Lonely Nation

quotes from Jon Foreman:

"Or maybe I'm still trying to figure out this broken, beautiful planet- writing songs as a way of therapy in the hopes of a better understanding of this existence that we call life. Either way, the lonely struggle for meaning and truth in the postmodern world is a subject matter that I don't think I could ever exhaust."

"I'd walk around near the back and just breathe in the loneliness masses of scared kids. I remember thinking how ironic it is that you have this generation of kids connected through Instant Messaging and text messages, yet people grow more and more lonely every day."

I saw Switchfoot last night in Sydney and they opened with this song. I didn't know it last night and now I can't stop listening to it. It's so powerful, lyrically and musically. At the concert it really just hit me and I couldnt help giving in to the song it was so great! Anyway I found this on the Switchfoot website, this comes straight from Jon:

"Desperate times call for desperate measures. Over the course our time on the road as a band I have met so many amazing, beautiful, desperate, lonely people. We are the lonely nation. We are the disenchanted, the disillusioned- we are the remnant of lonely souls wanting more than anything that we can buy with this cold, hard cash. I wrote this song while we were playing a stretch of rock radio shows. I'd walk around near the back and just breathe in the loneliness- masses of lonely, scared kids. I remember thinking about the irony. Here you have this connected generation of online communities, IM, TM, myspace, and cell phones that grows more and more lonely every day. This is a song is still yearning, saying, "Don't settle, please, don't give up. Fight for only the true and the beautiful!"

    We wanted to start the record with this track because we feel that this song picks up where Meant to Live left off. There is hope for meaning and truth in this life but it probably doesn't come in the form of a corporate slogan. We, the target market, want more than this world has to offer. This is a song where tim and chad drive the verses and the guitars take the chorus. We've played this song many times live and refined it quite a bit from it's original state. There's nothing like playing a new song in front of real people with real opinions. The people at those shows, (the extended switchfoot family), they shaped this song as much as anyone."

Peace out : P

"We are slaves of what we want." I absolutely love that line. It's so true. We're no longer driven by need, now we're driven by greed. Hey, that rhymed! Anyway, I think this is a great song about how our greed only makes us lonely and we think getting more things will cure the lonliness. It's a circle that never ends.

I reckon this will be their next single and I reckon it could do really well. People will like the sound of it and I think the lyrics could get people on board too. The questioning, unsatisfied aspect is something a lot of people share and I think could cause everyone to really relate to this song. It's a great song as is the album.

i get from the chorus that the band are saying that we live in a shallow world thats not where we belong. "We are the target market, we set the corporate target We are slaves of what we want"- I love this part, talks about how we are people living for our acquisitions

Don't leave me/I'm tired/Don't leave me/I'm tired of feeling low/I'm feeling low/I'm feeling low

is incorrect.

the correct lyrics are:

"Don't leave me hollow. I'm tired. Don't leave me hollow. I'm tired of feeling low, of feeling hollow."

We're just not amused and... is incorrect as well it is "We're just numb and amused"

a decent song

this song is so catchy. i think it means people are focussing on the wrong things in life "slaves of what we want". there are more important things. so true!

Love the intro. Love it, love it, LOVE IT. Rest of the song's good too, and I actually think this is my fave Switchfoot album in general at this point.