3rd Planet

i haven't read all the comments for this song but i read quite a few and i was surprised that only one person mentioned anything about the songs clear referances to pregnancy and the loss of the baby (abortion?)I really am not that great at interpratating things, so i will just say the referances that seemed obvious to me. There is a couple who is either too poor or to young or just not ready to have a baby, but the woman gets pregnant. "I have this thing that i consider my only art/of fucking people over" he fucked over the woman, and now she either has to deal with an abortion or raising this child.

"baby cum angels fly around you/reminding us we USED TO BE THREE AND NOT JUST TWO" The baby that died is an angel,(cum angel because it wasnt yet born, the pregnancy was terminated early on so it was nearer to egg and cum then a baby...? not quite sure about the cum part). The baby cum angels remind them that they used to have a baby, together they used to be three before they got rid of their baby

"A THIRD HAD JUST BEEN MADE and we were swimming in the water/didnt know then was it a son was it a daughter" clearly states that A THIRD HAD JUST BEEN MADE and they didn't know yet if it was a son or a daughter, because you cannot tell early on in the pregnancy. They were not having sex in the waterrrrr jeez.

"and it occurred to me that the animals were swimming around in the water IN THE OCEANS OF OUR BODIES AND ANOTHER HAD BEEN FOUND ANOTHER OCEAN ON THE PLANET (given that our blood is just like the atlantic)" Is saying that OUR BODIES ARE OCEANS and ANOTHER OCEAN HAD BEEN FOUND the other ocean being the unborn child

Those were the referances I thought for sure implied the termination or loss of a pregnancy.

"The third planet is sure that theyre being watched/by an eye in the sky that cant be stopped" The eye in the sky is the mother or the father or whoever knows about the pregnancy and wants there to be an abortion. The baby has no power to stop the eye in the sky.

"and when you get to the promise land/your gonna shake that eyes hand" the promise land is referancing some sort of heaven (gah i know modest mouse isnt religious). The baby is going to have a face-to-face meeting with its parents in the promise land.

nooooooone is going to read this... haaha i feel like this is way to long alreadyyy gah.

a very good song....

"Everything that keeps me together is falling apart I've got this thing that I consider my only art of fucking people over."

The foundations that keep things stable are crumbling, and the only thing you feel good at is causing trouble for others.

This song has a lot to do with the illusions and faith that we have that keeps us stable.

The boss is looking for blind spots.... The 3rd planet's "watcher".... Scientific truths (our blood is just like the atlantic....the universe is shaped exactly like the earth)

The part of the song that I think is hinted at is the couple (in the baby come angels stanza) is that they lost a child. Three becomes two.....the world began, and the world will end without their child.

This probably has nothing to do with the song, but for some reason I thought about it when reading the line "reminding you we used to be three and not just two".

There's this story about the creation of man that there were three sexes that basically looked like two people rolled into one: man and man, woman and woman, and woman and man. The gods thought that they were too powerful like this, so Zeus split them apart with his lightening bolt and created a huge storm to blow everybody away from their other half. The story goes that you spend the rest of your life looking for your "other half" or your soul mate, just trying to become whole again. So if you follow this story, there were originally three sexes and now there's only two.

Again, it's probably not what they meant in this song, but it's just what it made me think of.

This gives a wonderful sense of the connection of everything. Our blood like the Atlantic, the animals that coexist on the planet, same water, same blood.

Our world is a sphere, you can endlessly travel in a single direction, going past where you were before, and the universe works the same way, spaced with no bias of direction or distance.

From two, a third is born, and soon enough someone dies off. That three becomes two, regardless of any concept of creation or evolution. And you can't really do much about this flow of existance, as is shown by his only art of managing to fuck people over.

No matter how far you go, you return to the beginning. Three becomes two. Everything that held you together, friends, family, life itself, soon falls back apart. It returns, and if you found what you were looking for, that promise land, I guess you would want to shake that eye's hand.

This has such beauty to it. It feels simple, but speaks wonders I can't fully understand.

this is just one of those amazing songs that you look at and realize you had the exact same thoughts. those very thoughts that you had thought made you different from everyone else. nice to see someone else put them in song form. i think what he's saying is that we are infinitely small and inifinitely large at the same time. one blood cell of ours could be an entire universe to bililions by billions of creatures too small for us to comprehend, and at the same time our entire universe could be just one cell in a massive creature also beyond our comprehension. this thought seems to stem from the loss of an unborn child leading to religion and then this.

This song has some of my favorite lyrics in it.

"My boss just quit the job Says he's going out to find blind spots and he'll do it The third planet is sure that they're being watched By an eye in the sky that can't be stopped When you get to the promised land You're going to shake that eye's hand"

Like people have been saying, I think that Brock's boss quit the job to go off and find 'blind spots' (where he can sin without "the eye" seeing) from the eye in the sky. The eye in the sky represents God. True, he does describe the bible as a "crock of bullshit". But he also says that it's too interesting of a subject to pass up. He writes about religion a lot. It says "The third planet is sure that they're being watched By an eye in the sky that can't be stopped" The third planet = earth. Earth is sure they are being watched by a God.

"Well, a third had just been made and we were swimming in the water Didn't know then, was it a son, was it a daughter When it occurred to me that the animals are swimming Around in the water in the oceans in our bodies And another had been found, another ocean on the planet Given that our blood is just like the Atlantic And how" I love this part. There are many worlds inside the universe. Just as the earth is in the universe, there is a microcosm inside each of us.

All in all, I think this song covers the concept of evolution, (also a recurring theme on the whole album). Our existence is important, just as any other existence, because it all fits together in one giant flow. Just as each cell working together in our bodies is important to us, we are important to the operation of the universe overall. We are a cell in the universe.

Uh, guys, "baby-cum-angels" just means "Babies/Angels", or things that are babies and angels at the same time.

Cherubs, guys, cherubs. I can't be the only Modest Mouse fan on this website that knows what a cherub is.

I am, at this very moment, convinced that this song is about and accidental pregnancy and the following abortion.

Well, outside naked, shivering, looking blue From the cold sunlight that's reflected off the moon (Skinny dipping) Baby cum angels fly around you ("baby cum" almost too specifically referring to the actual sperm.) Reminding you we used to be three and not just two (referring to the said potential baby no longer existing.) And that's how the world began And that's how the world will end

Well, a third had just been made and we were swimming in the water Didn't know then, was it a son, was it a daughter (The moment the child was conceived.)

When it occurred to me that the animals are swimming Around in the water in the oceans in our bodies And another had been found, another ocean on the planet Given that our blood is just like the Atlantic And how (I think this is the boy trying to figure out how he feels about that loss and importance of the new life)

"Everything that keeps me together is falling apart I've got this thing that I consider my only art of fucking people over." (I feel like he is just confused about how to interpret this life decision. When your beliefs are put to test by actual experience it becomes hard to stick to what you so strongly once believed in.)

I think it's about abortion as a whole.

such a good song