To me "First Impressions of Earth" is about a person who has recently had the veil stripped from their eyes. They've entered into a sort of basic philosophical awareness. The songs are them trying to tackle different parts of life. Your first impressions of Earth aren't when you're first born, but instead when you first start to question yourself and your surroundings.
The musings that the album offers aren't really deep -- they're actually pretty common to every person. But that's not an insult. Julian writes songs that are general to most modern people, but that still have heart and feeling behind them. This isn't some obscure and opaque philosopher writing an academic essay, this is just one guy who's seen a lot of stuff, and he's trying to work through it all.
With all that in mind, Ize of the World is the climax of the album. There are two central ideas in the song -- eyes that are tired, and the "ize" verbs that can define a person. In the first set of verse before the chorus is either a person talking to themself, or to another person. The basic jist of the conversation is that the world seems like it's ending (sometimes it feels like the world is falling asleep), the image of a mind leading a body trying to find some sort of peace, artistic expression giving meaning to life (it gave your activities meaning and it let you be loud), and finally the image of tired eyes (which it's clarified that it's actually the muscles around your eyes which are tired).
All of this gives the image of someone who tried to find meaning, and even succeeded to a certain extent with their art, but that nothing has diminished the confusion of the world. They're looking at the world with tired eyes.
After this there's the positively amazing chorus. The music before it was sort of slow paced and methodical, but the chorus breaks off into this screaming guitar riff, and frenzied vocals. Really excellent song structure.
The first chorus goes over "ize" that deal with the personal sphere of life, and how a person deals with others. It starts off with one's birth, and health, and hygiene. Moves to self introspection (kinda like the whole album, no?), child rearing, and then to the broader scope of politics.
The next verse is again about sleep. The person who's being spoken to (the other, or the self) is said to have sweet dreams which are tainted by being "overworked". This person is ambitious and strives to not be overlooked. In the process the idealism of their dreams is lost. Julian asks, "How disappointed would Dead Idealistic Desperate Inventor Pioneer Philosophers be to see such power in our hands all wasted on greed?"
Julian sees our society as being at a sort of apex, but the power and knowledge that we possess being wasted (which echoes the desperate tone of the chorus).
Julian ponders whether or not instinct binds humans. This could be asking whether all the ize mentioned before are rational choices, or just outgrowths of base instinct. is "a body to deodorize" a choice to be civilized, or just a more complicated mating call?
There are more questions. Is our free time well spent, or do we destroy ourselves during it? Relevant to the whole party atmosphere of the album. I can see this whole song coming to mind when one's not drunk enough to pass out, but trying to sleep, with their mind running away on them.
The final three lines of verse are pretty beautiful, in my opinion:
Night after night you turn out the light
You don't fall asleep right away.
"Are we ... are we done?"
This leads me to believe that this song is Julian speaking to himself as he tries to fall asleep. He's lying in bed, and his mind is thinking without control. I think everyone has experienced this; where you're incredibly tired, but too preoccupied to sleep. The question that comes back to Julian to keep him awake is "Are we done?". We're at this apex of society, but we're "falling asleep". I'm amazed at how well all of these different themes and images come together. Whoever said that Casablancas writes trite lyrics is a dipshit. He's not incredibly subtle, but he's talented, and sincere.
Anyway
The final chorus comes in, ripping through the listener's ears. These ize seem to deal more with the corporate sphere of life. There's a career to form, an item to sell, dominance to gain, all the while trying towards the impossible goal of stardom and fame. Even while we idolize our stars, we deride them, and drive them down for their scandals (mistakes that the private citizen would want forgiveness and compassion for). The ize move towards how we deal with those alien to us. Enemies to kill, with no apologies, stifling the rage that we've built towards ourselves. The song ends with the suggestion of nuclear missiles being aimed, and everything being vaporized. This echoes back to the image of a tired world that suddenly dies (falls asleep, to use the language of the song)
That's what I think the song is about. It's my favorite on FIOE, and possibly my favorite Strokes song. I hate how critics lauded this band for their weakest album, and gave this one mediocre reviews. It seems like the Strokes were set up to be "one hit wonders", with ironic appreciation by the upper crust music elite, but surprised everyone. Instead of judging the album fairly, they're just assumed to be hacks. I didn't appreciate the album at first -- it takes time to get into.
