Cyberghost - you are all over the place and reading a little to deeply into individual lines, imo, but I think you are in the ballpark regarding 'emptiness/nothingness' as a theme here.
The song does refer to the inherent destructive nature of man, be it inward (self-destructive: drowning yourself in water, emotional imprisonment) or outward (mass destruction: like Hitler and those tyrants who've followed and preceded him). Both regard a goal or motivation of nothingness.
The first verse refers to a piano (black machine) or rather the pianist at the piano, playing a tune without feeling, but I think the song (and really the album) is about the literal earth and all living things as a collective machine (which, scientifically, it really is) and the spirit (or 'voice') that inhabits it, even when we try to shut it out.
If you consider that voice as the People's Key - something which we all hear, most noticeably through music - it really ties everything together.
How many fans of Conor (and countless other musicians) find some sort of connection with a song even when the words don't make sense? There is some subconscious connection/understanding we all share in all things good and evil. That would be the spirit in the machine that we know as life on earth.
@lostatlimbo I know I'm about 11 years late here. But that's a great interpretation of this album. I often listen to it and have tried to grasp at exactly what the whole album is about. I think you nailed it.
@lostatlimbo I know I'm about 11 years late here. But that's a great interpretation of this album. I often listen to it and have tried to grasp at exactly what the whole album is about. I think you nailed it.
Cyberghost - you are all over the place and reading a little to deeply into individual lines, imo, but I think you are in the ballpark regarding 'emptiness/nothingness' as a theme here.
The song does refer to the inherent destructive nature of man, be it inward (self-destructive: drowning yourself in water, emotional imprisonment) or outward (mass destruction: like Hitler and those tyrants who've followed and preceded him). Both regard a goal or motivation of nothingness.
The first verse refers to a piano (black machine) or rather the pianist at the piano, playing a tune without feeling, but I think the song (and really the album) is about the literal earth and all living things as a collective machine (which, scientifically, it really is) and the spirit (or 'voice') that inhabits it, even when we try to shut it out.
If you consider that voice as the People's Key - something which we all hear, most noticeably through music - it really ties everything together.
How many fans of Conor (and countless other musicians) find some sort of connection with a song even when the words don't make sense? There is some subconscious connection/understanding we all share in all things good and evil. That would be the spirit in the machine that we know as life on earth.
@lostatlimbo I know I'm about 11 years late here. But that's a great interpretation of this album. I often listen to it and have tried to grasp at exactly what the whole album is about. I think you nailed it.
@lostatlimbo I know I'm about 11 years late here. But that's a great interpretation of this album. I often listen to it and have tried to grasp at exactly what the whole album is about. I think you nailed it.
@lostatlimbo exactly
@lostatlimbo exactly