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.
Sometimes the windows combine with the seams in a way
That twitches on a peak at the place where the spirit was slain
One foot leads to another
Night's for sleep, blue curtains, covers
Sequins in the eyes
That's a fine time to dine
Divine who's circling, feeding the cards to the midwives
Who love those alien days
The nonstop alien days
Ooh the alien days
Must've skipped the ship and joined the team
For a ride
A couple hours to learn the controls
And commandeer both my eyes
Hey!
Be quick dear, times are uncertain
One month crawling, next year blurring
Decades in the drain
Monograms on the brain
Decide what's working and what's moved on
To the last phase
The floodgate alien days
I love those alien days
Mmm... the alien days
When the peels are down, it feels like traveling in style
You don't need wings to hover forty ton stones for a mile
And in the summer, virgin visions
Mindless humming
Numbers can't decide if the day's supposed to smile
Today find infinite ways it could be
Plenty worse
It's a blessing but it's also a curse
Those days taught me everything I know
How to catch a feeling
And when to let it go
How all the scheming, soulless creatures
Can't find dreamer's honey in the hive
If it's right beneath the nose
And when the light is new
The sky shows trembling cartoons
You don't need smoke to cover
Most of the world in a gloom
But here comes racer number 7
Watch my fingers ripping out the lines
If it looks like we could lose
If it looks like we could lose
If it looks like we could lose
If it looks like we could lose
That twitches on a peak at the place where the spirit was slain
One foot leads to another
Night's for sleep, blue curtains, covers
Sequins in the eyes
That's a fine time to dine
Divine who's circling, feeding the cards to the midwives
Who love those alien days
The nonstop alien days
Ooh the alien days
Must've skipped the ship and joined the team
For a ride
A couple hours to learn the controls
And commandeer both my eyes
Hey!
Be quick dear, times are uncertain
One month crawling, next year blurring
Decades in the drain
Monograms on the brain
Decide what's working and what's moved on
To the last phase
The floodgate alien days
I love those alien days
Mmm... the alien days
When the peels are down, it feels like traveling in style
You don't need wings to hover forty ton stones for a mile
And in the summer, virgin visions
Mindless humming
Numbers can't decide if the day's supposed to smile
Today find infinite ways it could be
Plenty worse
It's a blessing but it's also a curse
Those days taught me everything I know
How to catch a feeling
And when to let it go
How all the scheming, soulless creatures
Can't find dreamer's honey in the hive
If it's right beneath the nose
And when the light is new
The sky shows trembling cartoons
You don't need smoke to cover
Most of the world in a gloom
But here comes racer number 7
Watch my fingers ripping out the lines
If it looks like we could lose
If it looks like we could lose
If it looks like we could lose
If it looks like we could lose
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"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."
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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
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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
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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.
Consciousness vs. Subconsciousness
I like to think that this song is a journey into the brain of the narrator. Most of the song is taking place in a very deep and dark layer of his consciousness, where raw fundamental feelings and only a limited number of words with extremely heavy meaning float around, as the narrator reflects on himself and life. Down here, according to the experiences of the narrator (on drugs or not) it all shifts around to shape the structure of the conscious person on the surface, all happening on one of those ‘Alien Days’
This is the clearest, most conscious part of the narrators thoughts:
those days taught me everything I know how to catch a feeling and when to let it go how all the scheming, soulless creatures can't find dreamer's honey in the hive if it's right beneath the nose
To me this is simply a more defined sense of feeling in the narrator, in which the subconscious ramble seems to take shape as actual conscious revelation. To me this seems to show the narrators’ look on people being of 2 kinds; ‘schemers’ and ‘dreamers’ and how the ‘schemers’ are unable to enjoy their stressful lives like the ‘dreamers’ can. The narrator is definitely a dreamer! ☺
you don't need wings to hover forty ton stones for a mile
This seems to be an early subconscious grasp of the sensation ‘faith can move mountains,’
but here comes racer number 7 watch my fingers ripping out the lines if it looks like we could lose
This very last part of the song I think it is supposed to mean how our whole life is like a race in which we hope our bet wins!
I find this song beautifully volatile. Every line is almost perpetually ambiguous and every listen brings a new perspective and understanding.