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.
Come waste your millions here, secretly she sneers
Another corporate show, a guilty conscience grows
And I'll feel a guilty conscience grow
And I'll feel a guilty conscience grow
She burns like the sun, and I can't look away
She'll burn our horizons, make no mistake
Come let the truth be shared, no one ever dared
To break these endless lies, secretly she cries
She burns like the sun, and I can't look away
She'll burn our horizons, make no mistake
And I'll hide from the world behind a broken frame
And I'll burn forever, I can't face the shame
And I'll hide from the world behind a broken frame
And I'll burn forever, I can't face the shame
Another corporate show, a guilty conscience grows
And I'll feel a guilty conscience grow
And I'll feel a guilty conscience grow
She burns like the sun, and I can't look away
She'll burn our horizons, make no mistake
Come let the truth be shared, no one ever dared
To break these endless lies, secretly she cries
She burns like the sun, and I can't look away
She'll burn our horizons, make no mistake
And I'll hide from the world behind a broken frame
And I'll burn forever, I can't face the shame
And I'll hide from the world behind a broken frame
And I'll burn forever, I can't face the shame
Lyrics submitted by Ice, edited by darkhelmet99, magnoliamaggiemag, portablesounds, asdfqwerty, Grifsgames
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More Featured Meanings

No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead

Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.

Somewhere Only We Know
Keane
Keane
Per the FAQ on Keane's website, Keane's drummer Richard Hughes, stated the following:
"We've been asked whether "Somewhere Only We Know" is about a specific place, and Tim has been saying that, for him, or us as individuals, it might be about a geographical space, or a feeling; it can mean something individual to each person, and they can interpret it to a memory of theirs... It's perhaps more of a theme rather than a specific message... Feelings that may be universal, without necessarily being totally specific to us, or a place, or a time..."
With the nostalgic sentiment and the overall tone of the song, I think Keane is attempting to express a Portuguese term known as 'saudade', which does not have a direct English translation but roughly means "that which we remember because it is gone."

Sunglasses at Night
Corey Hart
Corey Hart
In the 1980s, sunglasses were a common fashion for people who wanted to adopt a "tough guy" persona (note all the cop shows from that era -- Simon & Simon, Miami Vice, etc. -- where the lead characters wore shades). So I think this song is about a guy who wears shades as a way of hiding his insecurity after learning that his girlfriend is cheating on him. He's trying to pretend that he's a "tough guy" to hide the fact that his girlfriend's affair is disturbing him.

