The Pills Won't Help You Now

in the morning you'll feel you're digging your heels

Don't think that's right.

Think it is:

In a moment of fear, your digging your heels.

I think that the lyrics show that the Chems are not for or against drugs, neccesarily. Obviously a lot of fans do use drugs and they have too (Do it Again, the Test, etc). I think it just represents the side of a person realising that TRUE happiness won't come from drugs and coming to a point in your life when you have to stop using drugs or risk being permanentely fucked-up.

so. beautiful.

"i thought we were going to go up the field a ways to join all the other living souls but you never came"

I see this as 2 people, who are really down.. maybe just depressed or something - promising each other they're going to get "back on track" together. But person number 2 left person number 1 "but you never came"

Atleast this is the way i feel about this song.

"robbed of your fortune they gave disappointment and lies they're probably poisioning your body i hope you're alright"

The way i see it => As person number 2 left person number 1, Person number 2 started being with "bad people" who robbed person number 2's fortune, gave dissapointments and lies to him/her AND made him/her use drugs "they're probably poisioning your body"

And the "the pills won't help you now" could be about person number 2 experiencing something Real painful, that not even "pills" can help him/her out of the pain that it causes.

Ofcourse, this is just my personal review of the song.. i didn't read any other comments yet so This thoughts are 100% not effected by others.

If I recall correctly, the Chems mentioned in an interview that this song is about being old and in a rest home, and there definitely seems to be grounds for that in the lyrics, which definitely sound like they're about drugs but fit this interpretation really well (i.e. "they gave disappointments in life", as in, your life is nearing its end and you've been abandoned here by the ones you love). The "pills" in this case would be the residents' daily meds, which may help with their physical ailments, but which can never alleviate the sadness they feel being alone in their last years.

I think the song is about someone who used drugs/pills and life passed them by.

I think they spent everything they had on drugs, and instead of joining the living souls they chose to conform with drug addicts and those who don't see life for what life is. Poisoned their body and were apart of the less desirables.

The pills won't help them now now that they're gone. When the money, and the people that cared about them leaves them. they still hope the guy they loss to the pills comes back to join the other living souls.

In a moment of fear they tried to quit, but they were just too far gone, in that moment of fear they dug in their heels, but it was too late, they simply lost everything. while their friend sat on the hill waiting waiting for the fear to lead to sobriety and bring them there.

Its a song about hope, beauty in life, and those....those far gone.

<3 Tim Smith the lyricist

The obvious assumption is that this is about drug addiction. But the tone of the song is so beautiful, and Tim Smith's voice is so gentle and sweet that it permeates the subject matter with innocence. It feels to me like a gentle plee to someone to let someone else help them. In some sense, it's one of the sweetest love songs I can think of. The music and beats by the Chems are a huge part of that too.

This songs reminds me strongly of Close Your Eyes; they're both really beautiful come-down tracks.

Like aangelene says, it's a gorgeous cross between an exposed controversy and a love song. And, after having watched the movie "The Drugging of Our Children", this subject means quite a bit more to me.

I really love this song. I totally get chills when he sings "they're probably poisioning your body i hope you're alright" It gives me an intense feeling of comfort, being cared for. I'm even reminded of myself, and how I might act in his place: I'd be caring, sensitive, gentle.

Beautiful song... So meaningful...

it seems that this song is about a drug addiction as noted before, but this leaves me confused. the chemical brothers have several songs about drugs, including this, lost in the k-hole, and the test. but it seems this song is more like an anti-drug stance because "the pills won't help you now" but the others seem to be promoting the experience. can anybody explain this?

I don't think the pills he refers to aren't any sort of psychoactive kind, but rather an anti-depressant, maybe. So, person A is with person B, person B leaves and doesn't call to check up, person A is worried about them, thought they would be happy, but got mixed up in all sorts of nonsense and is in fact, not happy. At least, thats what I got out of it. I'm sure some of their songs are focused towards the use of certain psychoactive substances, but not with the intention of drowning your sorrows and using it as an anti-depressant.