Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Let me share the reason of your lecture for a change
Let me tell you how you'll feel
Let me strap you down and put morphine in your veins
Let me share this bed of steel
Cause here come the state inspector
So doctor all the resident records
Truth is he really don't care less
It's just a function of the politics and business
Oh the squalor, Oh the squalor
Let it empty me
Welcome to whatever God may do
It's no secret that you'll never leave
woah. woah...woahh
Cause here comes the state inspector
So doctor all the resident records
Truth is he really don't care less
It's just a function of the politics and business
Deinstitutionalization
Had a wife but left her at the station
And there's women in the stair wells
When their love lives don't fare well
Whoring themselves away in the kitchen
But look see that woman gettin all dressed up
Putting on her earrings and her makeup
And in another world there's a lonely girl
Who's wishing she'd never been a grown up
Oh the squalor...Oh the squalor
Let it empty me
Welcome to whatever God may do
It's no secret that you'll never leave
Maybe today I won't get the wrong meds,
And maybe today I'll get my fourty six cents
And maybe today I'll jump that barbed wired fence
And leave this place altogether
Cause we're calling all the President's men
And we'll shove him in his room, locked in
Won't you do me a favor and give me ten
So I can peek into the hallway again.
Oh the squalor...Oh the squalor
Let it empty me
Welcome to whatever god may do
It's no secret you'll never leave
Let me tell you how you'll feel
Let me strap you down and put morphine in your veins
Let me share this bed of steel
Cause here come the state inspector
So doctor all the resident records
Truth is he really don't care less
It's just a function of the politics and business
Oh the squalor, Oh the squalor
Let it empty me
Welcome to whatever God may do
It's no secret that you'll never leave
woah. woah...woahh
Cause here comes the state inspector
So doctor all the resident records
Truth is he really don't care less
It's just a function of the politics and business
Deinstitutionalization
Had a wife but left her at the station
And there's women in the stair wells
When their love lives don't fare well
Whoring themselves away in the kitchen
But look see that woman gettin all dressed up
Putting on her earrings and her makeup
And in another world there's a lonely girl
Who's wishing she'd never been a grown up
Oh the squalor...Oh the squalor
Let it empty me
Welcome to whatever God may do
It's no secret that you'll never leave
Maybe today I won't get the wrong meds,
And maybe today I'll get my fourty six cents
And maybe today I'll jump that barbed wired fence
And leave this place altogether
Cause we're calling all the President's men
And we'll shove him in his room, locked in
Won't you do me a favor and give me ten
So I can peek into the hallway again.
Oh the squalor...Oh the squalor
Let it empty me
Welcome to whatever god may do
It's no secret you'll never leave
Lyrics submitted by _Snowman
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I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
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I read in an article for a Harvard U. paper that this song is [directly] about the mistreatment of patients and the inhumane conditions in a New York asylum.