"Nobody does nostalgia like these guys."
Well, I would challenge that with Boards of Canada's 'Music Has the Right to Children' or 'A Beautiful Place Out in the Country'.
Other than that, I agree that it is similar to 'Miner at the Dial-a-view', but for a different reason. Lyrically, they remind me of sci-fi short stories from the early-to-mid 1900's. Specifically, they remind me of Ray Bradbury's 'The Illustrated Man' or 'The Martian Chronicles'. The songs feel like they could have come right out of those books. Actually, they do make me feel nostalgic in that way, but not really in the homesickness way that you describe, although that is what the song is about, in part.
I like how the lyric "everything beautiful is far away" can be read in several ways. In the context of the song, I see it as meaning the stranded space traveler, his mind deteriorating from a long period of isolation, decides to set out on what he probably knows to be a final voyage, to chase the distant, mysterious lake. Understanding his situation, that there is no hope for rescue, and there is no point in trying to fight his delusions, he finally surrenders to them, convincing himself that he finds them beautiful by repeating the phrase like a mantra.
"Nobody does nostalgia like these guys." Well, I would challenge that with Boards of Canada's 'Music Has the Right to Children' or 'A Beautiful Place Out in the Country'.
Other than that, I agree that it is similar to 'Miner at the Dial-a-view', but for a different reason. Lyrically, they remind me of sci-fi short stories from the early-to-mid 1900's. Specifically, they remind me of Ray Bradbury's 'The Illustrated Man' or 'The Martian Chronicles'. The songs feel like they could have come right out of those books. Actually, they do make me feel nostalgic in that way, but not really in the homesickness way that you describe, although that is what the song is about, in part.
I like how the lyric "everything beautiful is far away" can be read in several ways. In the context of the song, I see it as meaning the stranded space traveler, his mind deteriorating from a long period of isolation, decides to set out on what he probably knows to be a final voyage, to chase the distant, mysterious lake. Understanding his situation, that there is no hope for rescue, and there is no point in trying to fight his delusions, he finally surrenders to them, convincing himself that he finds them beautiful by repeating the phrase like a mantra.