Artificial Nocturne

first listen to the album stream and i couldn't get past putting this song on repeat at least 5 times before moving on. musically and lyrically this song is fantastic. so glad this was the first track for synthetica. it got me excited for the whole album the way "empty" did for live it out.

The way I interpret the song is that the subject of the song can no longer tolerate (or fake) living in a world that conflicts so deeply with their desires and beliefs.

When they are dreaming, they are at peace because they can create all that they believe and set themselves free.

The subject also believes they have found a way to escape the waking world and live completely immersed in dreams (hiding out in the back forever).

They also believe that when they escape into a false night, they will be free from all the injustices and the inadequacies of reality. They have "an outsider's escape from a broken heart." It also sounds like they plan on taking someone with them, or, perhaps, that person is already dead.

It reminds me of two things: the heartbreaking feeling of awaking to a world that differs negatively from a beautiful dream and the movie Inception.

Wow… I'm listening to the album for the first time right now and I'm already blown away by this track. Incredible. Emily Haines, Metric… I love you.

The lyrics are inaccurate. The key lyric is "Fate, I have to take the con."

So the narrator is indicating only one world to live in, and losing the innocence one must resign himself to the inherent manipulation in life.

Read this song looking at dark and light as imagery of good and bad, hope and gloom. Those motif's are present in everything Emily rights, and lend a plausible easy to follow meaning to the rest of the song. Give it a try :-)

Song seems to parallel/be about the artist herself, if not similar people; hanging out in the back (backstage), living in the dark and having artificial lighting to represent the sun (spotlights etc), an outsider's escape for a broken heart.

Ok, so. I mad an account on here just to review this song because I think it's such a great opening piece for Synthetica and I related to it as soon as the first verse finished. Also Metric is amazing.

"I'm just as fucked up as they say / I can't fake the daytime"

• to me, it admitting you're really as and deranged and out of place as society keeps telling you. so much so, it gets increasingly difficult to feign happiness or to pretend that you belong with others during the day.

"Found an entrance to escape into the dark / Got false lights for the sun"

• finding an escape (sleep) in the darker recesses of your mind where you can visualize your own sun/your own happiness despite it not being reality (false lights).

"It's an artificial nocturne / It's an outsider's escape for a broken heart"

• once again, the escape to your fictional dreamscape (artificial nocturne). you feel like an outsider when you're awake so you when you sleep you can escape and pretend, if only for a while, that you're not a broken and sad as you are when awake.

"We hide out in the back Like shadows in a stranger's dream Hiding out in the back together Hiding out in the back forever"

• this one, I'm not so sure about. you could hiding out in the back of your mind with your dreams. the "together" part could be referring to involving people in your life in your dreams how you would wish them to be and the "forever" part makes me think of either sleeping for days on end or possibly dying in your sleep to escape "forever".

"I'll make / All that I believe / In dreams / So real / Faith I have to take the call / Faith don't fail me now"

• basically having so much faith in your dream world that it feels real to you. especially if you "make all that you believe" in your dreams so the better it feels for you the more you want it to be.

"I'll make / All that I believe / I set myself free / So take all the time you need / And let yourself be"

• "set[ting] yourself free" makes me think of dying again. although a much simpler take could be just feeling more like yourself and being able to imagine who you truly are in your dreams. you give yourself so much time to sleep and dream (take all the time you need) so you reassure yourself that it's fine to cope with the day like this and "let yourself be".

I got a little misty-eyed when I first heard this song because I spend a lot of my free time sleeping for the very same reasons.

Holding true to the name "Synthetica" this is the introduction to the horrifying truth of the machine.

Being within the machine is humanity's penance for the horrors we wrought, we can barely survive the lie of a normal life. She found a means to move through the system and always remembers that there is no sun.

The system is fair however, and she's able to find solace within the prison of her mind, her dreams extending into "reality" she's beginning to learn how to be free...and we enter the over arching story of "Synthetica".

I relate this song to insomnia/ depression

I'm just as fucked up as they say (literally, being messed up) I can't fake the daytime (not feeling awake during the day, just wanting to sleep. You can't pretend like you're all there, you're not) Found an entrance to escape into the dark (zopiclone, to 'escape' into some form of sleep. Not restful sleep, but at least it's a break from consciousness) Got false lights for the sun (blue light, light therapy. Can help delayed sleep phase syndrome) It's an artificial nocturne (nocturne - I think dreamy/ pensive music or painting of night, but artificial in that it's forced and not natural) It's an outsider's escape for a broken heart (broken heart - cause of depression)

We hide out in the back Like shadows in a stranger's dream Hiding out in the back together Hiding out in the back forever (sense of living as a shadow/ ghost, fading into obscurity)

I'll make All that I believe In dreams So real Faith I have to take the call Faith don't fail me now (when you actually do sleep with insomnia, dreams can be so lucid, real, beautiful that they are better than real life. It's easy to find escapism in dreaming as you are actually 'living', especially with depression)

I'll make All that I believe I set myself free (only time you can be free is in your dreams) So take all the time you need And let yourself be (trying to reach out to the person who broke your heart, trying to make some peace with the situation, or at least accept it)

Not super well articulated, but you get the idea!

Hey, Bamboo and Amelio..., this new album is Great, ah?... I couldn't stop listening for this for two weeks..., really a masterpiece..., so great I can't believe it...

I think the meaning for this song is that she just talks words and phrases that generate sensations..., good vibra:D