Sleeping In

I cant believe this has no comments. This is one of my favorite Radio Dept. songs.

What could it mean? Someone of his frends died? And the author on the contrary wuold give the last just to stay alive, although things are not going that well in his life(I know it's not my place But I don't even wonder why )?

What I see is a friend committed suicide, "He's got no more headaches / Leaving us with empty walls". Sleeping can be a euphemism for death, especially when he's said to be sleeping from morning to night. Also, the perspective this is told from says they don't wonder why, instead they say "what commitment / what grace / to just refuse to be alive"--like how some people talk up (or down) those who have died.

I'm not sure if the friend committed suicide- the song reminds me a lot of The Hours by Michael Cunningham and the relationship between Richard Brown and Clarissa Vaughn. Richard is depressed and Clarissa tries to throw a party for him so he can recognize the beauty and joys of life, but Richard still seems to stay defeated by the hours and the worlds sorrows. The first stanza however does show signs of suicide because the last line says 'last of many efforts' meaning the persons final thing done in life. The second stanza shows that the speaker justifies the suicide because he says 'I know it's not my place but i don't even wonder why" proving that he accepts it and knows there is a reason behind whatever is going on.

This song is about someone trying to get their depressed friend to do something instead of sitting and sulking.

So simple and yet so beautiful. Describes The radio dept overall i guess.

Absolutely, this song sounds like somebody who has killed themselves. An epitaph for that person with a wonderment of how anybody could ever possibly do that: "What commitment, what grace to just refuse to be alive!" It's ridiculously sad because it's from the perspective of not only a friend, but somebody who has never understood what it means to be suicidally depressed, so he feels at an impasse when it comes to judging this dead friend's actions.

Amazing song, maybe it has to do with a male commiting suicide or simply giving up because everything overwhelmed him

Delicate spokes of arpeggiated guitar swirl above a becalming, eyelid-heavy backing track while in the foreground pesky sibilant percussion bubbles and boils like a swarm of robotic mosquitoes attempting to awaken a sleeping giant.

Though sleeping in seems an adroit metaphor for suicide, as both are typically pre-planned, conscious choices to remain unconscious (excepting faulty alarm clocks), the wonderful sparseness of the lyric also allows for a warning against (or acceptance of) a passive approach to life or artistic creation.

Specific interpretations depend on the perceived degree of sarcasm from the narrator in the line that begins “What commitment, what grace . . .” including disappointment, bewilderment, neutral acceptance or even fascination with a friend’s suicide (or hospitalization for depression). In this regard the key line may be found just prior: “but I don’t even wonder why” – if he was very disappointed with a close friend’s lethargy or shocked by a suicide, he would absolutely wonder, replaying recent interactions in his mind. However, while this suggests neutral acceptance as most likely, the lyric provides no proof this is/was a close friend, the fact of which might color our judgment.

If the narrator didn’t/doesn’t know the person well, we might wonder whether the “empty walls” belong to our slumbering subject (or artist?) or an observer (fan?) who can no longer enjoy (and display) the creator’s works after his “last . . . efforts.” While this may be a stretch, it’s possible the tune concerns passive approaches to life or art, as “dreaming as the evening falls” combined with sleeping in doesn’t require death, just going to bed early and getting up late -- a dog’s life.