I think it is best to understand this song in context with Peacebone and Chores. Together they form a complete story, or chapter at least. The album opens with noise, and the tension to be resolved in the next three tracks is born here. A beat rises and I take this is the start of awareness or epiphany. Accompanying the breakthrough is a more enlightened perspective with tones of newness and freedom.
In contrast, Unsolved Mysteries starts with the beat, and this is the best representation of the meaning of the song. It is the process of denial, desperation, and doubt that leads up to acceptance (some might argue that it is the process of acceptance, not its anticipation). It ends with a pure tone coming in through the beat, and then the beat disintegrates. This marks acceptance and the beginning of a more mature perspective. Chores begins again with Panda's mimic of the pure tone that ends Unsolved Mysteries. The mood of Chores is more resigned and maybe even imprisoned. It has a full awareness of the restrictions and limitations of life beyond idealism, and a final, revised definition of freedom and contentedness. Finally, the energy that began Peacebone begins to smooth out and fade into resolution.
Considering all of this, I think the meaning of the various images presented in Unsolved Mysteries is much more clear. In many cases, it is referring back to the freshness of epiphany ("tied his laces") in Peacebone. Yet time has past and things are changing, and life does not present itself so simply ("who do I please?".
There are glimmers too, of the acceptance to come. Awareness of inevitability ("blood in the dark will attract the sharks") and a brutality that is not-malicious ("who are not violent, we all have hungry bellies"). This ties in too with an acceptance of limitation. Eating from palms implies that this is the only source of nourishment, and it is to be doled out on the whim of some greater force, in too small doses.
This force is equally represented by the woman in the song. He turns to her as the only source, that which can bring him back to that moment of epiphany and birth. He seeks to return ("where are the still unborn"). This return is experienced only through reflection, not directly ("me in their eyes"). The process of maturity has reached her first, and he can see it. He seems to understand intellectually, but be unable to emotionally accept. Everything is now experienced through others. He is avoiding maturity by looking to her to bring him along by the hand, or to return him to the unborn.
Ultimately, he tries to grab again, through a kiss, this connection with her. He is Jack the Ripper, he would kill the moment to return to a past that does not exist. The dyadic dynamic between them is gone, and a sort of panic breaks through in full force, leading to the disintegration of the heart beat and the beginning of acceptance.
Here are the official lyrics from the dustcover of the LP:
Oh look at me, that sweet boys plea. His mother cried my childs tied his laces. Why must we move on from such happy lawns into nostalgia palms to feed on the traces. Do you hop to the dance or embarrass the parents? Who should I please? I go to sleep worrying. That blood in the dark will attract the sharks who are not violent, we've all got hungry bellies. But where are the still unborn who could look at me with the one eye? Who could look at me with no eyes? Who could look at me with me in their eyes?
What's pain? What's sadness anyway? It's not crying like a child.
What's Graying? What's ageing anyway? It's not growing in the wild.
I feel like I've just been born when you look at me with your green eyes. When you look at me with your black eyes. When you look at me with your dead eyes. And I can't understand when holding her hand. So womanly I have to go kiss her. And what a surprise to look in those eyes, to find suddenly, he is jack the ripper. So suddenly he was jack the ripper.
I think it is best to understand this song in context with Peacebone and Chores. Together they form a complete story, or chapter at least. The album opens with noise, and the tension to be resolved in the next three tracks is born here. A beat rises and I take this is the start of awareness or epiphany. Accompanying the breakthrough is a more enlightened perspective with tones of newness and freedom.
In contrast, Unsolved Mysteries starts with the beat, and this is the best representation of the meaning of the song. It is the process of denial, desperation, and doubt that leads up to acceptance (some might argue that it is the process of acceptance, not its anticipation). It ends with a pure tone coming in through the beat, and then the beat disintegrates. This marks acceptance and the beginning of a more mature perspective. Chores begins again with Panda's mimic of the pure tone that ends Unsolved Mysteries. The mood of Chores is more resigned and maybe even imprisoned. It has a full awareness of the restrictions and limitations of life beyond idealism, and a final, revised definition of freedom and contentedness. Finally, the energy that began Peacebone begins to smooth out and fade into resolution.
Considering all of this, I think the meaning of the various images presented in Unsolved Mysteries is much more clear. In many cases, it is referring back to the freshness of epiphany ("tied his laces") in Peacebone. Yet time has past and things are changing, and life does not present itself so simply ("who do I please?".
There are glimmers too, of the acceptance to come. Awareness of inevitability ("blood in the dark will attract the sharks") and a brutality that is not-malicious ("who are not violent, we all have hungry bellies"). This ties in too with an acceptance of limitation. Eating from palms implies that this is the only source of nourishment, and it is to be doled out on the whim of some greater force, in too small doses.
This force is equally represented by the woman in the song. He turns to her as the only source, that which can bring him back to that moment of epiphany and birth. He seeks to return ("where are the still unborn"). This return is experienced only through reflection, not directly ("me in their eyes"). The process of maturity has reached her first, and he can see it. He seems to understand intellectually, but be unable to emotionally accept. Everything is now experienced through others. He is avoiding maturity by looking to her to bring him along by the hand, or to return him to the unborn.
Ultimately, he tries to grab again, through a kiss, this connection with her. He is Jack the Ripper, he would kill the moment to return to a past that does not exist. The dyadic dynamic between them is gone, and a sort of panic breaks through in full force, leading to the disintegration of the heart beat and the beginning of acceptance.
Here are the official lyrics from the dustcover of the LP: Oh look at me, that sweet boys plea. His mother cried my childs tied his laces. Why must we move on from such happy lawns into nostalgia palms to feed on the traces. Do you hop to the dance or embarrass the parents? Who should I please? I go to sleep worrying. That blood in the dark will attract the sharks who are not violent, we've all got hungry bellies. But where are the still unborn who could look at me with the one eye? Who could look at me with no eyes? Who could look at me with me in their eyes?
What's pain? What's sadness anyway? It's not crying like a child.
What's Graying? What's ageing anyway? It's not growing in the wild.
I feel like I've just been born when you look at me with your green eyes. When you look at me with your black eyes. When you look at me with your dead eyes. And I can't understand when holding her hand. So womanly I have to go kiss her. And what a surprise to look in those eyes, to find suddenly, he is jack the ripper. So suddenly he was jack the ripper.
It seems she stopped crying like a child.