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.
Mountain ranges
Mourning red bay at the bridges
Stab up at the coming blue horizon
Grey slides loosely off rooftops
Lands on the Incan desert ground and dies
A flock of little men touch down on the surface of the porchlight
Bronze fist soldiers return
To watch the twilight across the faces
Skylights ignite and explode
Scattering shards of april around the room
No one even lives here
We're too busy crashing our cars every morning at the same house
Paving the same roads
Unwilling to walk them
And even when we extend ourselves, its only to be included
In a world that's standing still
And so often we don't struggle to improve conditions
We struggle for the right to say "we improve conditions"
And so often we form communities
Only to use them as exclusionary devices
And we forget that somewhere man is beside himself with grief
And somewhere people are calling for teachers
And no one's answering
Somwhere a man stands, walks across the room, and breaks his nose on the door
And somewhere these people are keeping records
And writing a book
For now we can call it "The Book About the Basic Flaw
Or "The Book About the Letter "N"
Or "Any Title That a Book About a Man That No One Cares About Might Have"
And as we turn the pages we call out the sounds of nothing
The sounds of a vanishing alphabet
Standing here waiting
Mourning red bay at the bridges
Stab up at the coming blue horizon
Grey slides loosely off rooftops
Lands on the Incan desert ground and dies
A flock of little men touch down on the surface of the porchlight
Bronze fist soldiers return
To watch the twilight across the faces
Skylights ignite and explode
Scattering shards of april around the room
No one even lives here
We're too busy crashing our cars every morning at the same house
Paving the same roads
Unwilling to walk them
And even when we extend ourselves, its only to be included
In a world that's standing still
And so often we don't struggle to improve conditions
We struggle for the right to say "we improve conditions"
And so often we form communities
Only to use them as exclusionary devices
And we forget that somewhere man is beside himself with grief
And somewhere people are calling for teachers
And no one's answering
Somwhere a man stands, walks across the room, and breaks his nose on the door
And somewhere these people are keeping records
And writing a book
For now we can call it "The Book About the Basic Flaw
Or "The Book About the Letter "N"
Or "Any Title That a Book About a Man That No One Cares About Might Have"
And as we turn the pages we call out the sounds of nothing
The sounds of a vanishing alphabet
Standing here waiting
Lyrics submitted by xThisDayForwardx
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More Featured Meanings
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“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.
Zombie
Cranberries, The
Cranberries, The
"Zombie" is about the ethno-political conflict in Ireland. This is obvious if you know anything of the singer (Dolores O'Riordan)'s Irish heritage and understood the "1916" Easter Rising reference.
"Another head hangs lowly
Child is slowly taken
And the violence caused such silence
Who are we mistaken
-
Another mother's breaking
Heart is taking over"
Laments the Warrington bomb attacks in which two children were fatally injured on March 23rd, 1993. Twelve year old Tim Parry was taken off life support with permission from his mother after five days in the hospital, virtually braindead.
"But you see it's not me
It's not my family"
References how people who are not directly involved with the violence feel about it. They are "zombies" without sympathy who refuse to take action while others suffer.
This song is simply amazing-- they discribe the sunrise so well, like all of those people who stay up all night and watch it with almost this sadness. I think the use of the sunrise is a metaphore for breaking the circle of depression and/or laziness. He is saying how this is where the circle ends, and it's time to get on with life.
this song is so amazing, this band is amazing though I do not know much about them. If any one could give me information about them I would be very happy but this song is all about condormism and how screwed up the majority of humas are. Read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn if you like this song.
punkrockntuna--aren't they great? they're catching on to a lot of people and they're getting MTV2 air time. Kinda sad...but if its what they want. I don't know who they're signed with but I'm sure they've gotten big name offers. It will be interesting to see which type of path they take.
