The Bear

At first, I really disliked Music @ Work but it was more unreachable than "In Violet Light", but I started listening to this song and the entire album won me over. This is my favorite song off this album, because of the lyricism and the sound. The sound is so beautiful it makes me wonder if their really is a bear roaring in the background. In terms of sheer instrumentation, this rivals "Whale and Wasp" as the best song where music makes animal sounds.

As for the meaning, I think this song is about a deeply disturbed criminal hungering for blood like some demented beast. I am guessing this loner was chased into hiding, and I believe that's why he calls himself the Islander. He isolates himself to stay alive and he will fight until the end. I believe the second-to-last stanza is about him killing off attackers until he's killed himself. That may sound sadistic, but my favorite band can write and play some killer music.

I dunno, I think this song is literally about a bear, I don't see any reason to take it metaphorically (of course it presents the bear as thinking like humans). All the details of the lyrics seem to me to point to the narrator being a bear:

• "I was first attracted by your scent, your heart must be a carmelized onion" - bears have a sharp sence of scent obviously, and the victim's heart smelled like candy to it.
• "by the time I saw your flame, it was all over for you and whats-his-name" - the bear was attracted to a campfire where two campers were sitting around a fire, at this point defenceless
• "I think it was Algonquin Park" - lots of people go canoeing and camping in the backcountry in Algonquin Provincial Park, and a few people have been killed by bears there.
• "it was so cold and winter-dark" etc - the bear eats the people when it's fattening up for winter hibernation, and then when the lake freezes over it walks across to an island to hibernate. In the spring, park staff hunt it down. I think in real life they'd hunt a bear down a lot quicker than that if it ate people.

Yeah, I prefer to think it's a bout a real bear, it's more fun that way. I love this song.

Definitely told 1st person by a Grizzly Bear. Lyrics are chilling and funny. Music has a great creepy quality. With my belly full I intended to get something done. It was all over for you and what's his name. Carmalized onion. Fantastic.

No doubt to me it’s about Grizzly Man Timothy Treadwell who loved and lived with grizzlies and died by them