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Metropolis Lyrics
Loud, subaltern city streets,
bellies wild with discontent;
tall, glass buildings, where we meet
watching classes in descent.
Whoever made these robot angels,
made these urban trash crustaceans;
they occupy the same streets,
and we fill the day with locusts and magazines.
Just south of here, utopia
for sixty bones, euphoria
they're keeping cartoon main streets lit.
And all these puppet cultures learn
every first world has a third;
only love escapes this glass metropolis.
Now information without flesh
means your body's just a drive,
loading up with life and death:
the after-human has arrived.
Melancholy and relief
for the things we never know,
a constellation of defeat
in this sidewalk shadow show
Whoever made these robot angels,
made these urban trash crustaceans;
they occupy the same streets,
and we fill the day with locusts and magazines.
Just south of here, utopia
for sixty bones, euphoria
they're keeping cartoon main streets lit
And all these puppet cultures learn
every first world has a third;
only love escapes this glass metropolis.
Let your eyes go
To Llano
Out the window
To the last maypole
okay here's a breakdown of what i think it all means
"watching classes in decent" meaning people's status or class, and observing the life forms below from an outsider's perspective
"urban trash crustaceans" refer to the bottom feeders, low class, those living in squalor in the cities
"robot angels" those people who may be of higher class importance, etc who make themselves out to be perfect living out their meaningless daily robotic means of life
so "whoever made these robot angels, made these urban trash crustaceans. they occupy the same streets" is referring to the wide range of life in the city
"Just south of here, utopia, for sixty bones, euphoria" I think means that just a bit of a ways outside of the city lies something better and much more meaningful
"Now information without flesh means your body's just a drive, loading up with life and death: the after-human has arrived"
I think this means as you constantly live day to day with the meaningless things and routines that fill your life, you start losing more and more of yourself as time progresses until one day, you may not know who you are anymore
"only love escapes this glass metropolis"
all in all I think the whole purpose is to show a colder side to not just city life, but life in general and that if you don't take a moment to experience love and life you will gradually lose your humanity to worldly ways & things
that's what I got from it and hope i could help :)
I think it's partly about big cities in general, how like, everyone takes for granted how delicate everything is. And also, about how everyone forgets what exists outside their supposedly safe little place. It's basically a clever song made for you to interpret it however you want, because it doesn't really sound like it's something specific, that's just what I got out of it.
I view it as like... a bit of a look at modern cities, and how unfulfilling modern life is. Or something. Like; "Now information without flesh/means your body's just a drive". And how all the glass and perfection is a bit of a facade, maybe?
I think the line "puppet cultures will learn every 1st world has a 3rd" clearly links this song to economics once again, at least in some way. i.e. third world countries.
I don't really know what it's trying to say. it's just about a totally different world.
It's about our world.
It's about our world.