In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Today, as you listen to this song
Another 394,000 children were born into this world
They break like waves of hunger and desire upon these eroded shores
Carrying the curses of history and a history yet unwritten
The oil burns in thick black columns, the buzz saws echo through the forest floor
They shout give us our fair share, give us justice
Here comes the war
On a grey morning to the south of here
Two young men in makeshift uniforms peer into the misty light
And figures dart behind the trees
As a snap of rifle rounds echoes out across the fields
They hardly know their sacred mother tongue but they know their duty
To defend the flag hanging limp and bloody above the village church
While a thousand miles away, in a warehouse complex down by the river,
Young money men play paintball games
Here comes the war - put out the lights on the Age of Reason
So blow out the candle and tell us another of those great stories,
the ones about serial killers. Let dreams flow into savage times.
Do you hear the sirens scream across the city?
We've had three hot nights in succession - the riot season is here again
Dear Lord, lead us back into the Valley of the Shadow of Death,
Here comes the war. Did you think we were born in peaceful times?
Faster, faster, like a whirling dervish spinning round
Faster, faster, until the Centre cannot Hold
You screamed give us Liberty or give us Death
Now you've got both, what do you want next ?
Here comes the war - put out the lights on the Age of Reason.
Another 394,000 children were born into this world
They break like waves of hunger and desire upon these eroded shores
Carrying the curses of history and a history yet unwritten
The oil burns in thick black columns, the buzz saws echo through the forest floor
They shout give us our fair share, give us justice
Here comes the war
On a grey morning to the south of here
Two young men in makeshift uniforms peer into the misty light
And figures dart behind the trees
As a snap of rifle rounds echoes out across the fields
They hardly know their sacred mother tongue but they know their duty
To defend the flag hanging limp and bloody above the village church
While a thousand miles away, in a warehouse complex down by the river,
Young money men play paintball games
Here comes the war - put out the lights on the Age of Reason
So blow out the candle and tell us another of those great stories,
the ones about serial killers. Let dreams flow into savage times.
Do you hear the sirens scream across the city?
We've had three hot nights in succession - the riot season is here again
Dear Lord, lead us back into the Valley of the Shadow of Death,
Here comes the war. Did you think we were born in peaceful times?
Faster, faster, like a whirling dervish spinning round
Faster, faster, until the Centre cannot Hold
You screamed give us Liberty or give us Death
Now you've got both, what do you want next ?
Here comes the war - put out the lights on the Age of Reason.
Lyrics submitted by black_cow_of_death
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This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
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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.
Not sure my interpretation is at all right... my own Leninist-Communist leanings mean most my views are biased.
It seems to be about how the evils of today's society make war inevitable. The first verse does well at speaking of how we're ruining our world, as the "oil burns in thick black columns, the buzz saws echo through the forest floor", destroying it, with people being treated unjustly, starving at times, unable to get their "fair share"... leading finally to war, as there's no other option. Justin proceeds to go on about how young men "hardly know their sacred mother tongue but they know their duty to defend the flag hanging limp and bloody above the village church", basically commenting on how patriotism like that is pointless; they know little about their homeland, probably don't really know why they're been sent off to defend it, but dying anyway. The flag hangs "limp and bloody", because it's tarnished; there's no honour in fighting for capital, as war is really about. The hypocrisy of this is shown as "Young money men play paintball games"... those with money, those with power, those in charge of us, to them it's a game. "We've had three hot nights in succession - the riot season is here again" again showing how the social and political climate is deteriorating. "a whirling dervish"... how war destroys everything. "until the centre cannot hold"... I have my own sort of view on what this means... with war destroying today's society, the centre parties "cannot hold", and revolution, or a shift to the extreme left or right, is inevitable. Heh, probably not what Justin intended though.