Keep Your Eyes Peeled

This song seems to deal with the feelings that come from being trapped in mental negativity/hell, feeling unable to escape but continuing to blend in with the rest of the world

Verse 1 Don’t look, just keep your eyes peeled - Be aware (the world is an evil place) Thoughtless, trapped in my minefield - Mentally trapped by bad thoughts that can lead to self destructing Shotgun, never behind the wheel anymore - Feeling a loss of control over your own life and feelings as the shit has taken a level of control Danger, monsters of smoke and mirror - The monsters aren't real, but they're in the head (and they're powerful) Slowly, can one so lost be found? - Feeling hopeless in such a low place

Chorus And I know, you will never believe I play as though I’m alright - I wear this smile and fit in, but underneath I'm losing it If life is but a dream, then Wake me up - If this is reality than I do not want to live it

The rest of the lyrics build on those ideas with different concepts of struggling. Really powerful stuff relating to such an intense emotional state.

100% correct lyrics from the ...Like Clockwork LP:

Don't look, just keep your eyes peeled Thoughtless, traipsing my mind's field Shotgun, never behind the wheel anymore Danger, monsters of smoke and mirror Slowly, can one so lost be found?

And I know you will never believe I play it as though I'm alright If life is but a dream, then Wake me up

Fallen leaves realise they are no friend of autumn

The view from hell is blue sky So ominously blue I daydream until all the blue is gone

And I know you will never believe I play it as though I'm alright If life is but a dream, then Wake me

Underwater is another life Disregarding every myth we write

Rag doll churning Over and over, gasping in horror So breathless you surface And just as the next wave is…

Big smile, really a show of teeth Without a care in the world of fear Lonely, you don't know how I feel Praise God, nothing is as it seems

I think this is about how everyone, no matter how "fine" they seem, is hiding things and suppressing feelings or desires that they don't want anyone to see.

I think the title is basically saying: keep your eyes peeled because you don't know what others are hiding... watch out because people hide some dark stuff just like you hide yours.

I, very superficially, think that this song is about realizing you're headed down a bad path. You know, living your version of the dream, not giving a shit about anything? You realize that and would like a way out, that leads to the "wake me". Also to clarify: I think "the dream" is, of course, some sort of "dark temptation". The thoughtlessly "traipsing my minds field". You never carry your shotgun around anymore, so you're basically exposing yourself to this darkness, not really watching after yourself. The hell part is also interesting. Thinking about the stuff you want to do makes the blue sky go away. So you are in hell entirely. You just walk about with a big smile on your face, don't feel fear. It possibly sounds very appealing, but if you are really aiming towards self-destruction, you'll pretty much be on your own.

Variation of Devo's "Mr. B's Ballroom" in which a gang of delinquents drink and act idiotic while destroying everything around them in a dystopic arcade only to succumb to police control in the end. Most of this is buried in euphemisms. The promo video further validates the theme.

I think the key is in the line "I play this as though I'm all right." Josh Homme is, to the public, a suave hedonist. But this album sort of pulls away the curtain and you see his vulnerabilities.

Try listening to this at night before you go to bed, I've found that when I do it makes me kind of paranoid, I start seeing things in the corner of my eye and I get all panicky. I think it's a song about living in a nightmare where you can't tell the difference between what's a monster of smoke ad mirror and what's really going to hurt you. And you're not in control either.

People who are depressed or in a bad place, more often than not, cover it up and put on a big smile in public, but really no one knows how they feel. That is what this song is about.

"Don't look, just keep your eyes peeled." ~ You can gaze at something for hours and never understand it. Like being in school and not retaining a single thing the teacher says. Further shown with the next lyric "Thoughtless"

To me it's like the trance that television puts people in. "Shotgun, never behind the wheel.. anymore" You're sitting bitch, you're not in control.

After the 2nd chorus, when "underwater is another life" kicks in - the music makes me think of a puppeteer pulling the strings of a puppet.. and then "ragdoll churning eagerly alive"

"Big smile, really a show of teeth" When a dog shows its teeth it's not something that is pleasing typically..

"Without a care in a world of fear" Detachment exclaimed..

Its about the "Otherside of Life". The place that some of us ( the very unlucky few, like very fucking unlucky) can remember from a time that doesn't exist anymore or maybe never existed.