| Modest Mouse – Willful Suspension of Disbelief Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Just wanted to add on to what was already said about the title’s connection with reading literature and point out the ties then with reading the Bible (or any religious book for that matter) and saying then that this religion is just based off some work of fiction in which you suspended your disbelief in order to read it. I agree with what has been asserted about no finding of heaven or hell, but in the line “you could keep digging down and down/a thousand graves” it seems that not only do you not find these while you are living, but you do not find them when you die either (as opposed to other songs - refer possibly to where he lets his being agnostic exist in the same realm as God (like Styrofoam Boots for instance)). On a side-note tangent, I always found it interesting the geographical “locations” of heaven and hell, being above and below the world respectively, but that bodies are still physically buried “underground,” while their spirits are then supposed to leave and float away. Yet their physical bodies are what are nurturing the soil and continuing life, a spirit in and of itself, in my opinion. Also, and I may just have this totally wrong, but the air does technically just “disappear” when you get far enough up, right? Like it just becomes vacant space, not consisting of the “air” air (the nitrogen/oxygen/carbon dioxide mixture) that we think of — therefore it’s more of a less than nothing not existing up there, but it is still the “sky” that we speak of, the sky that holds the stars, therefore not ending but also not anything that we can inhabit (in the sense of going to heaven). |
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| Modest Mouse – Perfect Disguise (BBC Radio Session) Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I only listen to this version of the song anymore; it gives me the most savory haunting feeling. I also think it's interesting that this seems to be one of the few songs where he refers to woman at all; (the other one I can think of off the top of my head is "The Stars are Projectors" where he mentions God as a woman.) "She's got the chemical eyes and you're looking OK" - seems like she is toxic, has inhuman or destructive eyes (intentions or ways), but that she still seems like she's ok; I get a very fake and insecure image from this. "From the bottom of the best and the worst, well, what can I say?" - So she is at the very bottom of everything, worst than the worst. "Well, you cocked your head to shoot me down" - Not a physical kind of hurt because it is coming from her looks, from her head, and which (IMO) is far worse than any physical pain someone can inflict upon you - these kinds emotional wounds do not heal. "And I don't give a damn about you or this town no more Now that I know the score" - I agree with the implication that at one point he did care about things, but since he figured out how things really were (possibly coming out of this naivety that he was in) he realizes that everything is fucked and not worth giving a damn about, hopeless. (Seems to have ties to "Night on the Sun" where at the end he talks about this "town being 500 miles underground...but that's alright," as in this town is all dead and buried but that's ok, I don't care anymore.) "Well, good luck believing every word they said I hope you have enough space in your head I don't, no, but I know the score" - Maybe going back to his apathy, and saying to this woman that she can continue to care and believe what these people have to say and fill her head up with crap, but he doesn't have the room for it anymore (maybe because he has too many “real” thoughts as I like to put it, he is thinking of philosophical stuff while she is letting her head be filled up by what these other people have to say.) “Need me to fall down so you can climb up some fool-ass ladder?” — Seems to be alluding to a childish thought that the world is absolute, that for one to gain another must loose; like when a new sibling is born and the older one has the thought of now being “loved less” even though love cannot have a fixed amount, and for one to be loved does not mean you have to receive less. Also, I just must comment on how I love the way that he wrote this whole song, adding in the “well”s to have a frank, apathetic tone. It sounds like he is speaking to this woman, not just about her, sounding so disappointed and withdrawn. I swear it gives me chills and nearly brings me to tears every time. |
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