they better not turn trendy like blink 182 or millencoly or however you spell it
okay, I have to say my name says it all. I love Thursday, I really do. I just don't want to see them get all famous on me. One of the great things about Thursday is that they are not manufactured, that the writing (from the great man Geoff Rickley) comes from somewhere completely untouched upon by any other artists out there, and I could probably go on for years. Okay punkrockntuna, here you go: They had their debut album titled "waiting" off of Eyeball Records, a little-known record label, mostly emo stuff. They are now signed to Victory Records, according to Geoff because they can get their stuff to reach more people through this new label. This is also why he says it wasn't "selling out" to have signed to a bigger record label. Anyway, their current cd is called "Full Collapse". Oh yeah, and their members are Geoff Rickley on vocals, Steve Pedulla on guitar, Tim Payne on bass, Tom Keeley on guitar, and Tucker Rule on drums. They come from New Jersey and have some incredible stuff. If you want to know more about "Understanding in a Car Crash" then check out what I posted about it earlier. Also, according to Geoff their song "How Long is the Night" is about his battle with insomnia caused by the incident which inspired "Understanding". I hope this gets you started in loving Thursday about as much as I do. If that's even possible... Anyway, Big News!!! Muchmusic now also plays the video for "Understanding in a Car Crash"!!!! I saw it today and thought, "how great for them"! and then I thought "how sad for us." :( To those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, well I'll just put it this way; I would pay millions of dollars to listen to Thursday intimately in a club, live. But on the other hand, if they get too famous and start playing packed arenas, I wouldn't pay nearly as much to see them. Another thing is that on this past tour Geoff, singing at a show every night, almost had a lung collapse. This is not good. Then if they get more of a following and have those fake fans come out to their shows and pay for Thursday merch and crap like that, and they get really big, then I will worry about his health as well as the rest of the bands'. I don't like to worry about my Geoffy. I am WIERD! boy, maybe I'm up too late or something. I haven't slept in the past two days, so if I'm rambling, I'm sorry. Geoffy? Where did that come from? Oh boy. Anyway, hope that helps. Gotta go, bye!
But then again, I thought I had a point before. It was about this song: when he goes from talking about the beautiful magnificent sunset, he then says that in this beauty, no one even lives here. They are too busy wasting their lives and making the same mistakes over and over with their lives. They make up this life, but are not willing to live it. when he says that we often struggle only for the right to say we have improved conditions, he means that we do things not to have done them, but just to be given the credit for doing them. When he talks about forming communities for exclusionary devices, he's talking about how we as humans need to have acceptance in some class on some level. Not only to be a part of something, but to keep others out. Also, people are calling for someone to teach them, but no one will answer their call. When Geoff goes on to talk about the books and pages and vanishing alphabets, he's talking about something like how we do these things, for example "write a book", even though it means nothing to us. Then when someone "reads" it, they are reading aloud the sounds of a vanishing alphabet, the "alphabet" being our ability to "write the book" so to speak. All right, as we can all tell, that last part is still kind of being worked out in my mind. Thanks for listening!
i've been listening to thursday for about 2 years now. and through out the time i've listened to them. you get to really understand there lyrics. i mean in a whole different way. not just from listening to it with music. but just sit and listen to what he actually says. just amazes you of what these guys write. i love there lyrics. everything about them is real.
This song to me is the most touching, brutally honest songs i have heard in quite a long time. Thursday is a band whos lyrics continue to stick out. Where the circle ends is a perfect example of this I agree with AlwaysLast, everything about them is real. Its hard to explain exactly but this song is just touching in a way that makes you think wow... what the heck are we doing wth ourselves.
Thursday is the best band i know of, and well if they do become trendy... i will still be one of their biggest fans! They are awesome down to earth kind of guys... Who deserve the best! Oh yea great song! His voice is amazing...
Thursday is amazing. I just saw them perform on April 5th at the House of Blues in Chicago. Words cannot even begin to tell what went on that night. I actually got to talk to Geoff after the show and I wish I could have been able to talk to him more.. I simply thanked him for making such wonderful music and having such a love for it. Bands like Thursday make everything okay when you feel like it's not. And not to mention their sound is their own sound. Agah, I just love them.