please" in this context helps me to imagine the type of pleading... "Please take me back..." "Please, try to understand..."

Then there's a part of me that wonders if this is self-reflexive, particularly after hearing "Down," the song preceding this one on the album. It's easy to imagine the speaker singing this to himself on some level, telling himself "You're not a slave," willing himself to change.

Whatever the case, the last stanza shows that the speaker is extremely reluctant to pass judgment on this person. As upset and disappointed that he is, he hopes that someone will prove him wrong.

The lead singer actually explained what this song is about in an interview. Here's what he said:

"I'm so intrigued by conspiracy theories. I'm not a believer in them but I read them methodically because I think they're this cusp of reality that I can't grasp, that I can't relate to, and so it was kind of like the lyrics of the song were about conspiracy theorists and those who buy into Obama as the anti-christ. [It feels like those people] are slaves to this alternate thinking, and it's bound to destroy them. It's just bound to negate anything they've ever said as truth, and so that's what the song's about."

Frontman Stephen Christian explained this song's lyrical content to Billboard magazine: "I'm so intrigued by conspiracy theories. I'm not a believer in them but I read them methodically because I think they're this cusp of reality that I can't grasp, that I can't relate to, and so it was kind of like the lyrics of the song were about conspiracy theorists and those who buy into Obama as the anti-christ. [It feels like those people] are slaves to this alternate thinking, and it's bound to destroy them. It's just bound to negate anything they've ever said as truth, and so that's what the song's about."

"I wanted a song that simply built, I loved how Thom Yorke would use his voice as an instrument and let the lyrics be wherever the pen might take them. My whole goal was to layer vocals upon vocals. I believe Nate helped write this song, one of many to come.

This song was inspired by those who I observed to be stagnant, to me this life is about those who are willing to go out and take it by throat. We make our own choices and live with the consequences; it seems others simply react to whatever happens to them, lying dormant until the next circumstance overtakes them. Go take on this life, its conquerable to those few with determined spirits." - Stephen Christian anberlinlyrics.tumblr.com June 2014