Oh, god. This is my favorite The Shins song. It's absolutely incredible! Not only the lyric content is great, the music is awesome. To hell with pop music. Give me something I can acutally THINK about.
This song seems to be about all the people with social problems. The creeps. The people that don't know how to act around others. (I think we all know those sorts of people...) Keep this in mind as I try to explain.
Let me go through this line by line (as I do every time);
"doted on like seeds planted in rows," Gardens are very carefully kept, growing things, right? The growing seeds in this garden are "the untied shoelaces of your life;" the problems you keep tripping on, the "loose ends," which could easily be dealt with, but aren't. They keep these problems for a long time ("pressed in books"), or make them intentionally obvious ("displayed in bad taste...")
"problems arise and you fan the fire/while there's a wild pack of dogs loose in your house tonight./.../add it up and basically people never change."
All right. This is basically saying that they're making things worse, and that they enjoy it.
I love this next line: "did i strike the right set of chords? you're annoyed./the goal is to ignite you then move on." The narrator just wants to get a charge out of the addressed.
"you feel ill at ease. you got no squeeze./and the wise cracks won't make you more stable." To apply this to my own life as an example, I had a boyfriend once who had his own social problems. He didn't know how to control his emotions or how to react around other people. "No squeeze" would be a boy/girlfriend, and "ill at ease" because they see that everyone else has one.
"why must i remind you now i'm only less able." Less able- in relating to others.
The last stanza seems to be an attempt to show affection, but it comes off as cliche or dumb, etc. because they don't know how... "you'll roll your eyes and say, 'nice try.'"
Man, some people are just so good at expressing themselves in these posts. I hope what I post is understandable.
Oh, god. This is my favorite The Shins song. It's absolutely incredible! Not only the lyric content is great, the music is awesome. To hell with pop music. Give me something I can acutally THINK about.
This song seems to be about all the people with social problems. The creeps. The people that don't know how to act around others. (I think we all know those sorts of people...) Keep this in mind as I try to explain.
Let me go through this line by line (as I do every time); "doted on like seeds planted in rows," Gardens are very carefully kept, growing things, right? The growing seeds in this garden are "the untied shoelaces of your life;" the problems you keep tripping on, the "loose ends," which could easily be dealt with, but aren't. They keep these problems for a long time ("pressed in books"), or make them intentionally obvious ("displayed in bad taste...")
"problems arise and you fan the fire/while there's a wild pack of dogs loose in your house tonight./.../add it up and basically people never change." All right. This is basically saying that they're making things worse, and that they enjoy it.
I love this next line: "did i strike the right set of chords? you're annoyed./the goal is to ignite you then move on." The narrator just wants to get a charge out of the addressed. "you feel ill at ease. you got no squeeze./and the wise cracks won't make you more stable." To apply this to my own life as an example, I had a boyfriend once who had his own social problems. He didn't know how to control his emotions or how to react around other people. "No squeeze" would be a boy/girlfriend, and "ill at ease" because they see that everyone else has one.
"why must i remind you now i'm only less able." Less able- in relating to others.
The last stanza seems to be an attempt to show affection, but it comes off as cliche or dumb, etc. because they don't know how... "you'll roll your eyes and say, 'nice try.'"
Man, some people are just so good at expressing themselves in these posts. I hope what I post is understandable.
P.s. Keep on keepin' on.