the moon and antarctica
whoo boy
here it goes.
ive always mentioned my love of modest mouse and all their shit and even made claims as to going way to in depth into the albums heres my review/walkthrough to moon and antarctica, an album ive listened to more than anything else
3rd planet starts off innocently enough. some kind of tragedy strikes the singer. some kind of relationship. (remind you that we used to be three and not just two) that line points to abortion. plus the whole baby cum angels fly around you. also the lyric involving asking about it being a son or a daughter leads me to believe it involves abortion
fitting that the song ends up asking about the shape of the universe and the earth ending up at the same point
in other words you start off as two, get three, and then wind back at three
this fixation with death and life (abortion) hints at the rest of the album asking about life in general and asking questions about heaven/hell (a typical modest mouse fixation)
gravity rides everything
the guitars layer ontop of eachother just like the problems of life. (whats that writing on your everything? it isnt anything at all.) your problems arent unique its everywhere around you. gravity is the analogy for all of these problems. it cuases fruit to drop, graves to sink, milk to spill, everything falls.
everything eventually dies right? or atleast falls... this sets up the singers ideas for life being one long fall into the cold places of the universe. and the only thing that gives him rest is sleep ironically enough. sleep is mentioned here something alot of other mm albums aluude to. (i wanna drink away the part of the day i cannot sleep away.)
dark center of the universe.
a transition of sorts. this is the last conventional modest mouse song on before the crazy starts to happen. almost the calm before the "dream" storm. just the titles alone makes it clear. Everyone regardless of what they say, knows their the center of the universe. no one can help but concentrate on their own shit. its the only thing that you can tell for certain. theirfore regarding you expierances thats fact for you.
everyone can easily equally fuck you over.
if everyone fucks you over you begin to see that as your universal truth with you at the center.
i believe thise first few songs as the singers journey into a darker place. hating everything hes surrounded by, wanting escape and something differnt. getting fed up with the life he has. Which leads to a realization...
perfect disguise
one of my favs
this one seems to refernce the significant other in the first couple of songs. (you cocked your head to shoot me down) and his growing indifferance to where hes at right now. (and i dont give a damn about you or this town no more)
if we want to abstract it, it doesnt have to be a loved one. just anything that lets you realize where youre at is bullshit and needs to make a change becuase it all sucks ass.
hence you desire to move
to another city maybe
tiny cities made of ashes.
i always pictured this as a song to played between moving. Its the singer leaving his old world behind to find a new place to make his home/reality. this song is just urge to move away (does anybody know a way that a body could get away) its also the beging where you stop caring about things (ive always given this album an existential edge) not just where your moving away from. this song leads into the idea of a city being a perfect place to get away
a city where your one of thousands. a nobody. no one cares, all alone.
a differnt city if you will.
crashing guitars signal a new life. and then plantive pleases for forgetting things and wanting to be by yourself. its one step removed from where the singer was at the begining. its new its scary things seem differnt (its the decon man standing upside down talking out of his pants.) the city represents a dseire for something new, something alien and unlike the originial setting/reality. a new lease on life if you will. it creates new energy (rust is the fire that our blood oxidies)
i dont know but ive been told you never die and youll never grow old
the cold part
fuck
this is it. this is where feelings go to die, where old emotions whither and stop. everything is distant and icy. antarctica is cold and far away from anyplace you could think off. this is the singer going away from the world as we know it. seperating himself and resigning himself to the hellish depths of his isolation. warmth can be considered people, the cold part is just him and no one but himself.
he is president of antartica, but he steps down?
why?
maybe even antartica isnt remote enough he hasnt gained the solace he needs. there must be somewhere further, even more remote and cold... like the moon (get where the name comes from?)
which leads to the next song, even the title screams what ive just pointed out. Alone down there.
this is where the album stops caring about cities and places and it takes that k hole trip into no mans land where you are truly alone and no one is there to help you out.
Alone down there,
only one to talk to is yourself (how do, how do you do, my name is you)
this is a battle with youre own mind. everything is echoed and distrubing. youre own death is mirrored in itself and everything is a relfection of you. and you scream to stop from being alone but your all by yourself. Isaac starts screaming at himself. i dont want you to be alone, down there to be alone. but the song never resolves this, instead ending appruptly. you are alone
the stars are projectors.
gaining insight into your own life. (show them how, theyll show you how, they run it into the ground)
this talks about a they that is never specifieced. but if we take the chrous, the stars are projectors, projecting our lives down onto this planet earth. then we see that its possible to take a look at your life. like a movie (everythings a double feature, everyone wants to be their own damn preacher).
this is taking a good long look at ones life.
if we take the begining story. someone faces something horrible. moves away from it, this is where they actually look at it. observe it and study it. only way to correct a a mistake is to study why and how it was made. In light of latter songs im going to assume this is isnt about the problem posed in the first song (abortion) but the singer himself. That the problem isnt the outside world, but the indside mind, more on this latter.
also a refernce to life and math. modest mouse likes to ask about the big questions but in a differnt manner. where do circles come from?
this could be asking where does life come from. is there a god. how is somthing unexplained by math and science (the circumfernce, and pie thing. its unsolved) existing as we speak.
