This song seemingly tackles the methods of deception those who manipulate others use to get victims to follow their demands, as well as diverting attention away from important issues. They'll also use it as a means to convince people to hate or kill others by pretending acts of terrorism were committed by the enemy when the acts themselves were done by the masters of control to promote discrimination and hate. It also reinforces the idea that these manipulative forces operate in various locations, infiltrating everyday life without detection, and propagate any and everywhere.
In general, it highlights the danger of hidden agendas, manipulation, and distraction, serving as a critique of those who exploit chaos and confusion to control and gain power, depicting a cautionary tale against falling into their traps. It encourages us to question the narratives presented to us and remain vigilant against manipulation in various parts of society.
Is it still okay that I don't know how to be alone?
Would it be okay if I'd just came home tonight?
We stay in the apartment on the upper west side
And my worst problem is I don't sleep at night
Woman downstairs just lost her mind
And I don't care how, I surely don't care why
Why I know false hope
Why I know false hope
A storm hits the city and the lights go out
Before I can prepare
The whole downtown looks dark like no one lives there
We stay in the apartment on the upper west side
And my worst problem is I don't sleep at night
The woman downstairs just lost her mind,
And I don't care how, I surely don't care why
Why I know false hope
Why I know false hope
She'll be alright tomorrow
Neither of us is gonna sleep tonight
We've false hope
I hear you begging through the wall
A dying animal's last call
Is it still okay that I don't know how to be at all?
There's a party uptown but I just don't feel like I belong at all
Do I?
We stay in the apartment on the upper west side
And my worst problem is I don't sleep at night
The woman downstairs just lost her mind,
And I don't care how, I surely don't care why
Why I know false hope
Why I know false hope
Would it be okay if I'd just came home tonight?
We stay in the apartment on the upper west side
And my worst problem is I don't sleep at night
Woman downstairs just lost her mind
And I don't care how, I surely don't care why
Why I know false hope
Why I know false hope
A storm hits the city and the lights go out
Before I can prepare
The whole downtown looks dark like no one lives there
We stay in the apartment on the upper west side
And my worst problem is I don't sleep at night
The woman downstairs just lost her mind,
And I don't care how, I surely don't care why
Why I know false hope
Why I know false hope
She'll be alright tomorrow
Neither of us is gonna sleep tonight
We've false hope
I hear you begging through the wall
A dying animal's last call
Is it still okay that I don't know how to be at all?
There's a party uptown but I just don't feel like I belong at all
Do I?
We stay in the apartment on the upper west side
And my worst problem is I don't sleep at night
The woman downstairs just lost her mind,
And I don't care how, I surely don't care why
Why I know false hope
Why I know false hope
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Hayalperest
Hayalperest
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
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.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Judging by the lyrics in paragraph two, this song takes place in late October or early November of 2012, when Hurricane Sandy knocked out electricity to the lower half of Manhattan.
I remember riding the bus into the city from Brooklyn at night (since trains weren’t running), marveling at how apocalyptic NYC felt without power. The most bizarre part was hitting 42nd St, which hadn’t been impacted, and seeing all the lights still blazing at Times Square. It felt so self-indulgent after the somber blackness of downtown, where so many people spent days in apartments and workplaces without power and hospitals struggled to keep patients alive on borrowed generators.
We see a similarly jarring disconnection with the song’s narrator. While the rest of the city deals with power outages and relief efforts, she stays in an apartment uptown (a relatively unimpaired area), and her “worst problem” is insomnia. Her downstairs neighbor, on the other hand, is literally losing her mind, but the narrator remains detached, dismissing her plight: “She’ll be all right tomorrow.”
Perhaps this is where the concept of false hope comes in. Maybe the narrator really is callous and disconnected, or maybe she recognizes a link between herself and the woman losing her mind. She realizes she doesn't belong uptown, where people and things are still normal, because she doesn't know how to be alone, or how to BE at all. She has more in common with the woman downstairs, and the neighbors downtown, who operate in darkness, disconnected from normalcy by a storm (internal or external) they didn't expect or have time to prepare for properly. The false hope is that this is a phase, a fleeting feeling. By tomorrow, everything will be back to normal. She'll feel ok, the neighbor will be all right, and the lights will come on across NYC, with no lasting damage to the city or its citizens. It's a false hope, and it allows her another sleepless night pretending not to care about the turmoil around and inside of her.
These are the lyrics as in the liner notes (some minor differences from above, which it won't let me edit):
Is it still OK that I don't know how to be alone? Would it be OK if I just came home tonight? We share an apartment on the upper west side And my worst problem is I don't sleep at night Woman downstairs, she's lost her mind And I don't care how, sure don't care why
Why no? False hope Why no? False hope
A storm hits the city and the lights go out before I can prepare The whole of downtown looks dark like no one lives there We share an apartment on the upper west side And my worst problem is I don't sleep at night Woman downstairs, she's lost her mind And I don't care how, sure don't care why
Why no? False hope Why no? False hope
She'll be alright tomorrow Neither of us are going to sleep tonight So it'll come slow I hear you banging through the wall A dying animal's last call
Is it still OK that I don't know how to be at all? There's a party uptown but I just don't feel like I belong at all Do I? We share an apartment on the upper west side And my worst problem is I don't sleep at night Woman downstairs, she's lost her mind And I don't care how, sure don't care why
Why no? False hope Why no? False hope