Future Foe Scenarios

this song is so good. so good. it gets all of the anger and frustration out of you and into the air. you cant sing along to this song, you grit your teeth and you scream.

The song seems like both a take on society as well being pretty political....

the lines "this revolution baby/proves who you work for lately", as well as "cliches and other chatter keep our minds from thinking" seem to take a stab right at those who have ardent support for the current administration, as if they bought in to the "cliches" and fear mongering.

perhaps that's not what they were going for in this song, but i've never seen/heard of a band from cali who not only wasn't liberal but didn't express so in their songs.

okies...here we go...first ever comment on here...

"and there's no way to know/our future foe scenarios"

you can't tell who you're gonna fight with in your life...or when...or whatever...

"that's when it turned on me/where bobby pins held angels wings/it's alright"

even the most important people in your life...they're not like that forever...someone you see as an angel might not be that later on down the track...

but the last line leaves reassurance...like that's the way how life is...it's nothing to fear...

so beautifully written though...

I think this song is talking about a relationship which was built on a very weak and destructible foundation. This is shown in "the things we laid do not amount to much / made of abandoned wood loose stones and such", showing how neither put in enough effort to really build a strong relationship. There also seems to be a lot of reference to fighting or conflict between the two, probably what he means by "this revolution baby / proves who you work for lately" being that she literally works to make the relationship difficult. Again, this making it hard to build a strong companionship. The "the things we laid do not amount to much / made up of thought balloons and cotton swabs" could mean how the relationship has a lack of communication, and both feel things that they are too prideful or unconcerned about to share. The fire burning the walls that symbolize their relationship also indicates conflict, and it becomes clear in the last verse that at least one of the two is looking for companionship elsewhere outside of the relationship: "a motorcade of 'meant to be's’ parades of beauty queens...will win by keeping me from speaking to my new darling" obviously one is distracted by beautiful women who could potentially replace the one they are with. It seems by the end that this girl whom he perceived as an angel was actually not at all "that's when it turned on me where bobby pins hold angel wings", becoming the sole reason for his interest in others. He was apparently misled into a relationship that he believed would be awesome but never really became much, probably enveloping what would become his future foe; however, despite all of the complications we are constantly assured that "it's alright".

Theres my 2 cents!

"where bobby pins hold angel wings" wow what an excellent line...this song is beautiful ffs

Every time Brian sings that 'speaking to my new darling' line I get shivers down my spine. Loaded with feeling, it's such an amazing delivery to a great lyric.

$0.02

I get this song completely. It's about how he has a close friend and then it turns out that the friend steals a girl that he wants to have a relationship with, thus causing the friend to become a foe, and thus, the meaning of the song and how you never know who might end up becoming a future foe in a "future foe scenario".

I think something pivoting happened in the relationship of the speaker, and he's re-evaluating the entire thing.

He first admits that they came together for weak reasons, and that that fact should have been the tip-off to the whole thing. There are other hints, like never speaking of important things, only of 'cliches and other chatter,' and like of her cookie-cutter part in the relationship, as she seems to be nothing more than a media-driven barbie doll.

They appear to have been together for a long time despite all of this, a 'mire' of their past getting in the way of seeing what's really going on.

For sake of example, let's say he's just proposed to her. Maybe she hesitates, or blatantly refuses, otherwise denying him or dumping him or whatever.

It's then that it suddenly dawns on him that she's painted it all on thick, fake wings, broken nails, plastic rings, the full she-bang part of the airhead bombshell parade, and it's kept him from really "speaking to his darling," when the time comes to move into something more serious.

He's constantly questioning her, asking whose side is she on? Why have they been together this long if she's terrified of the future? Is she fine clinging to this empty persona she's adopted from magazines and media?

As for the constant "It's alright," the jury is still out. He could be shrugging it off, meaning "It's alright, whatever," glad to be out of the relationship and not drinking his life away, it could be "It's alright, you don't have to be an angel, you can be yourself," or it could be "It's alright, I'll just suffer through this empty love because everyone else is probably the same."

i'm pretty sure that when he says "but when the night is over and the walls keep linking"

he says "I must keep drinking" at the end instead of repeating "our minds keep thinking"

I hear "I must keep drinking" about 50% of the time and "Our minds keep shrinking" the rest of the time...