Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Payne Avenue lives up to its name
Some nights it's painful and strange
The whole city seemed sane in the day
But some nights it seems distressed and deranged
The east side's where we met with those guys
That said they'd get us high, but that changed
Now they're down in the basement
And they're bashing out his brains
Kids are getting cut up with the motorcycle chains
And St. Paul had it all when we called
And they were maxing out on medicine
Shaved head and the blood on the bed
And those guys you recognize, they got the same tattoos as Gideon
Strong stuff and she had more than enough
And she was slumping over smiling and sailing off with cherubim
The cityscape skins are kinda kicking it again
They're gonna show these kids some discipline
Gideon's been living up in Bay City, Michigan
And he's been working at the Michelin
He got messed up with some messed up magicians
We got so high some nights Michigan looked just like a mitten
Some nights we got fried
Strung out on residuals and visuals and laser shows
Reach into the speaker and try to hold on to the quarter notes
I always dream about a unified scene
I always dream about a unified scene
Hey, there's James King and there's King James and that's James Dean
At a table in the corner of my unified scene
They want a double order of love and respect
They said they just got back from up in Hostile, Massachusetts
And girl, I've seen your friend, she looks nothing like Jada Pinkett
I think you got something in those cigarettes
Gideon was living up in South Minneapolis
He was the cowboy on the crosstown bus
And all the little phillies at the Yukon Club
Are gunning for the goldrush
We got tangled in electrical fences
We got wrapped up in the Indian fringes
All the little phillies at the Yukon Club
Are gunning for the goldrush
Yeah, they just can't get enough
Some nights it's painful and strange
The whole city seemed sane in the day
But some nights it seems distressed and deranged
The east side's where we met with those guys
That said they'd get us high, but that changed
Now they're down in the basement
And they're bashing out his brains
Kids are getting cut up with the motorcycle chains
And St. Paul had it all when we called
And they were maxing out on medicine
Shaved head and the blood on the bed
And those guys you recognize, they got the same tattoos as Gideon
Strong stuff and she had more than enough
And she was slumping over smiling and sailing off with cherubim
The cityscape skins are kinda kicking it again
They're gonna show these kids some discipline
Gideon's been living up in Bay City, Michigan
And he's been working at the Michelin
He got messed up with some messed up magicians
We got so high some nights Michigan looked just like a mitten
Some nights we got fried
Strung out on residuals and visuals and laser shows
Reach into the speaker and try to hold on to the quarter notes
I always dream about a unified scene
I always dream about a unified scene
Hey, there's James King and there's King James and that's James Dean
At a table in the corner of my unified scene
They want a double order of love and respect
They said they just got back from up in Hostile, Massachusetts
And girl, I've seen your friend, she looks nothing like Jada Pinkett
I think you got something in those cigarettes
Gideon was living up in South Minneapolis
He was the cowboy on the crosstown bus
And all the little phillies at the Yukon Club
Are gunning for the goldrush
We got tangled in electrical fences
We got wrapped up in the Indian fringes
All the little phillies at the Yukon Club
Are gunning for the goldrush
Yeah, they just can't get enough
Lyrics submitted by stellaluna1125
Sweet Payne Lyrics as written by Tad Jason Kubler Craig Finn
Lyrics © Reservoir Media Management, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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No Surprises
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I don't think it's necessarily about sex. It's about wanting to start the day with some love and affection. Maybe a warm cuddle. I'm not alone in interpreting it that way! For example:
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Page
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There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
Plastic Bag
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“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
This song is definitely about Gideon and how his gang activity got him in trouble, and how he works odd jobs around the country. In response to the earlier poster, I'm not sure that Holly and Gideon were together.
I think Charlemagne and Holly were together at one point, considering the line "do you want me to tell it like boy meets girl and the rest is history? or do you want it like a murder mystery?" (from Charlemagne in Sweatpants).
Then the relationship went bad.... "while he was down in lowertown. she was feeling out the 530 folk mass. and the night that she got born again. he was getting with her little hoodrat friend."
We also know "Holly was a hoodrat". So its safe to assume that Charlemagne hooked up with one of Holly's friends while she was at church.
The breakup is also referred to in Curves and Nerves, as posted above: " he didn't fit the plans she made. these hoodrat chicks are like razor blades. they're pretty cheap but they'll cut you deep."
I disagree that Charlemagne is dead. The shallow grave line is a metaphor. The "say something vague" line refers to him in jail, because he was "another lover lost, to the restaurant raids." In other words, a drug bust.
Plus, on "First Night", we get an update on all the characters. Holly is in the hospital, "Charlemagne pulls street corner scams", and Gideon is still a drug addict, because he has a "pipe made from a Pringle's can".