This song strikes me as a fairly explicit metaphorical account of the 2009 split with former-bandmate Steven Page (or really any breakup or removal of a negative situation from your life), through the metaphor of trying to messily cut out a piece from a cake.
The opening verse of the song sets the stage: conflict, stress, fighting (“banging on the tabletops, screaming at the top of my lungs”), then follows with the day of the parting (“did it in a day”), and then the trauma/uncertainty of the immediate aftermath (“shaking from the aftershocks, never thought I’d steady again,” “going grey”).
The chorus introduces the cake metaphor that is the crux of the song. Sometimes removing the piece that needs to be cut out can “make a mess, as we’ll see...”
The second verse is the narrator’s stance on their involvement in the conflict buildup, suggesting it wasn’t his fault – that he “never wanted out” - and that the conflict/collapse came to him. I like the humorous imagery they use of him leaning on a doorway - and instead of walking through it on his own accord, the house falls toward/through him (thus making him “outside” in a sense... standing in what's left of the doorway amidst the rubble).
Although the narrator didn’t feel he had a choice in their breakup/conflict, he warns future ‘cake-cutters’ about the inherent messiness of cutting out pieces without preparedness if they can help it (“...you never want to cut twice never having measured at all...”); but ultimately, he had no choice but to “leave...out” the measuring step in his specific case.
The bridge is interesting. “Everybody knows, but no one knows what went wrong. So the story grows; you never let truth get in the way of a good song.”
Essentially the narrator is saying that everyone [friends, family, the public] knows generally about the split, but no one really knows the intimate specifics of what went down. Given that, both parties of the breakup can “grow” their side of the story to their liking, and the perfect truth doesn’t really matter. This is a very similar sentiment to the conflict/framing/storytelling lyrics of the “Fog of Writing” bonus track from the Grinning Streak album.
Great song overall; one of my favourite musically and lyrically from the new album.
This song strikes me as a fairly explicit metaphorical account of the 2009 split with former-bandmate Steven Page (or really any breakup or removal of a negative situation from your life), through the metaphor of trying to messily cut out a piece from a cake.
The opening verse of the song sets the stage: conflict, stress, fighting (“banging on the tabletops, screaming at the top of my lungs”), then follows with the day of the parting (“did it in a day”), and then the trauma/uncertainty of the immediate aftermath (“shaking from the aftershocks, never thought I’d steady again,” “going grey”).
The chorus introduces the cake metaphor that is the crux of the song. Sometimes removing the piece that needs to be cut out can “make a mess, as we’ll see...”
The second verse is the narrator’s stance on their involvement in the conflict buildup, suggesting it wasn’t his fault – that he “never wanted out” - and that the conflict/collapse came to him. I like the humorous imagery they use of him leaning on a doorway - and instead of walking through it on his own accord, the house falls toward/through him (thus making him “outside” in a sense... standing in what's left of the doorway amidst the rubble).
Although the narrator didn’t feel he had a choice in their breakup/conflict, he warns future ‘cake-cutters’ about the inherent messiness of cutting out pieces without preparedness if they can help it (“...you never want to cut twice never having measured at all...”); but ultimately, he had no choice but to “leave...out” the measuring step in his specific case.
The bridge is interesting. “Everybody knows, but no one knows what went wrong. So the story grows; you never let truth get in the way of a good song.”
Essentially the narrator is saying that everyone [friends, family, the public] knows generally about the split, but no one really knows the intimate specifics of what went down. Given that, both parties of the breakup can “grow” their side of the story to their liking, and the perfect truth doesn’t really matter. This is a very similar sentiment to the conflict/framing/storytelling lyrics of the “Fog of Writing” bonus track from the Grinning Streak album.
Great song overall; one of my favourite musically and lyrically from the new album.