I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Let's get the fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck out of here!
Let's get the fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck out of here!
Let's get the fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck out of here!
Don't test the captain's validity or his vulnerability.
I've seen the necks unnaturally twisted, craned to stars in the sky.
I've felt the chill upend the happiness of idiots in minutes;
they clutch their jewelry tight and say "How lucky am I!"
And like a drunk spills boons on his varsity letter,
can we forgive a ship of fools for what they don't know better?
I guess not.
"Man I hope he'll piss himself."
Analyze this room.
Grab that mop and broom and clean it up.
Man I hope he shits himself
when the rest of the shipwrecked long drowned in their graves
make a claim on the souls of the heartless fakes.
"Please help, my party flew away with the ocean mist.
I narrowly escaped to the roof."
But when the Night Rangers found me (dead, but for my liver)
and said "Don't tell me you love me", abhorrent and deliberate.
How we ruined the day's remains. Sinful.
A hero's humility is a foolish amenity.
Cups of coffee speed the heartbeats of the soonest to die.
I saw the first blood in the water, someone's mother or daughter.
I wait for troutman; Give me clearance for this chopper to fly.
Cause they were jumping off the backs of only sons,
offering up light snacks of younger ones.
"Well, how fast could our legs run?"
Let's get the fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck out of here!
The weak are screaming for the captain but the captain ain't here.
How we ruined the day's remains. Sinful.
The bodies splashed like paint.
To see so many scattered cockroaches running from the light.
Oh, when I saw them floating out to the river,
the cold inside my stomach was a hunger to me.
And if the devil makes a mess of all the raw meat,
Let him be.
Oh how my captain sailed it straight up the middle,
but the crooked lines are quicker when you're snorting them in.
Because if the devil's at your door you leave it open.
Let him in.
Let's get the fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck out of here!
Let's get the fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck out of here!
Don't test the captain's validity or his vulnerability.
I've seen the necks unnaturally twisted, craned to stars in the sky.
I've felt the chill upend the happiness of idiots in minutes;
they clutch their jewelry tight and say "How lucky am I!"
And like a drunk spills boons on his varsity letter,
can we forgive a ship of fools for what they don't know better?
I guess not.
"Man I hope he'll piss himself."
Analyze this room.
Grab that mop and broom and clean it up.
Man I hope he shits himself
when the rest of the shipwrecked long drowned in their graves
make a claim on the souls of the heartless fakes.
"Please help, my party flew away with the ocean mist.
I narrowly escaped to the roof."
But when the Night Rangers found me (dead, but for my liver)
and said "Don't tell me you love me", abhorrent and deliberate.
How we ruined the day's remains. Sinful.
A hero's humility is a foolish amenity.
Cups of coffee speed the heartbeats of the soonest to die.
I saw the first blood in the water, someone's mother or daughter.
I wait for troutman; Give me clearance for this chopper to fly.
Cause they were jumping off the backs of only sons,
offering up light snacks of younger ones.
"Well, how fast could our legs run?"
Let's get the fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck out of here!
The weak are screaming for the captain but the captain ain't here.
How we ruined the day's remains. Sinful.
The bodies splashed like paint.
To see so many scattered cockroaches running from the light.
Oh, when I saw them floating out to the river,
the cold inside my stomach was a hunger to me.
And if the devil makes a mess of all the raw meat,
Let him be.
Oh how my captain sailed it straight up the middle,
but the crooked lines are quicker when you're snorting them in.
Because if the devil's at your door you leave it open.
Let him in.
Lyrics submitted by brunoisrad
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
How could no one comment on such an amazing song??? This song is unreal. If you never heard it before, listen to it right fucking now!
Alright, I'm going to have a try.
The whole first part of the text, up to "... from the light", literally is about a boat sinking, I reckon. I think it's the same comparison as made in "5 to 9", and the 'sinking boat' should be compared to a situation in which we've got rid of all the untalented mainstream stuff. It's a hard guess, but I might be near it.
The last two verses I find a bit easier to comprehend. I reckon AWS is referring to people like Britney Spears in the first; when being a popstar finally backfires at them, let them feel the result of being greedy bitches. "If the devil makes a mess of all the raw meat, let him be". I really don't have a clue what the second verse there is referring to, there's nothing I can logically relate to it.
God I love this band, even though i don't understand all of the metaphors.
