Dreams So Real

As usual, Emily Haines is the voice of Gen X. Several of Metric's songs are about being trapped in between two generations older and younger than us with the sense that we have no real control over the culture, and no culture of our own other than remix culture. (See: Dead Disco.)

This song is an expression of that depression. Emily tried to "make a stand" but only "made a scene." Nothing she did was meaningful. Nothing we do is meaningful. We might as well give up, sit back, and let the kids take over.

Here's the core:

Our parents, daughters and sons << Notice: not just our parents Believed in the power of songs What if those days are gone? << Just for us, kids, not for you. Also, we hate you because we suck.

My memory is strong Anyone not dying is dead << isn't that a comforting thought. And baby it won't be long << pretty soon we'll just leave the planet to the next generation So shut up and carry on << might as well get resigned to living out our days The scream becomes a yawn << we tried to make a mark when we were younger and failed

Emily Haines is 37, and from personal experience, I can tell you, being 37 in 2012 sucks.

I disagree with screamingly. It's not about kids being better than us, it's about all of us (and maybe especially the kids) ignoring reality, forgetting the past, not living up to (or fighting for) the dreams we once had.

"When I get to the bottom of it I sink Seems like nothing I said Ever meant anything But a headline over my head Thought I made a stand Only made a scene There's no feast for the underfed All the unknown, dying or dead Keep showing up in my dreams They stand at the end of my bed Have I ever really helped anybody but myself" She dreamed about her fans, people who listened to her music, and wonders if she's ever helped anyone (any of the unknown fans, alive or gone). Wonders if she made a difference, if her songs had any power at all, and she sinks (depression) with the possible/probable answer.

"Our parents, daughters, and sons Believed in the power of songs What if those days are gone My memory is strong Anyone not dying is dead And baby it won't be long So shut up and carry on The scream becomes a yawn"

Generations (ours and our parent's) believed in protest songs, in asking the right questions, but these days seem to be gone. The memory remains, but that might be it, just a memory. Have we become too lazy and tired to keep screaming?

Might as well shut up and carry on, it all goes so fast anyway...

I think you both make good points so I just have a few things to add.

I agree this is autobiographical. When she sang it live in London recently it was practically confessional. The atmosphere was electric.

Note that she references this song in Artifical Nocturne: "I make all that I believe in dreams so real". Perhaps a reference to her creative process, perhaps also acknowledging her visionary outlook on life.

"Dreams so real we wake up in them" is a poem by her father, which concludes "an awed woe stirring us so". This is a beautiful continuation of that theme.

The line is "play it stripped down to my thing" not "played stripped down to my bone". She believes in the power of girls. And maybe we now know her preferred sleeping atire :-)

"The scream becomes a yawn" is a classic Emily double meaning. On the one hand she fears that nobody is listening to her, it's as if she's opening her mouth but nothing is coming out...on the other, it's the middle of the night, and with fatigue her screams eventually mutate to yawns.

The song is about disillusionment. The languid beat, the weary lyrics, and the monotone quality of her voice are all indications of someone who's "accepted" the way of the world and is tired of making a change.

It's a lesson every child eventually learns: the world isn't what we hoped it would be. We spend our youths being passionate and idealistic, but "Faster than you think, Time staggers on."

Its always hard to read the Emily's mind!

She sing in such a secretive way!

"Have I ever really helped anybody but myself, To believe in the power of songs To believe in the power of girls"

These lyrics are the epitome of the song. It is about self-doubt, either real or satrical, fed by sexist naysayers. To believe in the power of girls clinches it for me. Who believes in the power of girls? Nobody! Have any of you read the youtube comments on Metric's music videos?! All the misogynists care about is how hot she is. Nobody cares about the songs' lyrics or what she's passionate about, just that she's sooo bangable! Anyone seen the one for Youth Without Youth? Yep, full of comments about her face and her body. Nothing at all about what the song means. Few about how kick-ass the music is. It is disgusting and repulsive as a woman myself, as a fellow musician, and as the mother of three daughters. A woman's only worth, we are reminded again and again, is as a sex object. That's what this song means. Her screams about injustice are yawns to people who make comments like "Yeah, but is she hot?" Been there, done that, didn't get a t-shirt.

