I Want the World to Stop

Well, first of all this is one of the best B&S songs ever. It's my anthem of my life right now as I'm travelling the national parks of Africa.

The song is, as Sebastian1 puts it, about the global societies growing bigger and bigger.

Let me step out of my shell I'm wrapped in sheets of milky winter disorder Let me feel the air again, the talk of friends The mind of someone my equal

These lines are about him "waking up". He's been living in this comfortable shell all his life, but suddenly, probably as you get older, you realize that something has changed so dramatically (and not for the better). He wants to change it, and that's why he wants someone to talk to about (I think the lines "the talk of friends, the mind of someone my equal" inclines that not that many people are worth talking to about these issues as everyone is comfortable with their modern day lifes).

Tinseltown has followed me from Tinseltown to Grey adorable city by the docks Girls will walk in moving air The sun hangs low, the girls don't care As they paint themselves at dusk

The big modern cities e.g. Hollywood (or Tinseltown) follows him everywhere. There's no place on earth where you will not see the same thing every day. Even in the "Grey adorable city by the docks" there's no escaping the power of MTV and fashion and that's why girls are going out, defying even bad weather, to get a tan and will stay there until the sun goes down, just to get as much sun as possible.

Towns' and cities' populations up and grow The workers move to the suburbs In between I watch and go I run alongside rush hour traffic A prayer for every car

This one is pretty straight forward. In 2045 there will be 9 billion people on the planet, maybe even more. People moves to the city to work, but Stuart is praying "for every car", trying to change their opinion about the big city and the modern lifestyle.

I want to write a message to you Every day at ten o'clock in the evening Yellow pearl my city is This is your art This is your Balzac, your Brookside, and your Bach

I think this is Stuart, who is really religious, praying to God about what is going on on this planet. Telling him that this is his masterpiece, and he should do everything to proctect.

People have forgotten the beauty of the nature, something that I have found again in my many travels in both Asia and Africa. The big cities craving the lives of many animals. There's 2300 tigers left in the world, every year there are a 100 less lions then the year before. People are destroying what is left of the Real Planet Earth.

I think Stuart is trying to get people to realize what destruction we put on this planet. Until then, I will keep playing this song for my clients as I show them around Africa!

This song talks about modern life. Everything is to fast nowadays. They want the innocence back, they want something new and fresh. Sometimes in our lifes we have to stop and try to realize where and what we are.

Nice song!

This is my favourite song from the new album.

It makes me want to live in a grey adorable city by the docks.

what´s Tinseltown?

There´s a video that the band made to release the album and they play this song live:

youtube.com/watch

Tinseltown is Hollywood, isn't it? I'm sure a wiki search would answer that.

Anyway, one of the best songs on the new album.

I read that they recorded Write About Love in Los Angeles.

Does anyone know what the reference to brookside is at the end of the song?

...Perhaps the soap opera?

Oh "LeGrand"...I am so sorry to blow your ideas of a global message but this one is pretty simple and pretty specific to B&S...

The song is a direct reference to rejecting the glamor and limelight of their growing fame and wanting to return home...

"Let me feel the air again, the talk of friends The mind of someone my equal"

is a clue but the obvious one is..

"Tinseltown has followed me from Tinseltown to Grey adorable city by the docks Girls will walk in moving air The sun hangs low, the girls don't care As they paint themselves at dusk "

Tinseltown is any US city but likely Los Angeles...Hollywood is often referred to a Tinseltown in Scotland. The Grey Adorable city by the docks is a direct reference to Glasgow, where B&S are from. The "grey" comes from the sandstone used to build many of the buildings while the docks comes from the shipbuilding on the River Clyde. "The sun hangs low"...Scottish weather! "the girls don't care. As they paint themselves at dusk "...the Glasgow nightlife.

The final verse is an interesting one...I think it refers to the adoration of the B&S writing, even their blog...hence the "I want to write a message to you.Every day at ten o'clock in the evening"

"This is your art This is your Balzac, your Brookside, and your Bach" I interprete this as a whimsical line-- one of the worst sitcom shows in the UK is sandwiched by a serious French novelist and a great composer- intended to mock the notion of what makes things "art" and how people idolize the randomist things.