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.
"Hello mountain, remember me
Child of your womb
I return from a perilous place
To the warmth of your hollow
Embrace me
Steady giant, monolith
Lend me your heart
I am weakened again, tired
Mend my scars
As your power, it sinks into me
Your roots take their hold
My body as one with the earth
My blood as the stone
The mountain, my home
Heavy walls enclose me cover me in endless warmth
And now the dreams will come
Lucid freedom takes me, to a world no longer run by the laws of relativity
Fly out beyond the stars, where the wind takes me
Away and leads me through the dark, defying gravity
CHORUS:
Can you follow me? Follow me to apex
Through a meadow running, feel the sun upon my face
And the air in intoxicates
Rushing like a river, toward a waterfall that takes me out beyond reality
Away, you lead me through the dark, defying gravity
CHORUS x 2
Brother mountain, now we sleep
For a thousand years
I will see you again
Something is coming
Coming for me
"
Child of your womb
I return from a perilous place
To the warmth of your hollow
Embrace me
Steady giant, monolith
Lend me your heart
I am weakened again, tired
Mend my scars
As your power, it sinks into me
Your roots take their hold
My body as one with the earth
My blood as the stone
The mountain, my home
Heavy walls enclose me cover me in endless warmth
And now the dreams will come
Lucid freedom takes me, to a world no longer run by the laws of relativity
Fly out beyond the stars, where the wind takes me
Away and leads me through the dark, defying gravity
CHORUS:
Can you follow me? Follow me to apex
Through a meadow running, feel the sun upon my face
And the air in intoxicates
Rushing like a river, toward a waterfall that takes me out beyond reality
Away, you lead me through the dark, defying gravity
CHORUS x 2
Brother mountain, now we sleep
For a thousand years
I will see you again
Something is coming
Coming for me
"
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