I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
I’m well aware of happiness
And what it takes to get to it
But the simple struggle of survival
Transforms itself into betrayal
Between the clock and the bed
There’s only space and hell
Waiting for the transportation
Between the clock and the bed
Shapes move inside my head
Colliding with shared desperation
Yes I’m as guilty as the rest
A man of little consequence
Unable of forgiving himself
Still building the bypass in my head
Between the clock and the bed
There’s only space and hell
Looking for my intervention
Between the clock and the bed
Shapes move inside my head
We’ve all felt the implications
Hatred and failure go perfectly together
Like the quick and the sand beautiful and damned
I live through these moments again and again
Repeated images of enemies and friends
And what it takes to get to it
But the simple struggle of survival
Transforms itself into betrayal
Between the clock and the bed
There’s only space and hell
Waiting for the transportation
Between the clock and the bed
Shapes move inside my head
Colliding with shared desperation
Yes I’m as guilty as the rest
A man of little consequence
Unable of forgiving himself
Still building the bypass in my head
Between the clock and the bed
There’s only space and hell
Looking for my intervention
Between the clock and the bed
Shapes move inside my head
We’ve all felt the implications
Hatred and failure go perfectly together
Like the quick and the sand beautiful and damned
I live through these moments again and again
Repeated images of enemies and friends
Lyrics submitted by manic4manics
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“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
Featuring Green Gartside from the band Scritti Politti, this song is about an Edvard Munch self portrait of the same name, one of many he created towards the end of his life, when he suffered from ill health and agoraphobia. He is reported as having told friends he did not want to die in his sleep, but wanted to be awake for the moment itself.
In the painting, Munch is haggard and hollow-eyed, arms stiff beside his sides as he stands between two metaphorical coffins, a grandfather clock (the ticking away of time) and a bed (where he was frightened to remain).
On a side note, the lyric 'still building the bypass in my head' could well be a reference to Nicky Wire's notorious Glastonbury 1994 line, when he yelled to the crowd something along the lines of "When are they going to get round to building a bypass over this shithole?!" A little heeheehee & reflective pause if it is so.