Everything's a Ceiling

This song makes me think a lot about my last relationship and my relationship now. My last relationship lasted four years and we'd built this life together that whole time. We knew we'd get married, buy a house together, grow old together. Then one day he just left, and had a new girlfriend three weeks later. This is what I think of when I heard the line, "you pulled the ladder and left me stranded". That's exactly how it felt, being stranded.

I met someone new and it took me months to be ready to start "digging" again. Imagine my surprise when I listen to this song for the first time as we're making centerpieces for our wedding. We'll keep digging, just like we planned it...

I like to think that song lyrics can be interpreted individually depending on how you conceive it.

For me, personally, I relate this song to depression, and how it can be like a deep dark hole that you can't escape.

"So far down in this hole, there's little daylight I feel the shards of the midday sun and then it's black as midnight The only stars I see in the sky, they don't move me 'Cause they've all been dead for millions of years, They're just light diffusing"

With depression, there will be moments when I will feel shards of happiness and liveliness, and for the rest of the time it's dark and hopeless. As for the stars, those seem to symbolize the lack of motivation or inspiration.

Anywho, that's my take on it.

A couple corrections from the disc booklet, in case they don't go through for stupid copyright reasons:

"And a constellation is more Than the brightest point of its form But every telescope you assumed Was pointed only at you"

"But if the Earth is as round as they say Then I won't find another place From where I break back through [b]That's[/b] farther away from you"

A guy and girl are in love and start to build a life together (digging a hole) One day she breaks it off and leaves (pulls the ladder and leaves him stranded)

He goes through a really rough time dealing with the breakup and struggles to see the light at the end of the tunnel (there's little daylight)

Guy starts to feel bitter about breakup and believes girl is selfish (every telescope pointed at you) and states that he now feels a world away from her (further away from you).

Guys feels lost and lonely and girl has started new relationship (digging with someone new)

This is of course my interpretation but this song speak so loudly to me, having been the in the same position as the guy. I see this as a break-ups song and think it lends itself better when Ben sings it acoustic (check out youtube).

A very clever song, even though it's a little on the nose and sort of confusingly written. I think the analogy of digging a hole is kind of confusing here as it seems to be referring to both getting over depression as well as life plans with an intimate partner.

The first stanza refers to Ben "digging a hole" with Zooey, referring to making life plans, a home, and life together in their marriage. Then, one day, she backed out of all of these plans and decided she wants a life with someone else, thus "climbing out of the hole." However, this left Ben stuck in all of these plans and ambitions alone, leaving him feeling abandoned, and confused as to how he's supposed to proceed.

The song continues to describe Ben's depression in response to being abandoned. I think the lyric "the only stars I see in the sky, they don't move me 'cause they've all been dead for millions of years, they're just light diffusing" is a really clever way of describing depression. Depressed people often interpret anything good that happens to them as either just a logical outcome of something bad, or just not worth interpreting as something good at all.

The next stanza is actually wrong here, the lyrics are actually:

"And a constellation is more Than the brightest point of its form But every telescope you assumed Was pointed only at you"

This seems to be relating to their relationship as a couple of famous people. It's clear from this album that Zooey's higher levels of fame than Ben was something that harmed their relationship ("No Room in Frame," "Black Sun"). I think the constellation refers to their relationship, and how Zooey believed it to be her as a famous person being married to someone "lesser", rather than a balanced relationship of two people. The lyric about the telescope refers to the media and people watching them, and how Zooey believed her concerns and status in the relationship to be more important than Ben's.

The rest of the song refers to Ben acknowledging that he's at his lowest at this point, and that he has no other choice but to get through these tough times and committing to getting better and one day breaking free from these life plans he made with Zooey.