- "When the event happens, there is little time to think of those things that people would like to have remain private"
- "Getting caught up in the circus-like atmosphere, feeling less responsible to conventional ethical practices"
Never good just the bad and the ugly
Laid infront of you
Nothing quite like seeing the world through the TV's we know
Feeling helpless I look for distraction
I go searching for you, wandering through our city to find solace at your door
[Pre-Chorus 1]
I can't stop thinking about it
I can't stop thinking about it
Tell me did you see the news tonight
Hold me in this wild, wild, world
Cause in your warmth I forget how cold it can be
And in your heat I feel how cold it can get
Hold me in this wild, wild, world
Cause in your warmth I forget how cold it can be
And in your heat I feel how cold it can get
Now draw me close
So come on let's forget the emotion
Tie the blinkers oh, hold both hands right over my eyes
Deafen me with music
'Till we're lost in the heat of the moment
And I move and you help me keep these hours alive
Help me chase those seconds
I just keep talking about it
But I'll do nothing about it
Tell me did you see the news last night
Hold me in this wild, wild, world
Cause in your warmth I forget how cold it can be
And in your heat I feel how cold it can get
Hold me in this wild, wild, world
Cause in your warmth I forget how cold it can be
And in your heat I feel how cold it can get
Now draw me close
Hold me in this wild, wild, world
Hold me in this wild, wild, world
Cause in your warmth I forget how cold it can be
And in your heat I feel how cold it can get
Hold me in this wild, wild, world
Cause in your warmth I forget how cold it can be
And in your heat I feel how cold it can get
Now draw me close
In an interview, Dan Smith said "on my 30th birthday, France’s Bastille Day, a truck ploughed into a crowd of revellers in Nice. A few weeks ago the regularity with which these awful incidents were happening was quite surreal. It almost felt like, OK, this is just the norm now. And that’s horrendous.”
Trying to navigate in the current climate of our world is a focus point of the album, and this song is the source of the title "Wild World"
The first part talks about how the news and media are always reporting and showing awful things that keep happening, and how it can be difficult to focus on anything but the negative, and so we look for distraction and comfort. This is summed up in the lines "I can't stop thinking about it I can't stop thinking about it Tell me did you see the news tonight?"
I think that the song is about seeking comfort in someone you love, trying to forget for a moment the atrocities that we hear about everyday now.
"Cause in your warmth I forget how cold it can be" If we focus on the feelings of happiness and safety with those that we love, it can often make it easy to forget everything else that is happening. We can forget or ignore the fact that we are lucky and that other people are going through hell. W can find comfort in the fact that we are comfortable.
Conversely, "And in your heat I feel how cold it can get" may refer the way that having people who are precious to you can make you scared, because you know how easily it can slip away, and the thought of losing them is terrifying. We hear all the time about people who had something terrible happen and they lost people they care about.
Both of these things make you want to hold on for dear life to what you hold dear-"Now draw me close Hold me in this wild, wild, world"
I believe that the lines "I just keep talking about it But I'll do nothing about it" are talking about the culture of "slacktivism", where people will talk about how bad things are, they'll post about it on social media, argue about it, say how awful it is, but then they won't do anything in an attempt to change the way things are, to stop it happening again. Perhaps because they feel like they won't be able to make a difference because they are only one person. (Not part of the song, but the issue is that too many people think "I'm only one person, I can't change anything." But if everyone took action, then things would change. Just felt a need to add that).