Indigo
Of Mice & Men
Of Mice & Men
This track is about is about questioning why the sky would choose to be blue if it had the choice to be anything else, “blue also meaning sad,” states frontman Aaron Pauley. “It's about comforting a loved one in a time of loss by telling them you feel blue, too.”
the piano in this is amazing.
to me it's about loving a girl who completely makes everything else disappear, blinding you to the rest of life... and you know that in the end, you're both going to go down in flames because that's a destructive kind of relationship to be in... so he runs away and hides because he can't face her enough to break it off but at the same time he feels shame over running away. life is never easy, is it?
this is my favorite of theirs. =P
@delial Yes, this is exactly what I think it is too. The only thing is their video does not show this. The video is no good anyway and looks to have been done without much thought.
This song is clearly about a woman who is married to a guy just for his money But she feels guilty about it, because even with all this wealth she is unhappy about herself being involved in a relationship just for it, and her guilty conscience grows towards him and herself. The artist feels her guilty conscience grow as well, maybe by noticing she is unhappy in life
'She burns like the sun, and i can't look away, she'll burn our horizons' may refer to the fact that he can clearly see her burning of unhappiness or simply because of the fact that it shows that she is just because him for his money. This way she is burning both their horizons, in view of life expectations and future life. Because there is more to life than money, and she is missing crucial things because of this money obsessed relationship.
'Come let the truth be shared, no one ever dared To break these endless lies, secretly she cries' may refer to the fact that both of them know that their relationship is a lie, but their lives started to cross each other and none of them talk about their emotions towards each other.
'And I'll hide from the world behind a broken frame And I'll burn forever, I can't face the shame'
Artist is too proud to admitt that he fell for this woman, and that she is just with him for his money. He is probably succesfull and doesn't want to admitt that he failed her and himself. That is why he chooses to continue this facade 'behind a broken frame', something that looks good but is broken inside. This way he will 'burn forever', in my opinion is this relationship and 'endless lies'.
Gold fever. The sun is gold, money, fame, kapitalism even. It makes a man into a unfeeling robot. As soon as he gives in to the temtation of being really rich and famous, he spends more and more money to meaningless things while other people don't even have enough money to buy themselves food. That's what the guilty feelings are about.
The struggle against capitalism: Come let the truth be shared, no one ever dared To break these endless lies, secretly she cries
Isn't it "Secretly she sneers"?
@dannyboy579 yes it is
Sunburn is a truly great song with the deepest of lyrics which are not so easy to miss, even though most do.
It's about the deceptive internal system resulting in a life of mediocrity that eventually overwhelms each of us as a result of lies/deception, necessarily promoting a debilitating 'guilty conscience' which slowly destroys us from within and also our surrounding relationships.
"Come waste your millions here, Secretly she sneers"
"She" is such internal deception feeding person's greed - wasting everything in trying to reach the unattainable (lie) - via grabbing that "new gadget" - or whatever deceptively promises happiness. So a "guilty conscience grows" within, which "burns (me) like the sun", but even though "she'll burn our horizons make no mistake", yet we "can't look away" to save ourself. So we "never dare" "to break these endless lies" by letting "the truth be shared" - even with self.
Eventually, we "can't face the shame" so "hide from the world Behind a broken frame" (of myself) - and "burn forever"
To me the meaning of this song is crime and guilt and keeping the shame trapped inside. For those of you who haven't seen the video it's a babysitter that goes around the house stealing jewellery and the key to the house while nobody knew then Matt appears to her in the mirror as if he was her conscience and makes her feel guilty for what she is doing.
To break these endless lies, secretly she cries-lying about stealing and being innocent but inside she is guilty and she knows that she has done wrong and she keeps it locked up.
And I'll hide from the world behind a broken frame And I'll burn forever, I can't face the shame-shows she is trying to hide the bad deed from everyone and not being able to face what might happen if she owns up.
She burns like the sun, and I can't look away-impiles that inside her mind she is burning because the guilt is building up and that it becomes obvious for other people to see.
But in a more realistic term this song could be talking about love and when your feelings get hurt by the person you love or they betray you and you have wasted your time and the person who hurt you feels guilty and doesnt show it which makes even more friction.
I've heard that Muse is really into conspiracy theories and stuff.. I think this song is about that. There are some theories about mass mind-control experiments and projects, including beliefs that the media is being used to brainwash ppl by sending subliminal messages through music and tv etc. The fact that mirrors are a big part of the video also fits into this, because mirrors were a "control" used in mind-control experiments.
At the beginning when she says "Come waste your millions", I imagine an artist who's been willing to become a part of this mind-control project, in exchange for the promise of wealth and fame. The millions being the money ppl will spend on CDs, etc. But then because she realizes she's become a part of something deep and dark, she begins to feel guilty. But, she realizes too late that she's trapped in it, she's become a puppet. She cries out silently (wishing) for the "secret" to be revealed, the truth to be told to the fans who adore her; she wants the truth out so she can escape.
In the end, where it says "I'll hide behind a broken frame", it reminds me of another symbol that was a part of mind-control: sunglasses and dark shades. They are supposed to represent a mind that is already being controlled, that is blinded. She's become a victim of the experiment herself.
I dunno, this is what it sounds like to me... anyone??
Oh yeah, but something else that's kinda a huge part of the song that I forgot..<br /> what happens when you stare at the sun?? It blinds you...<br /> and doesn't the singer say, she burns like the sun but I can't look away??<br /> <br /> See so she's playing a part in the "blinding" of ppl.. i dunno but, it makes sense to me... O.o
I love your interpretation, makes sense to me, but would be sad if it's true, that the band is sold to the mind-control-project. I hope isn't. Greetings.
Great song.. I love the piano
hmm. i love the piano in this song as well. i think it's about fame... she being fame. living the self indulgent life of a rockstar and feeling somewhat guilty, but revelling in it.
i don't know how accurate i am, but that's my interpretation.
Come waste your millions here, secretly she says ~ is the person when you're high when u look in the mirror.so called ur smeagol & golem<br /> <br /> Another corporate show, a guilty conscience grows ~ is yourself when you're between conscious & unconscious .<br /> <br /> if u ever encounter on suicidal when you're high by looking at the mirror then you'll understand. the person in the mirror wants you to leave the world behind & join him or her which is you. "she burns like the sun ",which is reality .<br /> <br /> its suicide
I think it's about mans attraction to confidence. Even the most beautiful women have insecurities, but are only unearthed when you see beneath the facade of confidence. False confidence is unattractive, giving a guilty conscience.
(She burns like the sun, and I can't look away) Her confidence makes her popular to be near to.
(To break these endless lies, secretly she cries) She has insecurities and uses false confidence to protect them.
Muse perhaps should have been born the 18th century and wrote classical music with Beethoven and Mozart.