I think the whole sinking ship thing could also be a metaphor of life on earth in general. they start with let's get the fuck outta here literally wanting to get out of here , then the first verse describes the situation as it is at the moment: don't try to understand or correct or denounce the way the 'captain' (government etc.) runs the country, things went wrong before doing that ('necks unnaturally twisted'). the 'idiots' (rich people?) are glad they are alive but don't see the real world.
they continue that ignorant people don't know better (like 'a drunk spilling boons') and by doing that they're destroying the world. Can't seem to grab the next section cause I'm confused by the two quotes.
then with 'a hero's humility' i'm guessing they mean don't get high hopes, it's not what it seems, heroes aren't heroes and 'coffee' can only make things worse. You can see the first ones (the weak, the women, i don't think in literal sense, but to continue the metaphor of a ship sinking) already going down. The next bit fits with the metaphor but it's a bit difficult to place it in context.
then the lat two verses explain how this person (i'm not sure if it's trevor or from the eyes of the them that were jumping off the backs... ) dreads to see all those people dying but at the same he thinks: let them. second bit the same, trying to rescue the ones that need help, it's a lot easier to just have everything for yourself (lines meaning sailing lines but also lines of cocaine)
okay that's what i think, the fact that i'm even spending this long thinking about one song is what makes aws amazing.
Very nice and clear description, I think you're far more accurate than my guess here.
To fill in the part following the "Like a drunk spilling boons" part;
"can we forgive a ship of fools for what they don't know better? I guess not."
Obvious; can we forgive a world of fools for wrecking it if they don't know better?
"Man I hope he'll piss himself. Analyze this room. Grab that mop and broom and clean it up. Man I hope he shits himself"
Sounds to me like a shout out. Replace the word "room" with "world" and it seems to become a lot clearer. Tieing in with the last part of the song, he hopes that man shits himself while cleaning up his own mess.
"when the rest of the shipwrecked long drowned in their graves make a claim on the souls of the heartless fakes. "Please help, my party flew away with the ocean mist. I narrowly escaped to the roof." "
Phew... The rest of the shipwrecked are probably the people who see that we're fucking up the world but don't have enough influence to fix it. They make a claim on the souls of the heartless fakes (the important people who promis to fix things at times), saying they only barely escaped something. Come to think of it, it sounds like it's mentioning refugees which have fled from war-torn countries (the war being fueled by the heartless fakes).
"But when the Night Rangers found me (dead, but for my liver)"
Not the slightest clue to who exactly are meant by the 'night rangers' (aside from people in the service of the heartless fakes). Dead, but for my liver... this might be a long shot, but... Alhocol is a drug, right? The only thing the person in question has left is the ability to "do" something which might make him feel good, but is in fact wrong... criminality?
"and said "Don't tell me you love me", abhorrent and deliberate. How we ruined the day's remains. Sinful."
"Don't tell me you love me" is a bit more clear, I reckon it refers to what Europe and America are currently telling immigrants from poor countries who are attempting to secure a better future here. How we ruined the day's remains? Sinful... Criminality yet again?
When they played this song live, Nuno said "this song is about a shipwreck, drugs, and something else I don't remember". Really wish I could remember..
I will say there are obvious references to cocaine.
You set me onto something MZA! I think the song as a whole is about junks and drug users. It's partly a lament due to it stating there is no help for them ("The weak are screaming for the captain but the captain ain't here") and partly a judgement, because when Nuno sings "And if the devil's at your door you leave it open, let him in" he's probably refering to the fact that all drug users once willingly started the path down to becoming a junkie.
In a live video, Nuno says that "this song is about shark & cocaine, two things that [he's] reallly afraid of...
Does anyone know if this line:
"I wait for Troutman, give me clearance for this chopper to fly"
is a Rambo reference? A bit far-fetched in context, but I don't know any other Troutman/Trautman.
I don't know if this was AWS' intention, but it comes off like any situation (particularly life-threatening) where people sort of...lose all civility and revert to their true survival, fight or flight instincts. Some kind of hell breaks loose (maybe in their own lives that's emotional, or something like an actual sinking ship). It comes up in the song as cannibalism (offering up snacks of younger ones) and in the penultimate verse. The use of cocaine in the final verse could symbolize that loss of control, and the ending is finally letting that devil (loss of civility, reverting to sheer animalism) inside you and becoming it.
Also, while browsing John Hughes wikipedia page, I found out that "Jaws 3, People 0" is a name of an unproduced screenplay of his, which was supposed to be a parody of the Jaws series. Dunno how it is relevant, though.