Alice, What's The Matter Lyrics

Lyric discussion by tetris11 

Cover art for Alice, What's The Matter lyrics by Terrorvision

I think it's about a love+secrets, anxiety+madness.

1st verse: He gets depressed over her popularity (he doesn't like her in the spotlight), but he's happy when she gives him attention or they're together.

Subchorus: "Free and easy going" - carefree blissful days with her, "reminded its a sunday" - but reality has a way of bringing them down again. "You can see clearly...dropped the bomb" - someone told her a secret and it's opened up her eyes about their relationship.

Chorus: "Alice, what's the matter?" he's anxious, wanting her to say something about the situation which has left her shell-shocked.

2nd verse: He starts seeing parts of their relationship in other people (unspoken guilt), but then creates a distinction between his+Alice's relationship and other people's (something about them, something about the other), some kind of secret. "Something I've got to tell you about my dad and your mother" - that they're secretly brother+sister.

SubChorus: He's carefree when he's with her, so he doesn't care about that - but the reality of the situation is there, and it has deeply affected her.

DarkChorus: "Alice, what's the matter?"(x4) - he's anxiously asking/pleading with her to say something about the situation. She's silent.

3rd verse: black/white (distinctions), wrong/right (morals), us/them (distinctions), Bill/Ben (secret relationships) - all something about them, something he doesn't care about.

4th verse: you/me (bro+sis), ABCDE (rigid archetypes), hell/heaven (morals and consequences), 4567 (rigid archetypes) - these are all just words to him, polarizations that don't matter - he still loves her.

Last Verse: He's gearfully pleading/screaming at her to say something, to say that she doesn't care either; but her silence is deafening, and... down the rabbit hole they tumble?