I think this song is about the lack of real, honest, meaningful relationships. The title, as defined by Wikipedia, means "a state of deficiency in understanding, processing, or describing emotions." The chorus is kinda vague, but, in the context of the song, I think what it's saying in by "There's more to living than being alive" is that life is about love, it's about relationships (family, friends, lovers, God). Downcast eyes could mean looking down in shame or sorrow, but also avoiding meeting the eyes of others, avoiding having someone really know what's going on in your life.
The first verse begins with what seems like depression caused by a broken relationship: “don’t believe anything you say anymore.” Then it goes on to describe a broken home. “Bricks to this old house are breaking.” “It’s alarming how loud the silence screams” seems like it refers to desperate people that don’t talk anymore. I love the next part. “Addictions fill the table where the family used to sit and conversate, conversate to the sounds, to the sounds of a record player with its jumping needle and the lights that grow dim over time.” Maybe, I’m overanalyzing this, but it seems so packed. Addictions could mean a lot here, from things like too much TV or video games to more serious things like alcoholism or drug abuse. Either way, he’s saying the family doesn’t sit around the dinner table and talk like they used to. This could be really cliché (“I wish things were like the good old days”) but he goes deeper. I think the repetition of words relates the jumping needle of the record player. What he seems to be saying is that even when the family dinner table was a staple in everyday life, conversations weren’t that deep; they were just repetitions, sounding like broken records (“How was work?” “Good” “How was school?” “Great”).
I think the beginning of the second verse is talking about goals and going back to how there’s more to life than them. “Are you where you thought you’d be?...no opportunity” It’s kind of asking now that you’ve had a chance to go after your dreams, do they satisfy you? The next part is pretty straightforward: “It’s not that we don’t talk, it’s just no one really listens and honesty fades.” “All smiles but no one remembers our names.” It’s about insincerity, eyes that look down instead of meeting others, because it’s easier to lie that way.
One last thought I had that I forgot to mention earlier is the line “Don’t try to wake me up even if the sun really does come out tomorrow.” This might be talking about how people throw simple clichés on others’ deeper problems, easy patch-up words that don’t really heal people like real love does.
I think this song is about the lack of real, honest, meaningful relationships. The title, as defined by Wikipedia, means "a state of deficiency in understanding, processing, or describing emotions." The chorus is kinda vague, but, in the context of the song, I think what it's saying in by "There's more to living than being alive" is that life is about love, it's about relationships (family, friends, lovers, God). Downcast eyes could mean looking down in shame or sorrow, but also avoiding meeting the eyes of others, avoiding having someone really know what's going on in your life.
The first verse begins with what seems like depression caused by a broken relationship: “don’t believe anything you say anymore.” Then it goes on to describe a broken home. “Bricks to this old house are breaking.” “It’s alarming how loud the silence screams” seems like it refers to desperate people that don’t talk anymore. I love the next part. “Addictions fill the table where the family used to sit and conversate, conversate to the sounds, to the sounds of a record player with its jumping needle and the lights that grow dim over time.” Maybe, I’m overanalyzing this, but it seems so packed. Addictions could mean a lot here, from things like too much TV or video games to more serious things like alcoholism or drug abuse. Either way, he’s saying the family doesn’t sit around the dinner table and talk like they used to. This could be really cliché (“I wish things were like the good old days”) but he goes deeper. I think the repetition of words relates the jumping needle of the record player. What he seems to be saying is that even when the family dinner table was a staple in everyday life, conversations weren’t that deep; they were just repetitions, sounding like broken records (“How was work?” “Good” “How was school?” “Great”).
I think the beginning of the second verse is talking about goals and going back to how there’s more to life than them. “Are you where you thought you’d be?...no opportunity” It’s kind of asking now that you’ve had a chance to go after your dreams, do they satisfy you? The next part is pretty straightforward: “It’s not that we don’t talk, it’s just no one really listens and honesty fades.” “All smiles but no one remembers our names.” It’s about insincerity, eyes that look down instead of meeting others, because it’s easier to lie that way.
One last thought I had that I forgot to mention earlier is the line “Don’t try to wake me up even if the sun really does come out tomorrow.” This might be talking about how people throw simple clichés on others’ deeper problems, easy patch-up words that don’t really heal people like real love does.