Photoshop Handsome

i cant think of any othe rpiece of art that so brilliantly and poetically describes and forewarns of pitfalls of living in our current technological age (with the exception of some phil k dick books)

mainly hinting at digital dissociation from reality like unreal expectations ( gaining an life (as in real life - you just dont get another one so dont fool yourself you might) + skin creams that give you the facial texture of acomputer animated avatar)

and changing reality (touching up photos)

its like a warning that we're walking into the first matrix movie - not abducted by aliens and forced to live like that but we're doing it by choice or just lack of awareness that its happening cos we're so immersed in the technology and we're missing what is real and our place in history or our culture

can i add a few of my thoughts to your awesome and thorough line by line pumpkin?:

I put a rainforest in an Oxo cube! [what a great line - i think its about distilling experience into a concentrated form which still undeniably ends up being full and impressive (like an oxo cube ??!!) but in no way can be compared to experiencing the original (a rainforest)

southern hemisphere by Calvin Klein [he's talking about the lunchbox in his pants - his, er nether regions down in the southern hemisphere nudge nudge wink wink!

• it comes straight after the 'Chest pumped elegantly elephantine' line about breast enlargements and its saying that guys do this too or at least have the expectation hoisted on them in a similar way to ladies being exposed to photoshopped images of women that could only be achieved through surgery, hormones or digital manipulation - to test this theory, next time youre buying boxers check out the dood on the box whos modelling the calvin klien ones - ffs this guy is like unbelievably ripped - you or i are never gonna look like this dood in those pants in fact i can guarantee youre never ever going to see someone who looks like that in the flesh (ok, unless maybe you stumble into a steroid takers convention) ] btw they are really nice pants tho

Watch your dorsal fin collapse! [ i just thought this was like in free willy or (supposedly) any whale kept in captivity - it makes their dorsal fin go all limp and kinda fall over meaning that we're in danger of losing some mojo that we would have if were living wild or true rather that confined and cosseted in the over cosy embrace of modern technological living

soon my clock will have a minute hand [ i think thats about the upgrade culture with phones and ipods - like in the 17C when watches started to be worn and everyone pleased with themselves if theyve got a watch - then suddenly some canny swiss watchmaker tinkers with the mechanism and - look that guys watch has got an extra hand thats zooming round - jeez - hes got a minute hand!!!!....... upgrade time ;)]

What a track this is man, what a track. This is pure genius...

It's certainly worth noting what the band says about the song's lyrics. Off their youtube channel:

" "Our new single Photoshop Handsome looks at the world of digital image manipulation and computer game re-incarnation. What would it feel like to come back to life as one of the 'perfected', false, immortal beings that adorn magazine covers, adverts and games?

We took the idea of photoshopping and digital re-imagining of the self to its most extreme conclusion with our new video. We laid out loose guidelines for a huge number of creative digital artists and let them run free with their imaginations, each editing literally only a few seconds of video in total. The result is a very colourful and diverse explosion of ideas, the image of ourselves re-imagined hundreds of times in 3 minutes. We hope to open the imagination and raise some thoughts about what it means to change our perceptions of ourselves to the extent we do." Jonathan Everything "

Nice interpretations! Also:

You've become a smithereen - a tiny broken piece, alienation, fragmentation, dissolution (RD Laing)

Up in heaven its symettrical - 'As above, so below' Heraclitus

How do I live in the present? - Zen: if you have to ask, you won't understand the answer

Can I change my own density - pun/Malapropism on destiny

What have you done to my father? - maybe connected to 'Where is the country you died for? (Lots of father references on this album)

why does he look like a carving - effects of ageing, deeply lined face?

Rainforest in a Oxo cube - deforestation for beef farming in S America

Struck by lighning if I take the Tube - impressed (struck) by sparking rails (lighning)?

A landmark in songwriting!

At first glance this a nonsense song, it could have been written by Edward Lear!

