Romance Is Boring

"I will bake phallic cake"?

What?

This song feels like the continuation of There Are Listed Building (songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858799304/), the song before on the album where a new romance starts. All of a sudden the romance is boring.

Also, Garreth sounds like Art Brut when he says 'We are two ships that pass in the night...'

I think "baking phallic cake" is a euphemism for sex. Los Campesinos! sing about sex what seems to be about 90% of the time. I think this whole song is about letting a relationship be about sex because "romance is boring".

It sounds to me like he got involved with a girl who he has nothing in common with but they keep trying to make it work with sex & romance. Turns out romance is boring.

I've always thought they sounded like Art Brut.

"I will bake phallic cake"?

I don't know. It doesn't realllly make sense to me either, but that's what it sounds like...

Official lyrics:

Darling, I'm with St. Bernard's And we're scouring the Alps and the Andes And if they die then it is on my head They follow paw prints in the snow to my throne, to my bed

You're pouting in your sleep, I'm waking still yawning We're proving to each other that romance is boring Sure there are things I could do if I was half prepared to Prove to each other that romance is boring

Start as you mean to continue; Complacent and self-involved You're trying not to be nervous If you were trying at all I will wake, I will bake phallic cake Take your diffidence, make it my clubhouse But my strength's within lies, ventricle cauterized It's the way of living that I espouse

You're pouting in your sleep, I'm waking still yawning We're proving to each other that romance is boring Sure there are things I could do, if I was half prepared to Prove to each other that romance is boring

We are two ships that pass in the night You and I, we are nothing alike I am a pleasure cruise, you are gone out to trawl Return less nets, nothing at all

You're pouting in your sleep, I'm waking still yawning We're proving to each other that romance is boring Sure there are things I could do, if I was half prepared to Prove to each other that romance is boring

Unless I'm very much mistaken 'bake phallic cake' is used as a nod to a Beautiful South lyric.

I've read that Gareth Campesinos is a big fan of Paul Heaton (Beautiful South singer and lyricist).

It is almost certainly a euphemism for sex.

Ima take a stab at these since nobody else is seeming to, Starting from There Are Listed Buildings which I think UYD4L nailed. Romance is Boring seems to be a thematic continuation, I think the first verse is a metaphor for the path the relationship takes, he's the one forced into the place of responsibility for where it goes now, if it fails, he's to blame. She seems unhappy with the relationship but is too scared to do anything about it, she doesn't have the courage to break up with him and doesn't have anywhere to escape to even though as I think the pleasure cruise/gone out to trawl lyrics indicate, she hasn't ever really given up scouting for other suitors. He seems to recognize she's not happy and that's he's not entirely either, the difference I think is that he's hopeful they can spark a passion again (the euphemism for sex mentioned above) but she's not really having it. So both of them are stuck in a situation where they're watching the relationship decay and neither are doing anything about it, both are bored, but seeking different outcomes.

I always thought the baking a phallic cake was just a metaphor for him not being romantic and not taking things very seriously. He bakes a cake in the shape of a penis as opposed to something pretty and romantic they could eat by candle light.