Speed The Collapse

Oh, come on boyss and girlss..., it's talking about how humanity destroyed it's planet, despite the numerous warnings, and the wars, polution... all for mantaining the system... Of course I'm not able to stop listening the whole album..., Saludos Metric!:)

I think it could be about any tragedy, really. I feel that when bad things happen, a lot of people just look the other way and don't really help.

Revolving Doors is also a term used to denote the way corporate executives take up government posts, and vice versa. I.e. the revolving door from one to the other, and sometimes back again. So I'm inclined to see it as being linked to the global economic crisis and the hope (maybe at the time) that the revolving doors would crash down; that is the corporate/finance power over government would collapse.

When I hear this song I imagine a future generation living in space, in another planet or in any other place that isn't the Earth anymore.

In the first part they are telling how their "neighbour', Mars, collapsed because of a natural disaster. Something that we know nowadays. Soon enough we caused the same destruction and the Earth also died.

In the second part, they are now telling you, how this storm and mistakes are coming back to where they are now. They are kind of saying that human nature is unchangeable and the same motives that killed that generation are now killing them and destroying their new world.

The lyrics could apply to any tragedy, but the most logical interpretation, in my opinion, is that it is about a hundreds-long period of time that showcases human nature and how we tend to ignore valuable indications of disaster. The first verse describes migration away from a country/continent to a new land (presumably describing the American revolution) and how once established, the immigrants heard news about the land from which they came and how it endured war and/or economic collapse (represented in this song by a metaphorical “storm”). Amidst the excitement of their newfound liberty and rapid economic development (“we built a mansion in a day”), they turned their heads and learnt nothing from the story of their neighbors. The song then describes “auctioning off memories”, which further supports that idea of capitalistic tunnel-vision. Living inside of a powerful “mansion”, the immigrants don’t “feel the breeze” of the “storm” that was mentioned earlier, so they assume they are safe. However, the “storm” has already rolled all the way back to them from the shore of their old home, and the same story plays out again. There is an economic collapse as the substance of the storm floods through the “revolving doors” and into the mansion. The revolving door, a post-industrial revolution invention, indicates the time at which this occurs. The doors also represent the phenomenon of a force hitting you from behind; you push the panel in front of you, but if you stop following that panel, you get hit. So basically, we don't help others because we are pushing forwards with our own lives. The result of this is that others won't help us because they need to look out for themselves, as we clearly aren't looking out for them. This forms a cycle, which is represented by the spinning storm and revolving doors. I suppose what this song is ultimately saying is that our division is what will lead to our downfall.

This is a really bleak album if you pay attention to the lyrics. I like it. :)

Notice the last two stanzas. The "collapse" will always come. It's inevitable. It's recurrent. It doesn't matter if you build a new mansion and build it to last. The storm will return and scatter what remains, and ultimately, scatter your remains.

Taking into account that Emily Haines/Jimmy Shaw said in an interview that "Youth Without Youth" is about the current economic situation and how it's screwing over today's youth, I think this song is along those same lines.

I think it's specifically about the housing crash. "Distant lightning, thunder claps /Watched our neighbor's house collapse/Looked the other way." That's happening all over the place - our neighbors' houses are foreclosing, and we're just looking the other way.

"Built a mansion in a day" - sort of a double interpretation here. 1) It could mean people buying into homes they can't afford, essentially "building a mansion in a day," not foreseeing that they won't be able to afford said mansion.

Or 2) "In another mansion built to last" - the 1%, if you will, chillin' in their mansions, watching as the 99% are dealing with the "storm overhead," having to "auction off their memories" (memories made in their homes).

I dunno, I'm probably reading way too much into it, being way too specific.

I think the timeline is broader. "All the way from where we came" could indicate European migration. "Built a mansion in a day" sounds like the quick rise of America/Canada through the industrial revolution. "Distant lightning, thunder claps; Watched our neighbor's house collapse; Looked the other way" - The growth wasn't all good and pure, slavery, child labor, the civil war, etc. "And then the storm was overhead; All the oceans boiled and rivers bled; We auctioned off our memories" - World war I and the great depression. We truly considered ourselves Americans now, at war with some of the countries we originated from, auctioning off our memories, or auctioning due to the great depression.

Pushed away I'm pulled toward A comedown of revolving doors

• Fate, bad karma, yin and yang, revolving doors indicates what goes around eventually comes back around.

"But then the storm returned for more" - Probably the great recession or the next depression about to arrive (financially and environmentally like the great depression was) due to our haphazard use of resources and greed-based financial systems. The songwriters (Jimmy and Emily) want this to happen, to finally get past the time we are in now so that a better system that respects resources and people can be created.

One of their best songs, without a doubt.

Can't stop listening... can't wait for Synthetica :D

I saw on Youtube someone saying this was about the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, and at first it struck me as weird. But it does seem to make sense in a way...beautiful song.