Use your intuition, it's all you've got
Keys are rare and there's a thousand locks
Stand in your way
So goes the Gold Age, your tired life

Digging for a way, you cast a spell
Carve a path from all the things they sell
But they don't let go
Just thought you should know
Either way

I know what I know
Would not fill a thimble
So let your mind go (let my mind go)
Straight down the runway
Does one want to
Get more used to
The mall and misery? (The mall and the misery)
The debt mounts, the costs to be alive

Your eyes are burning from the biting cold
If only to learn what you've never been told
There's a real world
And somewhere a good girl lives and breathes

Powdered hope in my callow mind
Ideas stolen in the morning tide
There's a dark time
And this is a dark rhyme to fill your heart

I know what I know
Would not fill a thimble
So let your mind go (let my mind go)
Straight down the runway
Does one want to
Get more used to
The mall and misery? (The mall and the misery)
The debt mounts, the costs to be alive


Lyrics submitted by Konversekid, edited by dabenz560sl, tjdonohue, anzii, carolinadelb, thewrytruth

The Mall & Misery Lyrics as written by James Mercer Brian Joseph Burton

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

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The Mall and Misery song meanings
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  • +2
    My Interpretation

    First of all, It's "keys are rare, and there's a dozen locks", not "keys are revvin". It's "Standing in your way". It's "carve a path", not grab. Also, it's "biting cold", not "batting crows". It's actually "You'll fall, eat a lamb", not "You're falling a lamb" although that was hard to hear. It's "real world", not "new world". The line is actually "Powder hope in the callow mind", not "part of her opened the callow mind" and I think it's "Ideas stall in the morning tide", not "Audio has stolen". It's definitely The Mall & Misery, though.

    The song seems to be about a smart young girl who chooses to go into the world of fashion. Golden age seems like golden years to me, which often refers to youth. The person he's talking to is young and filling the emptiness of their life with buying things (mainly clothes), or "grab[bing] a path from all the things they sell". However, in this path lies endless greed, because "they don't let go".

    Nothing will actually successfully fill the void, the emptiness of life, so a life of design is suggested, casting off the pursuit of knowledge and living by creativity and designing clothes: "So let your mind go (Let my mind go), Straight down the run way" and asking the rhetorical question of whether you really want to get used to life and the misery that knowledge often brings. Their mind is represented by the clothes on the models walking down the runway, whose mouths are shut as they show off the clothes, being the "dead mouths it costs to be alive".

    With the next verse, it seems the life has bitten back. If "she lies half burning from the biting cold", that could refer to the sensation of frostbite, which reminds me of Caring is Creepy, by the Shins "I never got cold wearing nothing in the snow". "You'll fall, eat a lamb" could have multiple meanings. Lambs are generally thought of as stupid and easily led, and Mercer may be referring to the fashion world, both its models and those who follow the trends. To eat the lamb may be like swallowing her success, her followers. To eat someone alive can mean to exploit someone's weakness and dominate them, which one could do with mindless sheep of followers and fans. A good girl is there somewhere (inside?), but by being 'somewhere', it implies that she may not be easy to find, since she lies in the "real world", which the protagonist is apparently separated from. She was so wrapped up in her success that she became unrealistic.

    Callow means inexperienced and immature, especially said of young people. Powdering hope would mean covering up hope, or making it look good. It could also mean to crush into a powder. The meaning isn't really clear, and the next line does little to help. "Ideas stall in the morning tide" would indicate that she can't think of anything new, or her creativity has run out. She's come to the realization that "this is a dark life".

    I'm not 100% sure, as some of these lines were really hard to figure out, and a lot of them were hard to hear, but that's my interpretation.

    luckyguesson March 05, 2010   Link

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