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.
The imitation picks you up like a habit
Writing in the glow of the TV's static
Taking out the trash to the man
Give the people something they'd understand
A stick man flashing a fine-lined smile
Junk bond trader trying to sell a sucker a stock
Rich man in a poor man's clothes
The permanent installment of the daily dose
And you tell off when you tell it like it is
Your world's no wider than your hatred of his
Check into a small reality
Boring as a drug you take too regularly
The athlete's laugh, the broken crutch
The first true love that folded at the slightest touch
Brought down like an old hotel
People digging through rubble for things they can resell
Happy holidays, sad sick savior
The leaving lover that I still favor
I won't take your medicine, I don't need a remedy
To be everything I'm supposed to be
I don't want nobody else, I can do it by myself
We're meant to be together
Oh, oh
Now I'm a policeman directing traffic
Keeping everything moving, everything static
I'm a hitchhiker you'll recognize passing
On your way to some everlasting
Better sell it while you can
Better sell it while you can
Better sell it while you can
Better sell it while you can
Writing in the glow of the TV's static
Taking out the trash to the man
Give the people something they'd understand
A stick man flashing a fine-lined smile
Junk bond trader trying to sell a sucker a stock
Rich man in a poor man's clothes
The permanent installment of the daily dose
And you tell off when you tell it like it is
Your world's no wider than your hatred of his
Check into a small reality
Boring as a drug you take too regularly
The athlete's laugh, the broken crutch
The first true love that folded at the slightest touch
Brought down like an old hotel
People digging through rubble for things they can resell
Happy holidays, sad sick savior
The leaving lover that I still favor
I won't take your medicine, I don't need a remedy
To be everything I'm supposed to be
I don't want nobody else, I can do it by myself
We're meant to be together
Oh, oh
Now I'm a policeman directing traffic
Keeping everything moving, everything static
I'm a hitchhiker you'll recognize passing
On your way to some everlasting
Better sell it while you can
Better sell it while you can
Better sell it while you can
Better sell it while you can
Lyrics submitted by thoraxcorp, edited by Mellow_Harsher
Junk Bond Trader Lyrics as written by Steven Paul Smith
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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