Suicide Machine

One of the best Hum songs on this planet

This is my favorite HUM song.

My favorite part of this song is the last stanza, that starts with "somewhere through a thousand blues. . ." His voice is usually the calm, unmoving center of a symphonic storm of rock, but when he sings this it sounds as if he's been swept up into the sky and can't help but let his voice be drawn into the music he's made.

The song makes me think of two people that are holding each other up and loving each other, even as they inadvertantly drag each other down, perhaps without even realizing it...such a beautiful song.

One of the greatest songs not only by Hum, but any band, period. Like Gubar69 said above, calm and beautiful vocally. Musically it meanders through quiet and stark moments that build in intensity to the infamous Hum "wall of sound" without ever picking up tempo. Lyrically it's pure poetry.

To me this song is about love between two people that is so intense and overwhelming, that the two become one (suicide of the individual partners as they become one) ref: "that's why the suicide machine is built for two, a simple sick device devised to overload on love" and "let's just hit the sky exploding into one". So intense that they've lost all sense of direction: "and to the left where up is down"; their world is literally turned upsidedown.

This song is about one person and one person only. It's about two parts of the same person. It's written from a very interesting perspective and that is himself speaking about the part he's upset with and wants to change. He wants to end the sleeplessness, he wants time for himself, and he doesn't want to feel any guilt about making this change. The suicide machine is built for two(the two parts of himself). After they are dead he will leave behind the guilt and the two parts will become one.

From the interviews I've seen of Matt Talbot, this sort of introversion fits him perfectly and a lot of other vocal artists as well. This is a great song. All of the imagery and symbolism is there to make this song decipherable. It's not a sad song or about someone literally committing suicide. It's actually a song about looking at yourself, wanting to make a change, and having hope for the future.

I agree... It defies all translation and just simply is... To me it's about undying love and trying to grasp the feelings you get when you're with the person you love...

To me it's about someone loving some other so much that you cannot possibly be without them, to the point that it even feels like it could kill you to be without that person. One of my favourite Hum songs.

Such a great song, so calm and beautiful. I think the guys from Hum kick ass.

I wrote a paper on this song my freshman year in college. I never got the paper back and don't remember what I wrote, except that it was wrong. Many of Hum's songs from this album are about drinking, and this song is no exception. There is also an element of love, but that love seems to be immersed in alcohol.

Actaully, this song is about sleeping on sunday afternoons. Matt said that him and his girlfriend couldn't sleep during the nights and they fed off each others imsomina. He said that the best sleep he ever had was one sunday afternoon with his girlfriend on thier couch whilst watching football. So here is my thought on the lyrics

"sleep comes to everyone while we wait for the sunday afternoons sleep comes to everyone, everyone baby, yeah, but you sleep comes to everyone while we wait, wide awake and blue sleep comes to everyone, everyone baby, yeah, but me and you"

This part obviously relates to thier sleeping problems.

"and so i give myself away to everybody everyday and so i give myself to you and you need it more than i do" Have no idea what this means?

"sleep comes to everyone while we wait for the sunday afternoons sleep comes to everyone, everyone baby, yeah, but you and i have this one figured out, that's why the suicide machine is built for two a simple sick device devised to overload on love to bring us colored dreams and soundtracked waves of fun"

To me the suicide machine is infact the sofa they fell asleep on. Sucide= meaning going to sleep. Machine = the sofa itself. So the sucide machine gives them sleep and gives them clored dreams. Also this can be backed up with how its built for two and how Matt said how they both fell asleep on the sofa together.

" sleep comes to no one else like we have falling through the ground fulfilling promises of endless summer nights i'm losing ground, you're losing sound somewhere through a thousand blues a dragonfly descends with just a whisper i'm lonelier than god, and all my wishes spin the fishes in the air and everyone a different shade of you and to the left where up is down now stand a zebra made of shapes of me and silver and the sun so bring no guilt with you up above the flatline let's just hit the sky exploding into one"

And this last part is how Matt as fianlly been able to get to sleep and him telling us about his dream.

Hope that clears everything up for the hum fans!!

Just the lyric "I'm lonelier than God" alone makes this song incredible. I don't even have the words.