Waste

To me this song is about fighting through depression. He goes through ups and downs. He uses drugs or alcohol to numb the pain. Even in a crowded room you feel alone. You have no ambitions and cant feel any positive emotions. You feel hopeless and contemplate suicide to end it. Nobody would care if you died. There is help though. You need to talk to someone and get help. You're not alone, you're not alone.

I love the comments I’ve seen so far on what people feel this song is about, but I had a slightly different take. Hear me out.

I feel like Jesse might be talking about his life with Brand New.

“If it’s breaking your heart, if nothing is fun don’t lose hope, my son, this is the last one”

• I almost get the idea that this is about constantly writing music and having to pick himself apart in order to add depth and truth to what he’s singing. They’ve written so many albums and spent so much time on the road, constantly touring, putting his feelings out for everyone to know, but do they ever really know him? There has been a lot of talk about this being their final album, and who knows, maybe this is a final goodbye.

Having to put everything on the line every night has to get so tiring.

“Every night you were tripping out, In the morning you were coming down.”

• to me this describes the emotional exhaustion that comes with having to be this person for everyone to look at, giving the crowds what they came to see, and then the next morning always feeling so foggy

Just my two cents

This is the last one..

personally I think the singer has an addiction to destiny (the game) and is singing about either overcoming that addiction or giving up on life and moving to the carribean to do drugs

There is of course the overt references to drug use and addiction in this song but hear me out for just a moment.

The line, "take your head apart" is awfully similar to "take apart your head" from degausser.

I personally have always felt that Degausser was about love lost, if it wasn't obvious. Well, does this song have any connection to any lost loves? Sherri Dupree?

Just noting, she did form a band with her husband and one of the songs they wrote is called "tripping." "Every night you were tripping out."

I can't help but feel like there is something there.

To me, there are more than enough signs and references to depression. What has been racking my brain is if the lyrics represent what he says to himself in his head? Or is this someone speaking to him. Maybe his father?

I believe this song represents how he feels about his career. He is ready to move on from the band, but he has this one more album, one more tour. Basically, don't lose hope/don't give up, you're almost there to the finish line.

Personally

This is my favorite song on the album

All these comments make sense. But I'd like to take it step further and say Jessie is clearly coming to terms with his past, present and future here

I also feel like this is a reach out to Taking back Sunday Almost like a sorry

This is the last one

I think its about a friend/ ex-girlfriend. He's speaking to him or her, reminiscing about their crazy youth, filled with destructive pursuits. But he seems to have moved on and healed and is speaking then as a compassionate friend wishing them the courage to conquer their demons.

 What gets me is he he is sort of promising "this is the last time," and then in the bridge he says, "you get the reset" which seems to be suggesting either heaven or reincarnation respectively.

I understand it could also mean something of a simulation restarting new or ending, as the album largely explores this kind of reality, but if you then listen to "Could Never be Heaven," familiar Catholic symbolism presents strongly as on the album The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me but in a much different way.

Particularly  I'm struck by the juxtaposition of Christianity and Atheism When a Cardnalfish (Catholic) says the Nietzsche quote "God is Dead." and then the whale , seen as a symbol of compassion and knowledge of life and death is reluctant to listen, saying, "Get out of my head."

 What a beautiful album.....

Waste and Batter up to me tell the same story but from two separate narrators. "Waste" in the POV of a friend who has a friend struggling through addiction and he is trying his best to talk him through it.

Unfortunately the last song on the Album is "Batter Up", coming from the POV of the addict. By the end of the album, the addict has completely given into his addiction and all hope of breaking out of it.

Although the Narrator in 'Waste' insists the addict is "not alone", the Narrator knows "its never going to stop" and might as well be "batters up" for the next hit.