This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Sometimes
For a moment of bliss
In the passion
We're craving
There's a message we miss
Sometimes when
The spirit's left alone
We must believe in something
To find if we've grown
Tragic reflex
Shattered calm
Static progress
Senses gone
Numb awareness
Final psalm
Swept away with the tide
(Swept away with the tide)
Through the holes in my hands
(Through the holes in my hands)
Crown of thorns at my side
(Crown of thorns
At my side ye ye yeah)
Drawing lines in the sand
Sometimes
If you're perfectly still
You can hear the virgin weeping
For the savior of your will
Sometimes
Your castles in the air
And the fantasies you're seeking
Are the crosses you bear
Sacred conflict
Blessed prize
Weeping crosses
Stainless eyes
Desperate addict
Faith disguised
Swept away with the tide
(Swept away with the tide)
Through the holes in my hands
(Through the holes in my hands yeah)
Crown of thorns at my side
(Crown of thorns at my side)
Drawing lines in the sand
We fabricate our demons
Invite them into our homes
Have supper with the aliens
And fight the war alone
We conjure up our skeletons
Enlist the den of thieves
Frightened from our closets
Then sewn upon our sleeves
In the stream of consciousness
There is a river crying
Living comes much easier
Once we admit
We're dying
Sometimes
In the wreckage of our wake
There's a bitterness we harbor
And hate for hatred's sake
Sometimes
We dig an early grave
And crucify our instincts
For the hope we couldn't save
Sometimes
A view from sinless eyes
Centers our perspective
And pacifies our cries
Sometimes
The anguish we survive
And the mysteries we nurture
Are the fabrics of our lives
Swept away with the tide
(Swept away with tide yeeah)
Through the holes in my hands
(Through the holes
Holes in my hands)
Crown of thorns at my side
(Crown of thorns at my side yeah)
Drawing lines in the sand
For a moment of bliss
In the passion
We're craving
There's a message we miss
Sometimes when
The spirit's left alone
We must believe in something
To find if we've grown
Tragic reflex
Shattered calm
Static progress
Senses gone
Numb awareness
Final psalm
Swept away with the tide
(Swept away with the tide)
Through the holes in my hands
(Through the holes in my hands)
Crown of thorns at my side
(Crown of thorns
At my side ye ye yeah)
Drawing lines in the sand
Sometimes
If you're perfectly still
You can hear the virgin weeping
For the savior of your will
Sometimes
Your castles in the air
And the fantasies you're seeking
Are the crosses you bear
Sacred conflict
Blessed prize
Weeping crosses
Stainless eyes
Desperate addict
Faith disguised
Swept away with the tide
(Swept away with the tide)
Through the holes in my hands
(Through the holes in my hands yeah)
Crown of thorns at my side
(Crown of thorns at my side)
Drawing lines in the sand
We fabricate our demons
Invite them into our homes
Have supper with the aliens
And fight the war alone
We conjure up our skeletons
Enlist the den of thieves
Frightened from our closets
Then sewn upon our sleeves
In the stream of consciousness
There is a river crying
Living comes much easier
Once we admit
We're dying
Sometimes
In the wreckage of our wake
There's a bitterness we harbor
And hate for hatred's sake
Sometimes
We dig an early grave
And crucify our instincts
For the hope we couldn't save
Sometimes
A view from sinless eyes
Centers our perspective
And pacifies our cries
Sometimes
The anguish we survive
And the mysteries we nurture
Are the fabrics of our lives
Swept away with the tide
(Swept away with tide yeeah)
Through the holes in my hands
(Through the holes
Holes in my hands)
Crown of thorns at my side
(Crown of thorns at my side yeah)
Drawing lines in the sand
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The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
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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.
No Surprises
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Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
My favorite Dream Theater song. I interpret this song as being about how people stop LIVING and start making excuses (or blame, complain, whine, etc.) for their own inadequacies or the mediocre lives (even though they know that they can be so much more - they settle for an existence they loathe), hence, DEAD, in all senses of the word, except physically (numb awareness - final psalm).
"Living comes much easier once we admit we're dying" is the highlight sentence of the song. My interpretation of that line is that while we are healthy and truly able to LIVE our lives, we complain and curse about it. When illness strikes or fatalities occur or death creeps up on us, we realize that "any" life is a good thing and we realize that the "hard" life we WERE living while healthy was much "easier" than we thought.
Thoreau's "quiet desperation" comes to mind when I listen to this song.
I think John Petrucci was suffering immensely from the loss of his father when he penned these lyrics. There is soooooo much emotion in this song both lyrically and musically. I still get goosebumps, even after a thousand listens, when I hear the solo in this song. I think that, while he was playing this solo, he had his father in mind and, listening to it in that frame of reference, really brings out the emotional element in it.
Truly a beautiful creation and, in my opinion, Dream Theater's finest. Remember - Don't get swept away with the tide!!