Oblivion

This is one of their sadder-seeming songs. At least it seems that way to me. Something about the way it's sung gives it a really nostalgic and slightly tragic mood.

I tend to see most 30 Seconds to Mars songs as short fiction in song form (which is really, REALLY creative and just awesome), so I take this song mostly literally. It's a sci-fi story, albiet a cryptic one.

But listening to it again, really thinking about it, I found another meaning in it.

I think it's about someone daydreaming about an apocalyptic event, and imagining if it happened right then ("under the burning sun, I take a look around, imagine if this all came down"). Now, thinking about that would probably scare most people, but the narrator of the song actually, in a deep, dark, visceral part of the mind, secretly looks forward to it, if and when it happens ("I'm waiting for the day to come"). Just look at the tone, especially in the middle part of the song. Doesn't it make it seem like it would be almost exciting for humankind to be taken down a few notches and return to fighting and running for our lives every day? S/he probably notices that, in society as it exists now, people tend to be subtly combative with one another, and show little care for others. But imagine what would happen if we had to help each other search for food and water, or protect our group from others? We would probably feel a lot more solidarity ("unity divides, division will unite").

Given that meaning, it's a very interesting song. I know I'm one of the people who sometimes think it would be a huge load off if a drastic change in the world would pull me out of my mundane life and launch me in to a fight for survival.