Oh joy's arise
The sun has come again to hold you
Sailing out the doldrums of the whole week
The polyphonic prairies here, it's all around you
It's all around you, out here

And if the whole world is crashing down
Fall through space out of mind with me
Where the emptiness we leave behind on warm air rising
Blows all the shadows far away

The falling alcohol empire, is here to hold you
Rolling out and haunted 'til it sleeps

Little memories, marching on
Your little feet, working the machine
Will it spin, will it soar
My little dream, working the machine

Soon like a wave that pass will fall
And closing in on you they're going on

Little memories
Your little feet, working the machine
Will it spin, will it soar
My little dream, working the machine

Soon like a wave that pass will fall
And closing in on you they're going on


Lyrics submitted by fortysixlives, edited by bmx3r101, Mbtravis99, Brianna8cD, Flumper, winston444, cerise333, stephamoo, Queen Anarchy

Empire Ants Lyrics as written by Little Dragon Damon Albarn

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

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Empire Ants song meanings
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  • +8
    My Interpretation

    Oh, joys arise, the sun has come again to hold you

    -The happiness that morning brings when something happens you expect.

    Sailing out the doldrums of the morning

    -Going through the morning calmly.

    The polyphonic prayer is here, it's all around you It's all around you out here

    -How music today washes over us, and takes place into our part of waking up.

    And if the whole world is crashing down on you Fall through space, out of mind with me

    -And instead of waking up calmly, and nicely... TO something, you wake up to a horrible life, a horrible existence, a horrible experience; Let your mind go.

    Where the emptiness we leave behind on warm air rising Those are the shadows far away

    -When you finally leave, you look at the negativity in your life, your negative existence (by your standards) and you see that all of it is just 'warm air rising', or in your mind. In those shadows, far away.

    The falling of the whole empire, it's here to hold you Rolling out and haunted till it sinks

    -And while everything collapses, good or bad, there's a unification in how if all the world breaks and cracks, we all offer our hands out. But we know we'll roll out of the destruction, and sink back into the corruptive behavior our world is doomed to.

    Noodle (Little Dragon): Little memories, marching on Your little feet working the machine

    -Waking up, you immediately assume the position of moving the world. We've done it all our child-hood, and we've never had the chance to grow up, inside ourselves, because we've constantly moved the machine, 'with out little feet'. The memories of our childhood just march on through our head, whenever we think of this.

    Will it spin? Will it soar? My little dream working the machine

    -You have no idea how the world will go for you when you wake up. Will the world just spin- will it be dull, and crappy? Will it soar- will it be meaningful?

    Soothe like a wave It passes far

    -When we trudge through the day, we want disruption. We want chaos, and in our minds, it's soothing.

    Closing in on the moon From where we are

    -Having the chaos over-take even the moon, but just in our mind. It'll never happen.

    Overall, I believe this song hits on how the human mind thinks and how we are when we first wake up into the day, how our existence as an 'ant' tends to feel like an entire 'empire' on our shoulders. It just speaks of our feelings day to day. Routine feelings, because we are like ants, in constant routine, doing whatever we do. And sometimes in an ants routine, a human steps on it's ant-hole, and ruins a colony. We didn't know if that day would soar, or spin. Just a thought.

    Occhioon March 06, 2010   Link

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