All Up the Seething Coast

i assume the lines about eating loads of sugar relates to meth and its effects in some way. can anyone clarify that?

anyway, relating to that and to the song in general, i think it's about isolation to some degree. it seems that the character (i guess that would be darnielle) has gone beyond his house full of tweaker friends and is now alone but still addicted to meth. maybe he's still living there, but he's not really connected to it anymore. he lives in his own tiny world of addiction, sugar, and lonliness and he refuses to stop the one thing that both keeps him isolated and keeps him happy.

the whole album is a concept album about his earlier life living in chino. he and his friends were all heavily addicted to meth, which is probably the most frighteningly disgusting drug on earth. anyways, meth is an anorexant, meaning that after a while, the user no longer craves food. the meth will cure hunger. this song is simply a way of saying that his addiction had reached its highest point. throuhgout the whole song he's talking about ways to get himself to eat. "writes reminders on his skin. clips out pictures from magazines and hangs them on the wall"

i think that these lyrics are some of the most wonderfully written lyrics I've ever read.

i don't think the sugar is a metaphor for anything, i think this song is actually about quitting meth. a lot of addicts replace meth with sugar when they're trying to quit, as a way to help ease their cravings. the stuff everyone else said about meth being an anorexant is right though.

Ok, so most of the songs on this album are about meth but... when you're quitting heroin, or even when you're just addicted, you get these super intense cravings for anything sweet, even if you hate sweet things before, its all you want, all you can think of, candy or fruit or just pure sugar... But all my meth friends, I don't know, they never eat, and maybe if they did they'd use sugar to up their weights? I don't know, I relate to this more on the heroin level.

i wasn't aware of the whole meth aspect of this album the first time i listened to it. then i was at the height of my eating disorder, and everything about food struck a chord with me. when i ate, i binged on ridiculous food, and i always had something with me i could use to start off a binge. i took the line about showing up for dinner when they tell you to as people forcing you to eat, and then to appease them eating as much as possible and in the end purging and feeling like you won. just a little personal insight for this.

You see your old life moving on, and you're still there, but you're not a part of it. You know the dangers, that addictions is wrong and deadly, but you can't stop.

I just wanna know who the song is written to. The line "Show up for dinner when you tell me to" sounds like there is someone who knows he is addicted and trying to care for him but as he says later is powerless to do so.