Barricade Lyrics

Lyric discussion by pistolpete23 

Cover art for Barricade lyrics by Interpol

this is all about love being curtailed by our culture and social conventions. we call a personal display of affection ("pda"). our society acts as a barricade to our love and inner desire to find a mate and reproduce.

"how much fear can you fabricate to keep us away"

who fear mongers? mainstream media, movies, FOX NEWS. we're conditioned to be afraid of AIDs, HIV, STDs, pregnancy, and divorce rates.

and this is a reflection of our society as a whole. we don't want to live in love and peace like the idealization of the hippie generation. we're not sure what to aspire to in this postmodern consumer culture.

look at how their music video is filmed. it's shot in the middle of the wilderness or a wasteland. and notice how he's filmed as a child and with old photographs from his childhood. he's experiencing nostalgia for how much he loved his childhood and misses the old times. and also take note of the slideshow projector that was common in older generations. i tend to associate with family get togethers and those nostalgic moments.

think about how much we're discouraged from having sex in our culture. i'm not sure if the female figure in the background is a commentary of the archeytpe of pregnancy bond (e.g. our umbilical cord, womb), our first memories of life, or our desire for female intimacy.

this is all speculative but that's my take on it