Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
I ponder of something great
My lungs will fill and then deflate
They fill with fire, exhale desire
I know it's dire, my time today
I have these thoughts so often, I ought
To replace that slot with what I once bought
'Cause somebody stole my car radio
And now I just sit in silence
Sometimes quiet is violent
I find it hard to hide it, my pride is no longer inside
It's on my sleeve, my skin will scream
Reminding me of who I killed inside my dream
I hate this car that I'm driving, there's no hiding for me
I'm forced to deal with what I feel
There is no distraction to mask what is real
I could pull the steering wheel
I have these thoughts so often, I ought
To replace that slot with what I once bought
'Cause somebody stole my car radio
And now I just sit in silence
I ponder of something terrifying
'Cause this time there's no sound to hide behind
I find over the course of our human existence
One thing consists of consistence
And it's that we're all battling fear
Oh dear, I don't know if we know why we're here
Oh my, too deep, please stop thinking
I liked it better when my car had sound
There are things we can do
But from the things that work there are only two
And from the two that we choose to do
Peace will win and fear will lose
And there's faith and there's sleep
We need to pick one please because
Faith is to be awake and to be awake is for us to think
And for us to think is to be alive
And I will try with every rhyme
To come across like I am dying
To let you know you need to try to think
I have these thoughts so often, I ought
To replace that slot with what I once bought
'Cause somebody stole my car radio
And now I just sit in silence
Whoa, oh-whoa-oh
Whoa, oh-whoa-oh
Whoa, oh-whoa-oh
Whoa, oh-whoa-oh
Whoa, oh-whoa-oh
Whoa, oh-whoa-oh
Whoa, oh-whoa-oh
Whoa, oh-whoa-oh
Whoa, oh-whoa-oh
Whoa, oh-whoa-oh
And now I just sit in silence
And now I just sit in silence
And now I just sit
And now I just sit in silence
And now I just sit in silence
And now I just sit in silence
And now I just sit
I ponder of something great
My lungs will fill and then deflate
They fill with fire, exhale desire
I know it's dire, my time today
I have these thoughts so often, I ought
To replace that slot with what I once bought
'Cause somebody stole my car radio
And now I just sit in silence
My lungs will fill and then deflate
They fill with fire, exhale desire
I know it's dire, my time today
I have these thoughts so often, I ought
To replace that slot with what I once bought
'Cause somebody stole my car radio
And now I just sit in silence
Sometimes quiet is violent
I find it hard to hide it, my pride is no longer inside
It's on my sleeve, my skin will scream
Reminding me of who I killed inside my dream
I hate this car that I'm driving, there's no hiding for me
I'm forced to deal with what I feel
There is no distraction to mask what is real
I could pull the steering wheel
I have these thoughts so often, I ought
To replace that slot with what I once bought
'Cause somebody stole my car radio
And now I just sit in silence
I ponder of something terrifying
'Cause this time there's no sound to hide behind
I find over the course of our human existence
One thing consists of consistence
And it's that we're all battling fear
Oh dear, I don't know if we know why we're here
Oh my, too deep, please stop thinking
I liked it better when my car had sound
There are things we can do
But from the things that work there are only two
And from the two that we choose to do
Peace will win and fear will lose
And there's faith and there's sleep
We need to pick one please because
Faith is to be awake and to be awake is for us to think
And for us to think is to be alive
And I will try with every rhyme
To come across like I am dying
To let you know you need to try to think
I have these thoughts so often, I ought
To replace that slot with what I once bought
'Cause somebody stole my car radio
And now I just sit in silence
Whoa, oh-whoa-oh
Whoa, oh-whoa-oh
Whoa, oh-whoa-oh
Whoa, oh-whoa-oh
Whoa, oh-whoa-oh
Whoa, oh-whoa-oh
Whoa, oh-whoa-oh
Whoa, oh-whoa-oh
Whoa, oh-whoa-oh
Whoa, oh-whoa-oh
And now I just sit in silence
And now I just sit in silence
And now I just sit
And now I just sit in silence
And now I just sit in silence
And now I just sit in silence
And now I just sit
I ponder of something great
My lungs will fill and then deflate
They fill with fire, exhale desire
I know it's dire, my time today
I have these thoughts so often, I ought
To replace that slot with what I once bought
'Cause somebody stole my car radio
And now I just sit in silence
Lyrics submitted by tavman, edited by raveman001, Whetever, chloehasalife, thinge123, kirstenv
Car Radio Lyrics as written by Tyler Joseph
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
I read through the comments, and I really don't think this song is about him getting his car radio stolen. I think it's about him running out of distractions and having to actually deal with his problems and emotions. I think it's about him learning how to be alive. But that's just me.
I'm pretty sure it's actually both, the car radio is a metaphor for what you said. They don't call these guys artists for nothing.
I agree with Keith: it's probably kinda that having his car radio stolen lead to this moment: He DID have his radio stolen, that's a fact. But after hours and hours without it, he was forced to really think about his life, and what he's doing here: how much time he has left, and what he'll do within that time.
@CaptiveL It can be about the real radio but when I first listened to this song, I had the same opinion.
@CaptiveL Definitely. He convinces other people to think about how valuable their life can be: "To come across like I am dying To let you know you need to try to think."<br />
@CaptiveL completely agree<br />
@CaptiveL I agree that he's trying to tell us to think. I thought for hours but I was better off having distractions and listening to the car radio.
@CaptiveL in one of his shows he states that the song was a true story.
@CaptiveL I think you nailed it sir.
@CaptiveL I honestly agree with you, because Twenty-One pilots don't make they're lyrics blunt, they're lyrics make you think a while, before you understand the true meaning
@CaptiveL As Keith and others note, it's both literal and a metaphor. And as metaphors go, I think this one is unusually brilliant. Unlike just about every other component of a car, the radio serves no functional purpose -- it is solely there to entertain and provide distraction from the tedium of driving. And if it gets stolen, it leaves an empty slot in the dash, and one must then drive in silence. Metaphorically, the car is his life, and the radio was something that provided distraction. But now that something is gone, leaving a hole in his life, and freeing his mind to think thoughts both deep ("something great") and depressing ("something terrifying").<br /> <br /> One recurring thought involves refilling the hole in his life by going back to the old distraction ("replace that slot with what I once bought"). This is suggestive of an addiction of some sort, but it doesn't have to be.<br /> <br /> But the ultimate message of the song involves "the things we can do" about our lives, of which "there are only two" that matter: we can choose "faith" or "sleep," which he goes on to develop as life vs death, being full of life and thinking vs being mindless or even literally dead (suicide). We can pay attention and drive the car safely, or we can "pull the steering wheel" and crash it. The plea is for faith = life = thought, a similar message to "Holding on to You".
@CaptiveL But he literally wrote the song because "My car radio actually got stolen when I was going to college, and since I'm an emotional dude, I wrote a song about it."
@CaptiveL it's really a both. it can be interpreted as a metaphor for what you have said, but the person who wrote the song, Tyler Joseph said in a interview that somebody actually stole his car radio and he just turned it into a deep meaning because he's "emo"
@CaptiveL I think this is further shown by him shaving his head in the music video. Hair is often shaved by those seeking enlightenment as it removes one more worldly distraction and source of vanity.
@CaptiveL yes and no. Mainly because music can actually help you get away from all of the emotions and horrible thoughts you have. Without music a lot of people think and usually music is an escape, so it could be a car radio. But yes, it could just possibly any distractions. Honestly no distraction compares to music.
@CaptiveL i think you're right. good job c;
@CaptiveL yeah, pretty sure