Flashbulb Eyes

Sure the camera "steals the soul" is relevant. But if you tie it in with the Reflektor idea of social media overload, then it's angled more at how people bare their souls all the time now.

People didn't used to photodocument every night out, every dinner party, every lunch. Now it's selfies and airing all your dirty laundry in public. Hence "What if the camera / Really do / Take your soul" and "You know I got nothing to hide".

Followed up with "You know I got nothing" because most of what people document is utterly, utterly banal.

The title "Flashbulb eyes" makes me think of two things: one is that "trout-pout" look that high street fashionistas effect whenever within 2 metres of a finger poised over an iPhone screeen.

The other is those red-eye pictures you get, which people often joke makes the subject in the picture look demonic.

So what I get from this is, "are we all vain, self-obsessed demons, or empty shells"?

In some cultures it was, and still is, feared that having your photograph taken steals your spirit or your soul. This song is essentially about that.

Our eyes can be seen as biological cameras, so this song (especially the refrain "You know I got nothing to hide") hints that when we look at each other, or more importantly look at our lover, are we actually stealing each other's soul? And is Win selling out by having his picture taken so much.

This is my interpretation and its doesn't go all goggle scholar on your arses, well maybe a bit but it going to be more on experiences and the metaphysical or biological whatever you perceive consciousness to be. To many theories.

Have you ever been locked in eye contact with someone and not been able to look away. I thought I had this experience before until i met someone and it felt like he was looking not inside me but its difficult to put in words seeing everything, almost connecting and accepting imprinting on each other no not a reference to twilight its a weird almost daunting a biological reaction maybe attraction and reaction who knows. But while be amazing to go through it is almost like being hit maybe hes trying to explain hes ready to be hit in a round about way. I dont know if anyone else has had this experience. I am a skeptic but i know what i felt.

Shouldn't the first line be "What DID the camera" and not "What IF the camera"?

I'm surprised no one has questioned this yet since the current lyrics don't seem to make any sense (or at least not to me).

What if the camera really do? Take your soul? - This sounds like some black ghetto person speaking in Ebonics and trying to say "What did the camera really do"

So either the lyrics here are wrong or I'm wrong and Arcade Fire has suddenly become a hip hop group and has forgotten how to speak proper english.

I think this goes very deep, if the camera takes your soul then we basically live in a soulless time. And if you believe this then we are all without a soul so go ahead and take a look, there is nothing in here that is hiding.

The interesting part is the proverbial "what if" statement that opens up a whole different genre of thoughts going the opposite way. Take a look into my eyes, the window to my soul, and see what you may find. From this point of view the "Oh no" is laughter in my mind.

The best songs are the ones that pose the question's of dualism.

I would guess this song is about either paranoia, feeling like everyone is watching and judging you, or simply reconsidering the vanity of the ever-present selfie. It depends on whether you see the theme of the album as personal isolation or the hazards of the modern era.

It sounds like he's talking about the optimism of up-and-coming artists. First, the hypothetical is presented

What if the camera Really do Take your soul

Then the eager and ambitious (yet naive) artist accepts the challenge, the grammatical error is an indication of the artist's naivety.

Hit me with your flashbulb eyes Hit me with your flashbulb eyes

But the more the artist asks for it, the more deterioration occurs on the artist's soul

You know I've got nothing to hide You know I've got nothing No, I got nothing

Eventually the music fades into nothing but noise, thus confirming the hypothetical.

This happens every day where young and naive people are funneled through the bureaucracy of the record industry (or Hollywood, even). Even the best and brightest go in with high hopes and leave with nothing but a wasted life of overexposure.