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.
You must bring me a job or money from anywhere
You must bring me a job or money from anywhere
Because I can get your kind of loving in the street just anywhere
You come home every day looking for your stew and beans
You come home every day looking for your stew and beans
And you have got more nerve than any pot hound I've ever seen
Now you take your money, you have your fun
You don't have nothing when house rent come
And I'm through cooking your stew and beans
And you can eat more neckbones that any man I've ever seen
Now if you want me, baby, you got to make your purse show down
If you want me, baby, make your purse show down
And you got to put your money down where I got mine
Now you're laying up in my bed, between my two white sheets
I can't see and smell nothing but your doggone feet
And I'm through trying to make a man of you
And if you can't bring a job, don't you look for your daily stew
I worked hard from Monday until late Saturday night
And you're a dirty mistreater, you ain't treating me right
And I'm through cooking your stew and beans
And you's a dirty pot hound, dirty as any man I've seen
You must bring me a job or money from anywhere
Because I can get your kind of loving in the street just anywhere
You come home every day looking for your stew and beans
You come home every day looking for your stew and beans
And you have got more nerve than any pot hound I've ever seen
Now you take your money, you have your fun
You don't have nothing when house rent come
And I'm through cooking your stew and beans
And you can eat more neckbones that any man I've ever seen
Now if you want me, baby, you got to make your purse show down
If you want me, baby, make your purse show down
And you got to put your money down where I got mine
Now you're laying up in my bed, between my two white sheets
I can't see and smell nothing but your doggone feet
And I'm through trying to make a man of you
And if you can't bring a job, don't you look for your daily stew
I worked hard from Monday until late Saturday night
And you're a dirty mistreater, you ain't treating me right
And I'm through cooking your stew and beans
And you's a dirty pot hound, dirty as any man I've seen
Lyrics submitted by Mellow_Harsher
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