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Cheating the Polygraph Lyrics

Lying through my teeth again
I've been bad again, black lies
Skirting round the truth again
To escape the look in your eyes

Cover up the facts again
With the money men, disguise
Losing my integrity
Well it's lost to me, I don't mind

Feel my soul going
Feel my soul colder

Blackening my soul again
With another lie, it's my style
Burying my face again
God I'm so ashamed, this time

Feel my soul going
Feel my soul colder

Feel my soul going
Feel my soul colder
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Cover art for Cheating the Polygraph lyrics by Porcupine Tree

Well the song is clearly about lying. A polygraph is a lie detector, so to 'cheat the polygraph' would be to lie convincingly I assume... Which makes sense looking at the verses.

Overall, I guess the song is about lying so much and so convincingly, you lose yourself in your own lies - what is in fact true and what isn't ('Losing my integrity, Well it's lost to me, I don't mind')... The chorus could be seen as how lying so much can lead to desensitisation towards the matter... You don't know when you should lie or you shouldn't lie - you don't see how it hurts others... You become alienated - or cold - towards the matter ('Feel my soul going, Feel my soul colder').

Cover art for Cheating the Polygraph lyrics by Porcupine Tree

Great interpretations. Nil Recurring is indeed an amazing EP. In a sense, it is comfort lying: lying we do to avoid situations, to uplift ourselves, to look "better" to others. In fact, isn't this what has become of a lot of factors of our society? We lie to make our lives more convenient, less complicated. To try and sort of create this illusion of uniformity-- that we are the same as all others.

In another sense, I feel the narrator is a pathological liar who is lost in his lifestyle, yet doesn't mind any more due to the desensitized feeling someone above me mentioned. After you do it so much, it just becomes an integral part of you-- thus him "feel[ing]" his "soul going". He is lost in that downward spiral.

Cover art for Cheating the Polygraph lyrics by Porcupine Tree

Awesome song from the Nil Recurring EP. The special edition, with the tracks of FOABP and the EP is a masterpiece. In fact, I like to think that Nil Recurring is the second part of FOABP. XD

I think the song is about the modern life, and how it push you into situations where you have to do things you know are wrong, but you still do them because that's how our society works.

Cover art for Cheating the Polygraph lyrics by Porcupine Tree

It's about lying so much to the point of where you start to believe believe your own lies! Great song, Mr. Wilson really does have a great singing voice when he wants to.