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.
I woke up this morning, I could barely breathe
Just an empty impression
In the bed where you used to be
I want a kiss from your lips
I want an eye for an eye
I woke up this morning to an empty sky
Empty sky, empty sky
I woke up this morning to an empty sky
Empty sky, empty sky
I woke up this morning to an empty sky
Blood on the streets
Blodd flowin' down
I hear the blood of my blood
Cryin' from the ground
Empty sky, empty sky
I woke up this morning to an empty sky
Empty sky, empty sky
I woke up this morning to an empty sky
On the plains of Jordan
I cut my bow from the wood
Of this tree of evil
Of this tree of good
I want a kiss from your lips
I want an eye for an eye
I woke up this morning to the empty sky
Empty sky, empty sky
I woke up this morning to an empty sky
Empty sky, empty sky
I woke up this morning to an empty sky
Empty sky, empty sky
I woke up this morning to an empty sky
Just an empty impression
In the bed where you used to be
I want a kiss from your lips
I want an eye for an eye
I woke up this morning to an empty sky
Empty sky, empty sky
I woke up this morning to an empty sky
Empty sky, empty sky
I woke up this morning to an empty sky
Blood on the streets
Blodd flowin' down
I hear the blood of my blood
Cryin' from the ground
Empty sky, empty sky
I woke up this morning to an empty sky
Empty sky, empty sky
I woke up this morning to an empty sky
On the plains of Jordan
I cut my bow from the wood
Of this tree of evil
Of this tree of good
I want a kiss from your lips
I want an eye for an eye
I woke up this morning to the empty sky
Empty sky, empty sky
I woke up this morning to an empty sky
Empty sky, empty sky
I woke up this morning to an empty sky
Empty sky, empty sky
I woke up this morning to an empty sky
Lyrics submitted by Demaco
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No Surprises
Radiohead
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Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
Somewhere Only We Know
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"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."
Indigo
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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.”
Definitely a 9/11 heartbreaker. He has a better 9/11 track called "You're Missing". Breaks your heart when the violins kick in.
springsteen: the greatest
I think it is because all flights where grounded on 911
God, this song is awesome. Sometimes I feel like I woke up to an empty sky.
Whenever I hear this song I think of 9/11. The empty sky is where the towers once stood.
everyone has hit the nail right on the head, it refers to the tragedy of 9/11.
I believe the "empty sky" was referring to when they grounded all flights within the country following the attacks.
badassssssss
The song is a parallel between what we all lost on 9/11 and the very personal loss of one individual. We all woke up to an "Empty Sky" the towers that once marked the south of Manhattan Island were conspicuously absent.
And if someone lost their true love in this incident, they also woke up to "an empty impression" in the bed where he/she used to be.
They were torn between wanting just one more kiss from their loved one and the need for revenge "an eye for an eye" as the Boss says.
The reference to the plains of Jordan, One tree of evil, One tree of good refers to the division of the Muslims and the Christians which went back to Cain and Abel.
Perfect prose....
Yes, an exquisite response to the despair of 9/11
just to add to what theoracle2b wrote, the difference between the two types of "empty skies" is acknowledged by springsteen in the way he refers to one as "an empty sky" and the other as "the empty sky"; while the latter references a fact that we all share as a result of the wtc attacks -- namely that the view of the lower-manhattan skyline will never again be the same -- the former speaks from the points of view of the people who actually lost loved ones that day in new york.
(i also think this subtle change in the lyrics might have been springsteen taking a shot at members of the bush administration who used 9/11 to push their political agenda; in many ways 9/11 and its aftermath became so commercialized that most of us fail to remember that there were people who actually suffered direct losses because of the attacks.)
i am by no means a big springsteen fan but this is a damn perfect song.