In my view, HTOC depicts a future dystopia. The main character has become detached from the rest of society and in his confusion killed himself. The media just shrugs this off, he was 'confused'. He's just gone to heaven 'instead', it's nothing to worry about. There's a great sense of trying to get somewhere else, physically or otherwise. The demand to get somewhere has forced the motorways to all 'merge', the rich try to buy their way out (a great nod at this point to the lottery -as elsewhere in the album - and the idea of the working class escapism and alienation that it embodies). The main character looks to technology - cars and planes - to get away. He craves human interaction, something which has likely died out in this age of apathy and alienation. After all, there is 'no one'. The 'panic' at Heathrow, wanting to escape to the 'blue', further points to the utter desperation of humanity to escape. International war has escalated, Albarn mentions Moscow, Colombia and America. Global warming has changed the planet - 'it shouldn't snow this time of year'. There is, though, a noticeably dismissive and casual tone. It's not really important. In this dystopia, death and war mean nothing - there are no meaningful human relationships, so why would it? It is a yearning to escape and meaning that consume.
In my view, HTOC depicts a future dystopia. The main character has become detached from the rest of society and in his confusion killed himself. The media just shrugs this off, he was 'confused'. He's just gone to heaven 'instead', it's nothing to worry about. There's a great sense of trying to get somewhere else, physically or otherwise. The demand to get somewhere has forced the motorways to all 'merge', the rich try to buy their way out (a great nod at this point to the lottery -as elsewhere in the album - and the idea of the working class escapism and alienation that it embodies). The main character looks to technology - cars and planes - to get away. He craves human interaction, something which has likely died out in this age of apathy and alienation. After all, there is 'no one'. The 'panic' at Heathrow, wanting to escape to the 'blue', further points to the utter desperation of humanity to escape. International war has escalated, Albarn mentions Moscow, Colombia and America. Global warming has changed the planet - 'it shouldn't snow this time of year'. There is, though, a noticeably dismissive and casual tone. It's not really important. In this dystopia, death and war mean nothing - there are no meaningful human relationships, so why would it? It is a yearning to escape and meaning that consume.
*and a search for meanings that consume.
*and a search for meanings that consume.