If you close your eyes and listen to this song from beginning to end, you'll start to see the 'Diorama colours' flashing before your eyes. I swear. That's what Daniel can do.
This song is in typically-cryptic Johns-style, where the lyrics make no sense at all and yet you can still feel (sort of) what he's singing about. Remember the Oompa Loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Their song was a warning about over-indulgence. I think that's what this song is about... it does allude strongly to drugs ("take another pill") but I don't think he specifically means like ecstasy or anything.. it's like anything indulgent, be it chemical, sexual, edible, etc. He's saying that if you choose to over-indulge then you best be prepared to live with the consequences.. "Don't lose your heart, don't lose your heart" he sings, over and over again.. he's just saying to keep your wits about you, don't let this thing suck you in completely.. because if you do, you'll have to "take and take and take and take.." - i.e. keep having more, it'll never be enough.
At the end of the song though, the image of the tuna in the brine (which to me is like complete saturation, literally like a little tin of tuna that is smothered in oil - what a f*cking brilliant analogy) changes from something haunting to something hopeful - "it's my time to shine like a tuna in the brine" (amazing double meaing - oily tuna looks shiny..! ) "for my pregnant paws aren't changing anything" - the best line in the song for me. Comes from the expression "To take a pregnant pause" which is a brief pause y'know... he's saying his hands are idle, because he's been doing nothing but over-indulge until this point, but he knows that he's "not changing anything" so he has to give it up. Again the "paws" or pause allude to a kind of inertial, saturated state-of-mind... and also.. right at the end "you're making me ill and i can't get enough" - even though it's making him sick, he still needs more...
I await their new album with glorious and dubious anticipation, because at the same time as i can't wait to hear new stuff, i also don't know how they're going to top Diorama. But i'll leave that to Daniel. Bless him.
If you close your eyes and listen to this song from beginning to end, you'll start to see the 'Diorama colours' flashing before your eyes. I swear. That's what Daniel can do.
This song is in typically-cryptic Johns-style, where the lyrics make no sense at all and yet you can still feel (sort of) what he's singing about. Remember the Oompa Loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Their song was a warning about over-indulgence. I think that's what this song is about... it does allude strongly to drugs ("take another pill") but I don't think he specifically means like ecstasy or anything.. it's like anything indulgent, be it chemical, sexual, edible, etc. He's saying that if you choose to over-indulge then you best be prepared to live with the consequences.. "Don't lose your heart, don't lose your heart" he sings, over and over again.. he's just saying to keep your wits about you, don't let this thing suck you in completely.. because if you do, you'll have to "take and take and take and take.." - i.e. keep having more, it'll never be enough.
At the end of the song though, the image of the tuna in the brine (which to me is like complete saturation, literally like a little tin of tuna that is smothered in oil - what a f*cking brilliant analogy) changes from something haunting to something hopeful - "it's my time to shine like a tuna in the brine" (amazing double meaing - oily tuna looks shiny..! ) "for my pregnant paws aren't changing anything" - the best line in the song for me. Comes from the expression "To take a pregnant pause" which is a brief pause y'know... he's saying his hands are idle, because he's been doing nothing but over-indulge until this point, but he knows that he's "not changing anything" so he has to give it up. Again the "paws" or pause allude to a kind of inertial, saturated state-of-mind... and also.. right at the end "you're making me ill and i can't get enough" - even though it's making him sick, he still needs more...
I await their new album with glorious and dubious anticipation, because at the same time as i can't wait to hear new stuff, i also don't know how they're going to top Diorama. But i'll leave that to Daniel. Bless him.