Fake Empire

Brilliant song! Here's a thought about the meaning. I wonder if this song is about finding a new love. There's a purity in the feeling of happiness when you initially fall in love, that 'honeymoon period', when you're like children - 'making pies', 'lemonade', 'tiptoe through the city', 'bluebirds', not worrying about what others think about your public displays ('do our gay ballet on ice').

You know the real world is out there and approaching (when honeymoon period is over, also your 'real' regular lives which are not as much fun as what you're experiencing when together). You're on such a natural high, you try to postpone the inevitability, try to ignore it ('no thinking for a little while') . 'Half-awake in a fake empire' could mean that you want to and try to have some control your life (your 'empire') but you know it's only partly true. You're trying to lie to yourself that you can stay in this happiness though you know you can't (you're 'half awake'). Seems to fit in a lot of ways, also in the emotional tension which does seem to leave a sense of optimism from the piano, drums, guitar and finally trumpet in the ending that the inevitable is okay, just enjoy the ride while it lasts. What do you think?

I think that this song is about the USA (fake empire) & the people here distracting themselves with trivial superficial things cuz they don't want to think about or can't deal with any big issues in the country or world.

the first couple lines are heartbreaking.

"stay out super late" - for me that's pure nostalgia, especially coupled with the sweetness of "picking apples, making pies"

then the dagger: "put a little something in our lemonade and take it with us"

if the lemonade here is intended to suggest the lemonade made in the axiom about life handing you lemons, it's crushing to think that even that most optimistic outlook is so bleak that we might "put a little something in our lemonade" - i.e. liquor it up to numb ourselves, to stay only "half-awake" so we don't have to admit it's a fake empire.

one way or another, this song is about the bit of sadness in everything - it's an empire, sure, but it isn't real - it's lemonade, of course, but it isn't enough - it's a shiny city and we've got bluebirds on our shoulders (woopsay: i definitely think that's a tongue-in-cheek shot towards "zip-a-dee-doo-dah") but the emphasis is on quelling thoughts and ideas, hiding them behind glitter and pretense. there's definitely some questioning of identity, or at least "genuine" identity.

this theme returns in the next song: "you get mistaken for strangers by your own friends"

such remarkable melancholy...

"The song is a commentary on a generation lost to disillusion and apathy. Vocalist Matt Berringer explained to The Quietus that it is about "where you can't deal with the reality of what's really going on, so let's just pretend that the world's full of bluebirds and ice skating."

This is what I read on the artist's intepretation on the song, but that's what's so great about music. You can interpret anything anyway you want, to whatever strikes a chord inside of you, and be right. For me this song was more about America as a whole and how we live through the motto "ignorance is bliss." So I guess my interpretation was similar to Berringer's; in the same book but not on the same page, so to speak.

An interview that can be found at aquariumdrunkard.com/2008/07/10/matt-berninger-the-national-the-ad-interview/:

AD: Many of the reviews of Boxer called it a war record, focusing on tracks like “Start a War” and “Fake Empire,” but the more I listen to those tracks, the more they seem to be about crumbling relationships. To what extent are those songs “war” songs?

Matt Berninger: Neither were every really songs about war. “Fake Empire” has political allusions but it’s also just a song about going out and forgetting your troubles. If anything, its more about trying to avoid thinking about the state of the world.

AD: I’ve spoken with several artists who have begun to write purposefully ambiguous lyrics because they know that their songs are going to be interpreted differently by different people; to what extent do you do the same? How do you feel about the way your songs are interpreted?

Matt Berninger: A song sticks with me more if its a little ambiguous. It allows for flexibility and leaves the windows open. It’s easier for me to stay connected and interested in something if I’m not 100% sure what it’s about.

There you go.

I think the first part of the song is meant to describe the simple life for the Americans in their empire. There's a very laid-back feel to both the words, actions and Berninger's voice.

The last part of the song tells of the current state of the empire. "No thinking for a little while" - we allow things to happen without really thinking about them. We postpone whatever consequences there might be.

What made me think it was about America is the first few lines relation to the phrase "as American as apple pie"

Truly a beautiful song. It's clearly a relationship song--the entire album is an exploration of an individual's experiences reliving a bittersweet relationship, and this one starts it out...

The lyrics are sad and nostalgic, and they position a romantic relationship by using politicized language. Relationships are about losing and regaining personal sovereignty, and creating--upon a given landscape--a kind of psychic map...think of it as geographic waypoints significant to a couple's existence. The "Fake Empire" is the relationship as projected out into a city...it creates a significant landscape that is meaningful to the singer, but is ultimately just a construct, not real in any formal sense. It's the territory of the couple's own making...both real and imaginary.

The song is a little bit ironic, even sarcastic, with its opening images of domestic bliss and disney-esque happiness. The singer is revisiting this earlier idealism from a point of confusion and inquiry...but ultimately he can't sort things out & there's a detente...the only thing possible is an agreement to not over-analyze the situation, to let it be, to wait.

I think it is about making your own world for yourself. Two people that love each other are oblivious to the world around them, they just live in their own little world, their own made-up world. I think it is one of their less cynical albums.

Yeah, I agree with the love aspect. I doubt that it's a political statement because their lyrics seems to be more abstract. In "all the wine", they talk about a birthday candle in a circle of black girls. I think they go for more imagery than blunt messages.