One of the reasons I find MGMT at once fascinating, entertaining and disturbing (which is exactly the effect I think they intended) is because, unlike most pop bands today, they're not literal, and their lyrics are hard to interpret.
I'm going to assume that, as with many good poets, they line their songs with multiple layers of meaning, so an eel can at once be a sexual metaphor (i.e. a penis) while also standing for, as some have said, inner-inspiration or a previous song (like "Electric Feel").
My interpretation based upon the combination of the lyrics and the video is that this is an anti-war song and an anti-modern culture song. MGMT is saying, "There's a disgusting war on, and even those people who are opposed to war or military culture are just kind of tuning out and immersing themselves in meaningless distractions, such as Facebook and consumer culture and scantily clad models in magazines, rather than truly speaking out and being outraged, as 60s culture did."
In other words, there's been no vocal, viable alternative or opposition to war except a plastic, self-obsessed, consumerist culture.
For instance, "blank dreams of the coming fun
distort the odds of a turnaround" could mean that youth culture's fascination with banal fun (Facebook, television, beauty models) makes it unlikely there will ever be a "turnaround" to society that will result in an end to the wars and aggression.
Instead, we're "inert."
So why bother striving for some nobler purpose when consumerism seems to negate meaningfulness?: "why close one eye and try to
pledge allegiance to the sun
when plastic ghosts start terrorizing everyone"
However, there's hope for us yet, as nature always aims for something better, some kind of growth and progress... "Plants
as far as i know are still,
still bending toward the light
and if we dance
until the heart explodes
it'll make this place ignite"
That said, the poster who interpreted the lyrics and the video as a reaction to the negative reaction from fans and music critics to their new album was probably on the right track, too, and I think both
interpretations probably hold merit.
One of the reasons I find MGMT at once fascinating, entertaining and disturbing (which is exactly the effect I think they intended) is because, unlike most pop bands today, they're not literal, and their lyrics are hard to interpret.
I'm going to assume that, as with many good poets, they line their songs with multiple layers of meaning, so an eel can at once be a sexual metaphor (i.e. a penis) while also standing for, as some have said, inner-inspiration or a previous song (like "Electric Feel").
My interpretation based upon the combination of the lyrics and the video is that this is an anti-war song and an anti-modern culture song. MGMT is saying, "There's a disgusting war on, and even those people who are opposed to war or military culture are just kind of tuning out and immersing themselves in meaningless distractions, such as Facebook and consumer culture and scantily clad models in magazines, rather than truly speaking out and being outraged, as 60s culture did."
In other words, there's been no vocal, viable alternative or opposition to war except a plastic, self-obsessed, consumerist culture.
For instance, "blank dreams of the coming fun distort the odds of a turnaround" could mean that youth culture's fascination with banal fun (Facebook, television, beauty models) makes it unlikely there will ever be a "turnaround" to society that will result in an end to the wars and aggression.
Instead, we're "inert."
So why bother striving for some nobler purpose when consumerism seems to negate meaningfulness?: "why close one eye and try to pledge allegiance to the sun when plastic ghosts start terrorizing everyone"
However, there's hope for us yet, as nature always aims for something better, some kind of growth and progress... "Plants as far as i know are still, still bending toward the light and if we dance until the heart explodes it'll make this place ignite"
That said, the poster who interpreted the lyrics and the video as a reaction to the negative reaction from fans and music critics to their new album was probably on the right track, too, and I think both interpretations probably hold merit.