I agree with screamingly, in that, it has to do with a loss of control. I wonder if it's more than a loss of control because of the generational position she's in.

For me, this song speaks about social justice in general. My god, trying to discuss any kind of social justice whether it relates to poverty, sexuality, race, gender, disability, etc, it's just so damn tiring. The scream (passion and sincerity) become a yawn (burn-out, "nothing will ever change" mentality). I relate to this song so fully because of that.

When I get, to the bottom of it I sink, seems like nothing I said ever meant anything (unless people want to understand, they don't.. and it's so depressing.. trying to bring a world together that so hates itself.. the feeling is perfectly described as sinking and no matter how thoroughly or respectfully you try to explain something, it seems like it just never meant anything to the person on the other side.)

But a headline over my head (often times when trying to point out inequalities you get slandered "You're just jealous" "you need to work harder" "you're making things up!" etc, etc. We see it constantly in media)

Thought I made a stand, only made a scene (you hope to explain, understand, and create change, but all you end up doing is having some asinine facebook argument that no one learns anything from in the end).

There's no feast for the underfed (those in poverty don't actually gain anything from your simple statements)

All the unknown dying or dead, keep showing up in my dreams, they stand at the end of my bed (again, whatever you do to try and help, you still can't help the millions of people out there facing inequity).

Have I ever really helped anybody but myself, to believe in the power of songs, to believe in the power of girls? (Maybe my statements and assertions don't effect anyone but me. Maybe, no matter what I say, no one hears it, I'm just teaching myself by becoming educated enough to disagree with the dominant discourse over time with research. Maybe no one but me is learning from any of this.)

Thought the point we're making is strong, play it stripped down to my bones (strong point, completely vulnerable)

I'll shut up and carry on, the scream becomes a yawn (I'm done trying, I'm so passionate,but so damn tired. My scream is now a yawn. I can't keep explaining the same shit over and over.)

I don't know if that's what this song is meant to portray, but my god does it fit perfectly.

The thing I love so much about a lot of music is that the artist might have written it with one meaning in mind and then watched it grow to mean many different things to many different people. No one needs be wrong when everyone can find meaning for themselves and all be right. I think so far everyone has good points and it's probably a mix of everything. I think Screamingly got it pretty right... The only thing I have to add (which may have already have been said but I didn't read every single comment) is about the line "The scream becomes a yawn," ... I picture it as how some people used to express how boring something is by calling it a Yawn. In this song her persistent scream, cry, voice, has become a yawn, bore, old news, in the ears of others.

To me, this song illustrates the grieving process you go through (often more than once) when you realize that your conviction and passion for something has emptied and left you feeling disillusioned and disaffected. This theme is recurrent in the song, starting when Emily says, "thought I made a stand. Only made a scene." At first the writer felt powerful and loud, but that feeling has morphed into a sense of weakness, impotence, and shame. She never believed the fight would go out of her, and now that it has she questions how forceful that fight was in the first place. She worries that she overestimated herself from the beginning. She wonders if she should have been feeling this sense of defeat all along ("seems like nothing I said ever meant anything"). The apathy and exhaustion she's settled into feels like the natural state of things ("anyone not dying is dead, and baby, it won't be long"). Even when she was young and full of vitality, that vitality was being drawn away from her, and losing it undercut whatever blessings it gave her in the moment. Take "though the point we're making is strong, play it stripped down to my thong" (not the lyrics listed here, but that's how I always heard it). Even when she believed in her message, she was often forced to compromise in a way that took away some of its impact. She believes that years of these compromises have taken away from her impact as well. She wants back her passions and her illusions, and she's jealous of the people in her life who still have theirs, even though she knows they can't hold onto them any more than she did.