Five Seconds (feat. Odd Nosdam)

I'm not sure if it's "Don't pull my nerve!" or not, and I think I got the line after "Rollercoasterin' in the dark" slightly wrong. But I am pretty certain about "you are the air that I breathe", although it took lots of listens to make out right.

I think that line is "Come and turn this nightmare upside-down". I fuckin' love this song.

I think the song is about getting lured into the routine of sex as a paramount factor of one's life. "Five seconds to live" could be a reference to the length of orgasm. Also, since sex can be viewed [in a rather Freudian and therefore faulty manner] as something violent, the Stalingrad battle reference reinforces this. And, "Don't pull my nerve?" Hah. Perhaps the verse regarding the house burning down illustrates how many families "unexpectedly" happen due to sexual carelessness, and it is only a matter of time before the home crumbles. Sex for the sake of sex always does.

Remember that song "Epic?" Yeah. Patton's a smart one.

its a love song about the character telling her how much he loves her in his last dying words.

The song is about abortion. All the clues are there, some veiled, some more blatant. It's from the point of view of the fetus/infant.

Slaughterhouse of love... naked as I can be... Labyrinth is only one straight line (birth canal)... You are the air that I breathe... Sweet annihilation in your hands.... Rollercoasterin' in the dark (I can't think of a better way to describe the life of a fetus in utero)... come and join this nightmare upside down (I think that is closer to correct than what is given, the fetus is upside down)... You prayed for rain and I fell down (down the birth canal?)... I'll be choking on my ABCs...

It's an amazing song, I love it, in spite of the sadness of it. I didn't include all of the lyric/explanations above that point to this meaning, but it's there.

Mike Patton: "A surreal love song that takes place in a hospital bed."

I think the lyrics posted are correct except..

"Come into me slide you upside down"

..should be:

"Come and turn this nightmare upside down"

It's no surprise that Five Seconds is first on the track list, because it touches on most (if not all) of the major themes presented in the Peeping Tom album.

The first, and probably the most obvious theme is the style of the music itself. I'm sure anyone who has listened to the album will know what I mean. It's Mike Patton's slightly-twisted version of modern pop music. The beats are very simple, catchy and hypnotic as one would expect from this genre. Yet at the same time, the songs are extremely rich in sound and there's depth in the lyrics. For example..

"This labyrinth is only one straight line back and forth up and down your spine"

..touches on the Chakra/Kundalini concept of the potential energy held at the base of a human being's spine. It is believed that this energy can be awakened through meditation, yoga, magical practice, etc. When awakened, Kundalini travels up the spine leading to higher and higher states of consciousness. The "labyrinth" he's talking about is the maze of human existence that we all experience on a daily basis. "The plot thickens every day", and it's so easy to get lost along the way and make things more complicated than they need to be. That's why he's pointing out that the trick is to keep it simple and realize that it's not about "figuring the world out", it's about discovering yourself and finding out who you really are inside.

This leads into the most identifyable theme on the album imo, which is the breakdown of an intimate relationship between a man and a woman. Most of the songs on the album are related to this idea.

"Peeping Tom" is the exploration of a man's will to unlock the mysteries within himself by seeing his reflection in a woman (who recently broke up with him). That's why when you first look at the cover of the cd, you see a woman through the key hole. But when you open it up, you see a man's eye appear through the key hole. On the back, you'll also notice a black profile of the woman's hand holding the key to his soul. She is also shown in other places on the cd case where she's stripping off her clothes in a seductive, hypnotic way. These images are consistent with the hypnotic, catchy beats in the songs. I think that's where the music, images and lyrics all meet on the surface.

However if you listen to the songs closely, you'll notice there's a general double entendre going on between the hypnotic effect of a woman and the spellbinding effect of mind control techniques used by illuminati dominators. "How U Feelin?" and "Getaway" are probably the best examples of this theme being used on the album (read my post on Getaway for details).

Finally, there are the more abstract themes of alchemical transformation and the "dual suns" concept in alchemy (this is what the album artwork is trying to convey imo). For those who aren't familiar, alchemical transformation is basically about transforming negative energy into something positive (at least that's what it means within the scope of Peeping Tom, I think). That's what the man in Five Seconds is trying to do.. he's trying to "turn this nightmare upside down" by finding himself through his intimate relationship with the woman. This is a naive mistake that many of us have made, where we attempt to find the meaning of life in another person instead of looking inside ourselves.

This is where the "dual suns" concept comes into play, and this is most easily seen in the album artwork. You'll notice that the album cover is mostly yellow, which symbolizes gold. The transmutation of negative energy into positive energy has metaphorically been described by alchemsists as the transformation of lead into gold. So that's why most of the album covering is yellow. The yellow represents the "hidden sun".. the pure light of higher consciousness that this man is seeking.

However, the woman is displayed in all black and she's surrounded by a dense, orange glow. She is symbolizing the "black sun".. the "dark, consuming fire" of the external, material world which keeps us ignorant of the underlying spiritual realm. In other words, she represents the dark forces that dominate the physical, material world. She's extremely desireable, but only in the physical sense. To the man, she has become the dark, consuming fire that keeps him from moving on with his life after their break-up.