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”
I'm a breather mail receiver
And I don't know where I stand
Not since someone informed me
That my house was built on sand
And it's not the earth beneath me
It's just the concept of the land
And I'm standing on the corner
When the buildings they all fell
If you blink once you're a goner
Everything just goes pell-mell
It's a real hard sell
My conceptual hell
Not even good for kindling
When the buildings they all fell
I'm a breather mail receiver
Bottomfeeder just getting by
And you know it's all just par for the course
But you blame it on some non-existent force
Oh yeah, of course
You know you can't ride the concept of the horse
But still I try
In a cartoon desert landscape
With a pair of ACME jet skates
Focused on my destination
I seem to have forgot my station
Now it's time to face the nation
And I'm riding to meet you
On a brown gray speckled mare
But there's something that unnerves me
Like I'm riding on thin air
These few doubts desserve me
Thinking no one really cares
And I'm jumping over fences
On this obstacle course
But it seems I'm getting nowhere
On the concept of the horse
It's a real hard sell
My conceptual hell
Not even good for kindling
When the buildings they all fell
I'm a breather
Bottomfeeder
How many liters
Must I imbibe
And you know it's all just par for the course
But you blame it on some non-existent force
Oh yeah, of course
You know you can't ride the concept of the horse
But still I try
And I don't know where I stand
Not since someone informed me
That my house was built on sand
And it's not the earth beneath me
It's just the concept of the land
And I'm standing on the corner
When the buildings they all fell
If you blink once you're a goner
Everything just goes pell-mell
It's a real hard sell
My conceptual hell
Not even good for kindling
When the buildings they all fell
I'm a breather mail receiver
Bottomfeeder just getting by
And you know it's all just par for the course
But you blame it on some non-existent force
Oh yeah, of course
You know you can't ride the concept of the horse
But still I try
In a cartoon desert landscape
With a pair of ACME jet skates
Focused on my destination
I seem to have forgot my station
Now it's time to face the nation
And I'm riding to meet you
On a brown gray speckled mare
But there's something that unnerves me
Like I'm riding on thin air
These few doubts desserve me
Thinking no one really cares
And I'm jumping over fences
On this obstacle course
But it seems I'm getting nowhere
On the concept of the horse
It's a real hard sell
My conceptual hell
Not even good for kindling
When the buildings they all fell
I'm a breather
Bottomfeeder
How many liters
Must I imbibe
And you know it's all just par for the course
But you blame it on some non-existent force
Oh yeah, of course
You know you can't ride the concept of the horse
But still I try
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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.
Blue
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“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“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.
I didn't pick up on this until I read all the other peoples good comments here, but I am now feeling like there is something of an anti-essentialist meaning here as well as the anti-determinism the others have noted (ie our lives are not pre-determined by god's plan). Something about how reality as we know it is shaped by us and our language (there isn't anything essentially 'horse' about a horse, it could just as easily be called a 'table' - but would it mean the same thing or not?) and it's hard to say if there is a reality sepparate from our perceptions of it. Or something like that. Here's why I'm thinking this way:
The person in the song is told that his fundamental truths are not true: "And I don't know where I stand / Not since someone informed me / That my house was built on sand". Then, when he looks closer at the reality around him, it all falls apart (the buildings, the house on sand) or it never actually existed (the horse, the earth).
The following lines have one thing in common - they all point to someone discovering that the things that they thought were essentialy real are not:
That my house was built on sand / And it's not the earth beneath me / It's just the concept of the land
And I'm standing on the corner / When the buildings they all fell
You know you can't ride the concept of the horse / But still I try
But there's something that unnerves me / Like I'm riding on thin air
But it seems I'm getting nowhere / On the concept of the horse
Also, the following verse points to our reality being not real (it is cartoon, we are wearing cartoon jetskates made by a fictional cartoon company):
In a cartoon desert landscape / With a pair of ACME jetskates
And isn't it a conceptual hell when you realize that reality as you know it isn't real? (like, as 'tenwords' pointed out, plato's people in the cave did).
So I think he's saying something like 'we go through life thinking that our reality is real, our truths are true, our paths are determined by god and that we are all moving forward but we are all just riding the concept of a horse (ie. it's all in our minds and we aren't getting anywhere because of it).'
And then, even when you know there is no essential real or true, what else can you do but go on? ... 'But still I try' ...