Near Fantastica

When he says "Can't feel fear, fear's the mind killer", he's loosely quoting the "Litany against fear" from the novel Dune.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litany_against_fear#Litany_against_fear

It goes:

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

'The pink pills are for our sanity.'

This hits a note with me! and it is an awesome song.

I don`t know if Matthew would have been aware of this medication around the time of his writing the lyrics for Near Fantastica.

Its meaning could be pretty straight forward:

From wikipedia .. Quetiapine, marketed as Seroquel, is an atypical antipsychotic approved for the treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and along with an antidepressant to treat major depressive disorder. It is also sometimes used as a sleep aid because of its sedating effect but this use is not recommended.

I could listen to this song for hours and never get bored with it. It's just that damn good!

I think this song is about false pride and individualism. Everyone thinks they're important, even though each of us is just one small part of a huge machine. I think this song is critical of people who can't admit that.

Really? I'd say it's about how little we realize the crappy stuff that's going on around us. The daily grind that keeps the economy going and how everybody's rationalizing that things aren't so terribly bad, because there's nothing else that we can do about it.

That's probably part of it, too. I came to my conclusion because Matt Good talks vanity often in his blog, and the line "Everyone's a captain baby, ship of fools" seemed to be a reference to it. Good song, anyway.

Has anyone heard the acoustic version of this song? It's one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard. It's even better than the album version, and that alone was already one of my favourite Matt Good songs. Here's a link if you want to check it out. I highly recommend it.

http://www3.telus.net/rothcam/Near%20Fantastica%20(Acoustic).zip

Thank you EvanofEdmonton of the NF forums, and thank you telus for allowing the upload

This, Weapon, & House of Smoke & Mirrors are the best songs on this album. Avalanche is a masterpiece.

Usually I listen to the guitars in songs, Being a guitar player.. But this song, the drums... AMAZING.

in this song he says 'can't fear fear, fear's the mind killer' like seventeen times. i think that not a lot of people see this as the most significant part of the whole song like i do. and the fact that he's kind of whispering when he sings it is so beautiful, i could just say that line all freaking day. this song also makes me think of like, the bourne movies. 'after this mission we'll let you go, help u to forget everything and everyone you know' i dunno it makes me think of the first movie, but obviovsly he's not singing about some movies in his songs lol. wow, there's so much symbolism in this song. 'born of the sea, blink, sea is dead'. what we came from is suddenly gone, something like that. and wow, this song is so beautiful i could go on and on about it for hours but i'm not lol.