Rubber Mallet

Best song by Alien Ant Farm. It's so damn good!

Very shocked to have not found a breakdown of Rubber Mallet, genuinely one of their best songs imo, has to be top 3.

Essentially, Rubber Mallet is about someone just free from their relationship and satisfied they were able to play their partner with as little emotional damage as possible. One of the biggest reason people are unwilling to get into relationship is that they fear being emotional hurt and abused; the feelings of opening up to someone to not only have those feelings be rejected but exploited is one of the most violating feelings imaginable, so it's understandable why the narrator/singer is so proud of leaving the relationship (at least seemingly) unharmed.

Rubber Mallet, the title, I think it's perfect. It's the taking of something which is usually threatening or at least capable of danger, and making it harmless, i.e a Rubber Mallet. The reason I think they chose Mallet instead of some other mallet is b/c of it's use in carpentry; a mallet is also used to build and construct beautiful things, even though it has the potential for harm. The song being titled Rubber Mallet implies that the singer took this relationship, and rather than taking the risk of it being good or bad, dismissed as something trivial altogether.

"Indecision breaks my vision And I don't give a damn"

He recognizes that this approach is less than satisfactory, former lines like "You should go, she's on my mind again" Shows that strong feelings were there, at least at a time, but the "Don't give a damn" line represents him accepting that, the loss of a genuine love he saw himself having.

A lot of other lines show his pride in getting the better up in the break up, such as: "Chemicals run, free my mind" "Think of north on Valentine" (North has a loose connotation with freedom or liberation, you could think of the North Star American slaves followed to escape the South into the Northern U.S and even Canada)

"Someone's making me love and I don't think it's you"

A purely prideful retort; not only am I moving on, I've already found someone else. Perfect line.

"Free from disease now I'm clean" "I lost my only enemy" "Then I play you out like a rubix cube"

Self explanatory. His absence from this relationship is seemingly the happiest he's been in years.

"So I reminisce thoughts Tried be true"

Being nostalgic about the relationship, he lies to himself saying the relationship was already tried out, that he shouldn't have any lingering feelings about, ignoring the ill-intentions he took when he came into it.

"Takes me back to when I had to choose And I don't ever lose"

When confronted with whether or not to pursue the relationship, the singer crafted an approach that would take the best of both worlds: by turning it into a Rubber Mallet, he can receive the support and love they truly want while not having to be vulnerable and risk any emotional damage. With an answer like this the narrator can never really lose, which also implies this is normal behavior for him.

"Sleep, and I don't ever dream Someone's got me in line and I don't ever dream"

The line I had the most difficulty analyzing. When he sings sleep, it sounds almost celebratory, like he's stretching his arms at elated he can finally have a good rest, absent of any bitching or moaning. I don't ever dream could be using dream interchangeably with sleep, saying that his ability to sleep now means he's reached a state of euphoria he's maybe never had.

"Someone's got me in line and I don't ever dream"

Not too sure on this one. Someone's got me in line heavily suggests he has an upcoming relationship on the way, alongside the former "Someone's making me love". Even though another relationship is on the way, he's so happy from his first breakup that he hardly feels any worry about it.

"Then played you out, was not good"

Probably when the singer is being most honest with themselves, he recognizes the way he used the relationship was wrong; more than likely they used the other person for sex, or something like that. It very ironic because from their fear of being used in a relationship, they ended up spreading the same pain they tried to avoid. This is so common in contemporary society with fuckboys and sluts, if you talk to a lot of them they ended up starting their behavior from a bad relationship/breakup, so I thought this line was awesome.

"You just punch your hole, and it won't seem to bleed"

The final line, and appropriately so. Won't seem to bleed shows the singer being immune to any emotional pain the former partner could possibly inflict, but the "hole" implies that wasn't always the case. The hole belongs to the former partner, so it more than likely was inflicted by them. The singer was able to stop that emotional pain by turning the relationship into a "rubber mallet", not only weaker, but easier to dispose of and walk away from. Even still old thoughts and feelings still linger, which shows that despite it all the singer can never truly be happy as long as he continues like this.