Those To Come Lyrics
Very nice comments by houseofjess.
It is definitely mostly about having mixed feelings after having sex ("shifting skin") about maybe having a baby (which will "climb inside us, twist and cry") and thinking about how it will grow up but eventually die like everything else. The Shins have a very existential streak in most of their lyrics which I guess could be considered kind of depressing, but if you feel the same way, that is probably why you love The Shins (in addition to their fantastic melodic music and interesting lyrics). Other than the mixed feelings about babies, I think there is a sad feeling because even though his girlfriend is beautiful he doesn't understand her because she is "still prone to care" unlike him who has come to terms with the fact that nothing matters and everthing dies eventually (even though he is still slightly mystified by the cycle of life - the whole last verse). Very philosophical and much more complex lyrics than 99% of bands out there.
The Shins are amazing!
i think its a combo of UNC1EMOE and DYOLFKNIP's comments...Double Meaning...not only is is a beautiful "perfect" moment, where words said become practically meaningless because they are fleeting in a moment like this... the words cannot embody the emotion and physical connection btwn these two humans, where love and lust intertwine in ecstacy... each of us in some context defines our lives by these moments that are fleeting like the words, like the emotion, the love, the lust, as well as human life...we live for moments like these becuase they make us feel alive...follow me? so the subject that is "waiting in the ether" is not only Words, Human Life, but the Moments of Human Connection...
and possibily more...
I love how this song contrasts the warm beauty of love with the cool, cylical nature of life. To me it is about the warth of love and sex, and the possibility of making new life. I love the details of his love (eyless in the morning, making tea in her underwear). But it also strips life down to its barest forms (form, feel, kill, propagate, die). The song takes us from morning to night, warm to cool, as it takes us from the emotional, spiritual aspects of life, to the very cold, bare facts of it all.
I'm a new listener and I love this song. The part where he says Waiting in the Ether to Form Feel Kill Propogate Only to die This sounds to me like the process of human life. I'm probably completely wrong, but thanks for all the gread ideas on what the song means!
i think the song is really commenting on the "life" of relationships and life as a whole. relationships exist, they begin (waiting in the ether), serve their purpose (form, feel, kill, propogate), and die. however, they become such a center of attention, all-important, those in the relationship don't realize that the relationships are very small in the large picture (die, dissolve, magically, absurdly they end, coldly and strangely return). Like relationships, life becomes to immeshed in itself, and yet, it simply exists, goes through the motions, dies, and appears again. or maybe i'm crazy. but i like thinking of it that way.
Well, yeah I get the metaphors and symbolism. But it's about those bugs that hibernate all their lives, wake up, screw and die. But it's basically saying that we, too, are the bugs.
"eyeless in the morning sun" to me is simply visual imagery of the rising sun glaring in your eyes, or if you're wearing glasses and the sun reflects light off of them; how in the morning when the sun rises, when it glares on your face, you can't really see the person's eyes, just the light.
most of this song i think is the singer watching his lover move about in the morning after a night together, watching her make tea and breakfast. a lot of the nature imagery makes me think of the way dew glistens on the blades of grass and everything in the morning. it's a beautiful, quiet, peaceful scene under a sunrise, and yet he thinks about how all this beauty is cyclical --> life and death.
I thought it was about people who hadn't been conceived yet, as weird as that sounds.
makes me think more of cicadas... wake up after seventeen years, party like theres no tomorrow, propagate, and die
i think the beginning of this song sounds like "aqueous transmission" by incubus.. haha. but it definitely is much better. i never had any idea as to what this song was about, but the sex/pregnancy/cycle of life idea is very plausible. thanks for the insight!