Eyesore

To me, this song is clearly about struggling with severe mental illness; schizophrenia in particular. Nearly every line in this song seems to back this up. The lyric: “The mirror spoke to me and showed…,” eludes to the voices that the subject is hearing in his or her head, as mirrors cannot talk. Also, “Lights out, wake up, stay calm, decide Reach up, stand or be an eyesore,” points to the subject realizing that he has a problem, and wanting to right his mind by either seeking help, or doing it himself: he needs to (Reach up), (wake up), or (stand), whilst staying calm and decisive, or else risk being an eyesore- remaining ill. Additionally, the above lyric segment, ‘lights out’ hints that the subjects illness may be so bad that he is suffering breaks from reality. The lyric: “Hearing your words out of my mouth again Leaves me stuck with the key to All these reasons you got in my head again Buried here inside of me,” suggests that the subject can tell how sick his mind is when he hears himself verbally repeating the words that his schizophrenia is repeating over and over in his mind. When he hears (your) words out of his mouth, he is left stuck with the key- the realization that he is not well; though it seems he realizes how difficult it will be to deal with his problem hence the above lyric, ‘Buried here inside of me’. This sentiment is backed up by the following lyric: “Return all of this to sender The mirror spoke to me and showed All of this pretending is catching up to me,” the subject is ‘returning all of this (the words/ thoughts he is hearing) to the sender as he rejects his schizophrenia. The subject is also struggling with some form of ‘pretending’ that is ‘catching up to him’. Perhaps he is struggling in social situations on account of his disorder, or has denied that he has had a problem in the past.
Penultimately, the lyric: “Staring out and over my words again Makes me start to believe that Wearing your lies over these words of mine Always feels like my mistake,” shows that the subject may be making some sort of progress with his disease as he ‘stares out’ over his words and ‘starts to believe’ that he cannot continue to believe the lies that his sick mind is feeding him. Finally, it is worth noting that there are actually lyrics that are not listed in the official set of lyrics shown above. These come in the form of many different, but malicious voices spewing negative lines during the instrumental bridge of the song after the second verse. These voices heavily suggest that the subject is, in deed, suffering from schizophrenia, and possibly other disorders as well, such as anxiety and depression. It is tough to make out what the voices are saying, though it is something to the effect of “…People think about you”. Also, the repetitive structure of the song could possibly allude to the subject also having some form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. (Okay we get it, the guy is a mess)