I'm on Standby

yeah, i agree more with delial. trying to change oneself but in the end, just stagnating. pretty much the story of the past few weeks this summer for me.

Yes! This song is about drifting, about wandering through life with no destination, no objective or point. I guess this happens to all of us, at more than one point in our life.

feeling like everything is pointless, no matter what you say, it won't change anything...so you revert to default generic or vague replies.

as for it being about being turned down, i don't know... i got more of a general sense of lack of purpose from the song, not necessarily having to do with anything love related. to me it fits how i feel lately... like a kite without a string or a car without an engine. aimless and...on standby, hoping wherever you're trying to go is somewhere better than where you are and where you've come from. the "according to the work order you signed" bit just makes me think of people telling him he's worthless or aimless too, saying he's going nowhere...and he agrees, but he hopes to get somewhere other than nowhere soon.<p><b><i>Edited by delial on May 28 2008, at 03:09AM</i></b></p>

What a great little song. Grandaddy get what it's like to be someone adrift in the world. The character sees himself as separate from other people ("you humans require more words"). Maybe going on "Standby" is a metaphor for going to therapy or rehab.. "the work order you signed" is someone telling him to get help and come back when you get your act together. However, the character doesn't really get what he's doing wrong, but goes to get "fixed" anyways..

The weird thing is how utterly content and happy with his lot the robot character seems to be in this. It's a chirpy 'cheerio, see you later can't really be bothered with all the tosh you lot go through' kind of attitude..

this song offers what looks like an interesting metaphor for the old "let's just be friends" bit. he talks about being a machine without a use, and an inability to communicate with people. I'm of the opinion that he is actually trying to say that he likes a girl, but she doesn't see him as more than a friend. he is inable to express his love for her, and is thus relegated to the role of a useless item in her mind and in his own.

lovely song.

I get the impression that this song is about wasting resources by constantly leaving our electrical appliances on standby.