Playing Along Lyrics
I don't believe this is necessarily about blocking out the "news of the world." It can be about blocking out any problem or worry we (as individuals) might have. At times we all walk through life either sad or restless or anxious and we need distractions to keep our minds off those things. It's escapism...a temporary relief. For many (I'm guessin') music is a release....a way to calm our nerves or live vicariously through it. It "speaks' for us when we are unable to voice our feelings. In that way it is like a drug. And we all do "play along" in life from time-to-time. Ever recall not feeling happy but forcing yourself to go out with friends or hang with family...pasting a smile on your face when you're dying inside. Absolutely LOVE this band (one of my top 3)!
best song from Perfect Symmetry IMO, epic masterpiece
best song from Perfect Symmetry IMO, epic masterpiece
The "turn up the volume" is just great. We all have our ways to disconnect from our brain.
The meaning is pretty obvious. You do all you can not to think of the news of the world (because well, it's fucked up)
What's up with that super high pitch near the end of the song?
I mean, I get that they're "turning up the volume," but did it have to be physically such that it hurts to listen to the song itself?
Other than that, this song is fantastic. This album totally grew on me in the best way possible.
funny cos i always heard the song "I'm gonna turn up the volume til I can't hear the pain". Even if my ears are decieving me it helps me to appreciate the song in terms of being about our ignorance/denial of the suffereing of others, possibly using music as a distraction or an escape instead of facing the raw facts of the reality in this world.
Oh dear, I must be going mad!
I love this song so much. It's pretty self explainitory, and easy to relate to.
The beginning lyrics imply escape from all the news about war, genocide, etc that we're often so bombarded with these days, and contrasts it with a bit of a 19th century Romantic era image, of escaping the big urban problems and instead favoring the beautiful countryside I think all of us have dreamed of escaping.
However, I don't think the song is about escaping the urban world but rather our desire of escaping life's problems and abandoning them. The rest of the song's lyrics seem to be a mix of not only escapism but I think depression and perhaps the feeling of abandonment. It seems that the protagonist in this song suffered some kind of bad event to them that is never specified, perhaps a break-up, a death, being laid-off, or anything of the like. "I'm going to go to a bar, where is the jukebox is on" implies the protagonist has gotten drunk, something a lot of us do as relief. "I'm going to go to the country" perhaps implies that the protagonist has taken a "vacation", away from their problems.
All in all, a very beautiful song, something that talks about our all too common reaction of running away from problems rather than dealing with them.