I will gain an extra life, when I get the high score. You could respawn anywhere� [people are ingrossed in video games, they think they can do anything - or indeed respawn anywhere] I am one with the furniture, more inanimate than amateur Like a television set! / Gangrene knuckle announced so audibly! [people anouncing everything on social networking sites, writing every little thing on Facebook or Twitter, but others don't want to hera this really, and people often say things they shouldn't] I will boost my attention span; soon my clock will have a minute hand [people are desperate to improve themselves, and the internet and other distractions are shortening my attention span] You�ve become a smithereen! (I�m watching that!) Foxhound frolic on the abattoir floor, up in heaven it�s symmetrical oh

Airbrush! What have you done with my father? [pictures are all too often altered...] Why does he look like a carving? [...sometimes confusingly] How do I live in the present? [the narrator is confused by the modern world, doesn't understand how he/she can survive in it] I make my own density? [He/she doesn't know how to carve out their own identity]

And Ah-Ah-Ah! Who did your Photoshop handsome? [most pictures in are adapted in some way, maybe this is said sarcasticly, saying that the photoshoped image isn't really that handsome] You ready for reincarnation? [pictures can be changed into something completely new] Gotta come back as something organic, Or come back as something else!

Just come back as something else!

More dollar! Less scholar! Less time! [poeple now want more money (dollar), without having to work for it (scholar) or for long time]

My teeth dazzle like an igloo wall [an adapted photo], I inhabit, I inhibit y'all! [some people like they can't be as good as these images they see] Can you operate alone? [people think they don't need others but really they do] Chest pumped elegantly elephantine, [i think this is referring to breast enlargements, that seem as big as an elephant] southern hemisphere by Calvin Klein [too many things are endorsed by clebrities, or are designed by famous designers, as a gimmick] Watch your dorsal fin collapse! [only the writer knows exactly what this line means!] /I know nothing about my history! [some people are happy to be ignorant and flaunt it like a badge of honour] I put a rainforest in an Oxo cube! [ the impossibility of some images; possibly talking about the destruction of the rain forests]Struck by lightning if I take the tube! [perhaps referring to people over worrying, the nanny state, health and safety culture] Thank your chromosomes for that I have skin like a waxen peel, and a face that I can never feel but

Airbrush! What have you done with my landscape? [it is hard to understand the reason behind some image alterations] Flooding the fields with this clone shape? [everyone should look the same (perfect, idealised) according to magazines and adverts] Where is the country you died for? [people don't care about their heritage, their country] And what is the century? [people aren't bothered about their heritage, about historic buildings]

And Ah-Ah-Ah! Who did your Photoshop handsome? You ready for reincarnation? Gotta come back as something less frantic [modern life is busy and people often complain about this] You gotta banish that army of panic Gotta come back as something organic,

Come back as something organic, or come back as something else!

I will gain an extra life, I will gain an extra� [want more time, video game references again]

Airbrush! What have you done with my father?

Why does he look like a carving? How do I live in the present? I make my own density?

And Ah-Ah-Ah! Who did your Photoshop handsome? You ready for reincarnation? Gotta come back as something organic, Or come back as something else!

This is an awesome band so I don't see why they aren't more popular! It might be because their music doesn't fit the mould, I mean, the majority of boy bands (sorry if I offend you, but you are a band in which the members are male) only sing about being in or out of love. Its great to hear soemthing so different ans interesting.

great band, great song. undeniably catchy and hard-hitting.

It's a fantastic piece of work on what is for me the finest album of the 21st century to date. All the above comments are vlid and welcomed. I also feel it's partly about reincarnation, that we've gone too far into inauthentic behaviour and lost touch with what is wild and real (foxhound on the abbattoir floor) we eat meat but we don't kill it. The inauthentic is illustrated by the Photoshop pic of his dad, who died in the war ? If you believe in reincarnation, "come back as something organic" is a plea for a simpler, shorter (?) life, perhaps a smaller brain (less scholar, less time) but - "more dollar" ?? It's a plea for connection, like the punch in the face which finishes the video. I love it