Starlight

OK, first of all, this just again proves what a lyrical genius Matt is.

first interpretation Since their first album, Muse have been writing about the trials and tribulation of fame and success. The "ship" in this song could be taken as referring to fame, which is making him drift away from his roots - he's never at home - and the result is that the people he finds himself surrounded by (fans and fellow musicians), in contrast to the people he grew up with, don't really care if he "live[s] or die[s]".

On some level, Matt picked up guitar in the first place because it was an instrument that could impress people; so maybe his musical journey started out (at least partly) in the pursuit of fame and fortune - the "starlight". He now knows that he can't easily give up this lifestyle, he's too deeply rooted in it already; but he's starting to have doubts whether it really is worth giving up his former life.

Now, the next stanza becomes a little more metaphorical: he's personifying the starlight. He sounds like a desperate or defeated - or unrequited - lover when he says "I just wanted to hold you in my arms", perhaps indicating that he just wanted to taste a little of the fame but he never really wanted to commit himself to it on this scale.

This lover, this starlight, "electrif[ies]" his life in the sense that it gives him a rush, it gives him meaning. He wants to share this rush with others, he wants to rock out, because he feeds off of that as well. He wants to "ignite" these "souls", these fans, who themselves would "die" (give up their current, supposedly boring lives) in order to "feel alive" (doing exactly what he's doing - living in stardom).

Furthering this branch of the metaphor, Matt now strikes a deal with the starlight that he has attained: he will keep living the star lifestyle, on the condition that he has the security of knowing that his starlight won't "fade" into obscurity - giving up his friends and family for stardom holds no reward for him if he's an obscure hero.

Finally, Matt juxtaposes "hopes and expectations" with "black holes and revelations". It would seem fame and fortune didn't turn out to be all he wanted it to be - his hopes got destroyed, sucked into a black hole. But his expectations of stardom were also inaccurate - he had a series of "revelations". It remains, however, curiously unclear whether these revelations were good or bad, and I believe herein lies the crux of this interpretation of the song.

The starlight as metaphor for fame and stardom is a very apt one. A star is something that shines brightly, for thousands of years. However, ironically enough, there's a lot of stars in the sky... But still, we can make out each and every one clearly at some stage or another. Again, this ties in with Matt's deal with the starlight, that he'll hold on to it as long as it stands out among the other stars in the night sky.

Also, a starlight is something distant, something unattainable. It is in this sense that this song always makes me think of the green light opposite the lake in F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby - and it is also this that guides me into another interpretation of the song, that of a failed romance.

This has been my first interpretation, and it's a long one, so I'll only post my second (and further) one(s) if you guys ask for them. ^_^