To me "First Impressions of Earth" is about a person who has recently had the veil stripped from their eyes. They've entered into a sort of basic philosophical awareness. The songs are them trying to tackle different parts of life. Your first impressions of Earth aren't when you're first born, but instead when you first start to question yourself and your surroundings.
The musings that the album offers aren't really deep -- they're actually pretty common to every person. But that's not an insult. Julian writes songs that are general to most modern people, but that still have heart and feeling behind them. This isn't some obscure and opaque philosopher writing an academic essay, this is just one guy who's seen a lot of stuff, and he's trying to work through it all.
With all that in mind, Ize of the World is the climax of the album. There are two central ideas in the song -- eyes that are tired, and the "ize" verbs that can define a person. In the first set of verse before the chorus is either a person talking to themself, or to another person. The basic jist of the conversation is that the world seems like it's ending (sometimes it feels like the world is falling asleep), the image of a mind leading a body trying to find some sort of peace, artistic expression giving meaning to life (it gave your activities meaning and it let you be loud), and finally the image of tired eyes (which it's clarified that it's actually the muscles around your eyes which are tired).
All of this gives the image of someone who tried to find meaning, and even succeeded to a certain extent with their art, but that nothing has diminished the confusion of the world. They're looking at the world with tired eyes.
After this there's the positively amazing chorus. The music before it was sort of slow paced and methodical, but the chorus breaks off into this screaming guitar riff, and frenzied vocals. Really excellent song structure.
The first chorus goes over "ize" that deal with the personal sphere of life, and how a person deals with others. It starts off with one's birth, and health, and hygiene. Moves to self introspection (kinda like the whole album, no?), child rearing, and then to the broader scope of politics.
The next verse is again about sleep. The person who's being spoken to (the other, or the self) is said to have sweet dreams which are tainted by being "overworked". This person is ambitious and strives to not be overlooked. In the process the idealism of their dreams is lost. Julian asks, "How disappointed would Dead Idealistic Desperate Inventor Pioneer Philosophers be to see such power in our hands all wasted on greed?"
Julian sees our society as being at a sort of apex, but the power and knowledge that we possess being wasted (which echoes the desperate tone of the chorus).
Julian ponders whether or not instinct binds humans. This could be asking whether all the ize mentioned before are rational choices, or just outgrowths of base instinct. is "a body to deodorize" a choice to be civilized, or just a more complicated mating call?
There are more questions. Is our free time well spent, or do we destroy ourselves during it? Relevant to the whole party atmosphere of the album. I can see this whole song coming to mind when one's not drunk enough to pass out, but trying to sleep, with their mind running away on them.
The final three lines of verse are pretty beautiful, in my opinion: Night after night you turn out the light You don't fall asleep right away. "Are we ... are we done?"
This leads me to believe that this song is Julian speaking to himself as he tries to fall asleep. He's lying in bed, and his mind is thinking without control. I think everyone has experienced this; where you're incredibly tired, but too preoccupied to sleep. The question that comes back to Julian to keep him awake is "Are we done?". We're at this apex of society, but we're "falling asleep". I'm amazed at how well all of these different themes and images come together. Whoever said that Casablancas writes trite lyrics is a dipshit. He's not incredibly subtle, but he's talented, and sincere.
Anyway
The final chorus comes in, ripping through the listener's ears. These ize seem to deal more with the corporate sphere of life. There's a career to form, an item to sell, dominance to gain, all the while trying towards the impossible goal of stardom and fame. Even while we idolize our stars, we deride them, and drive them down for their scandals (mistakes that the private citizen would want forgiveness and compassion for). The ize move towards how we deal with those alien to us. Enemies to kill, with no apologies, stifling the rage that we've built towards ourselves. The song ends with the suggestion of nuclear missiles being aimed, and everything being vaporized. This echoes back to the image of a tired world that suddenly dies (falls asleep, to use the language of the song)
That's what I think the song is about. It's my favorite on FIOE, and possibly my favorite Strokes song. I hate how critics lauded this band for their weakest album, and gave this one mediocre reviews. It seems like the Strokes were set up to be "one hit wonders", with ironic appreciation by the upper crust music elite, but surprised everyone. Instead of judging the album fairly, they're just assumed to be hacks. I didn't appreciate the album at first -- it takes time to get into.
Oh well.