We Want Guarantees, Not Hunger Pains

Why has nobody commented this song?? I love it!! Got no idea what it could mean, but I still love it!! And I love the lead singer's pink number from TGP concert ... you looked beautiful. xD

Here's my interpretation.

So I think there's a guy/girl who likes someone else, but their love doesn't care for them/realize it - "...martyr for your indiference". When he sings "...just an awkward formal dialogue" I think its kind of referring to the current situation - he's not going to have a super emotional burst about his feelings but their relationship is kind of tense now. I think the line "We want guarantees, not hunger pains" definitely supports this - he'd rather have a yes or no then continue consuming himself with his emotions.

I think the next thing to look at is the second verse, "...The sleepless crusade, The bitter campaign." I think this might be referring to abstinence (sleepless and bitter - metaphorically). So the reason why there isn't a yes or no (or maybe a no), is because the person doesn't believe in sexual relations or in having a more serious relationship at all.

I think this is further supported when you look at the chorus - "Somewhere between the penance and the patience... I think we've lost our way." Penance and patience both carry religious connotations, and could be connected to the idea of sexual abstinence.

Then, when it says "... the walls are skin and they're writhing" I think is kind of like a reflection on the tension between the two of them. Skin writhing is hyper frenetic movement, so it's like the room has all this tensed up energy inside, the tension between them.

But the one line that confuses me is "You'd be unwise to sate the urge but go ahead you wouldn't be the first". Its either said from the other person's point of view, or it reflects that the person is just kind of desperate but agrees with their love's point of view on the matter. Or

To the person above me, I'm pretty sure Closure in Moscow is from Australia. Unless there's something to suggest that their fans of the US military and its overseas involvements, I don't really know if they'd be singing a song in support of it. Not that's its impossible, I just think it's not that likely seeing as they aren't from the USA.

I actually believe there to be too many religious connotations for it to be purely coincidental, unless of course the whole song is an extended metaphor (a conceit). Therefore I'm interpreting the song more literally - the narrator is conversing with God, expressing his/her disillusion with the lack of an imminent response from "above", so to speak.

Or to put it simply, shit happens, we pray to God and atone for our sins, and shit still happens.

Just to highlight a few lines which I think conveys my ideas: 'I'll be a martyr for your indifference' 'We want guarantees, not hunger pains / But starvation just won't subside' Bitterly, the narrator accuses God of being detached from the human condition, and notes that people have died in the name of Him in spite of this.

And the chorus: 'Somewhere between the penance and the patience / You drift away with every word they say / Somewhere between the penance and the patience / I think we've lost our way' The narrator describes losing faith - preforming the rituals, and waiting for a sign that he/she has been "saved", or that he/she is not wasting their time with something that seems less and less real.

Finally: 'In every room that we walk in / The walls are skin and they're writhing' Now, this one's a little tricky, but personally, I believe this line is nice way of describing human frailty and our sort of transient, searching nature. We're only skin, and it's soft, penetrable, pliant and itching, separately and all at once! It isn't a strong wall - we make mistakes, we fall down and hurt, we change our minds and bodies, and we're always seeking for something that it seems we're missing. It's a beautiful lyric.

I love how everyone can get such a different take on the same song. Very inspiring words, CIM!

I'm gonna go cliche and take the "war"-meaning approach. I think the song can be used to describe how people other countries react to the us in the States asking them to join in the war. The 1st part mentions "indifference," which I think is how many Americans view the war...a lot of people don't like the idea of war but are out of touch and have absolutely no plans to do anything about it. So there's the initial to support us on the grounds that if they're going to die for U.S.'s cause they at least want some compensation--recognition ("tomb with trinkets") or at least for the U.S. to pay that country back later on down the road ("guarantees") and not just get forgotten like we've done historically with other countries ("hunger pains").

The "awkward dialogue" between the "ghost and those denied" I think would be that foreign countryman dying in the War and having to face those who have already died whose family members have opposed the war.

The chorus would refer to the Americans who just going along with whatever is happening with the war and not taking any kind of position on it. Meaning those people who are stuck between feeling guilty ("penance") about it and just waiting to see what happens ("patience"), when in the end just being led by those in power to do whatever they want ("lost our way"). "You told me what you stand for/The sleepless crusade/The bitter campaign" is kind of a back-handed way of recognizing those people who only act patriotic by talking people's heads off about what "America stands for" but doing little more.

The part that says "You'd be unwise the sate the urge/but go ahead you wouldn't be the first" to me is the response of Americans who defend their cause and warn other countries not to back out of supporting the U.S. no matter how tempting. And if they do, then hey they're not the first ones...sort of a challenge to keep in it.

less to do with the song, more to do with the title, which i think is wonderful: guarantees, i like those. people expect things out of me without any sort of promise of...even being treated like a human being. i know a lot of people who use others as 'muses'. when i do or make something for someone, it's either because i felt like it out of boredom or it's actually for them.