We can take this as how can anything we see be real, or if it all exists. where do you come from, how does it all start. this song is exiestantial questioning at its most rockiest.
the structure of the song also helps communicate this point. the song itself is confused as hell. effects pedals swirling. guitars crunching. melodies popping and then dissapearing. acoustic, loud, soft, violens in there. its a mixed bag.
and then we come to wild pack of family dogs
it doesnt fit in with anything else ive written,
it deals with the same ideas; life, death, random chance, resignation
it seems like a side anecedote added to the larger story just to give some perspective. perhaps the dogs that eat his sister up for the same eye watching the world in the first song is the singer acknowledging that everything happens around him regardless of his perception. (the dogs act for their own rewards even if he doesnt see them, just as he acts for his own. but we can see how the two overlap and iven if you have your own ideas and goals other people ideas an goals can affect your own?)
paper thin walls
this seems to return to the city in the middle part of the albums...
or atleast with a differnt perspective.
this song pulls other people into the equation. (these walls are paper thin and everyone hears every little sound. everyones a vouyerust watching me watch them right now)
hmmm so everyone is involved in the shaping of the world ( i cant be blamed for nothing anymore)
perhaps this the singer starting to widen his view to other people as to why the world is fucked up. and realizing that everyone elses actions have an impact on his own... which means that if the world is as fucked up as he thinks. its all them. and hes perfect. (this could be denial on the part of the singer that is latter retracted.)
i came as a rat
the song starts with a line claiming he doesnt know what hes been told. but he knows what he is???? i dunno. this song also references god as something that dies and sticks to you. ive always taken this song as a kind of re-incarntation theme. everything dies and so do you , but youll come as other things but youll always have the former's mark on you. (old souls and what not)
or it could be that everything is interconnected which would mean the singer and his world are one in the same. which leads to the next two songs where the bad world isnt the surroundings but the singer himself projecting his feelings on everything he sees and experiances
we now come to my two favorite songs.
LIVES
my fav on this album.
im not sure if this is the same person in the first few songs. or an allknowing narrator.
but it seems to be. this is a persons hatred or atleast indiifernce to their own life. they think everyone is more interesting (a common MM theme)
but the line that hits me the most is
my hell comes from indside, comes from inside myself why fight this?
heres my view on the song and the album at large.
the singer/protaganist hates the world hes in. he tries to change his world, setting and himself. yet its all in vain. he cant alter his ideas. he comes to the conclusion that its him. the world isnt fucked up, its him, hes the hell and he brings it with him. kinda like in paradise lost how where ever lucifer goes he cares the wieght and pain of his fall with him and he strives to make paradise like his own hell. its a mental thing, get it. atleast thats what i get from it.
in this life like weeds.
everything grows or atleast according to how you look at it. i might see other people gorwin but i feel like im standing still. im the rock and everything else is the weeds. but where does the rock belong in a like like weeds.
fuck im running out of steam and im just quoting the lyrics.
i think im going to have to stop
please ignore the spelling errors.
ive gotten a lil bit too drunk during this whole thing. but thats what ive written and im sure ill check it tomorrow
and maybe sober i can write this better but ive....
fuck
what ever take what ive got and if you dont like it dont comment.
i dunno
i need sleep
here it goes.
ive always mentioned my love of modest mouse and all their shit and even made claims as to going way to in depth into the albums heres my review/walkthrough to moon and antarctica, an album ive listened to more than anything else
3rd planet starts off innocently enough. some kind of tragedy strikes the singer. some kind of relationship. (remind you that we used to be three and not just two) that line points to abortion. plus the whole baby cum angels fly around you. also the lyric involving asking about it being a son or a daughter leads me to believe it involves abortion
fitting that the song ends up asking about the shape of the universe and the earth ending up at the same point
in other words you start off as two, get three, and then wind back at three
this fixation with death and life (abortion) hints at the rest of the album asking about life in general and asking questions about heaven/hell (a typical modest mouse fixation)
gravity rides everything
the guitars layer ontop of eachother just like the problems of life. (whats that writing on your everything? it isnt anything at all.) your problems arent unique its everywhere around you. gravity is the analogy for all of these problems. it cuases fruit to drop, graves to sink, milk to spill, everything falls.
everything eventually dies right? or atleast falls... this sets up the singers ideas for life being one long fall into the cold places of the universe. and the only thing that gives him rest is sleep ironically enough. sleep is mentioned here something alot of other mm albums aluude to. (i wanna drink away the part of the day i cannot sleep away.)
dark center of the universe.
a transition of sorts. this is the last conventional modest mouse song on before the crazy starts to happen. almost the calm before the "dream" storm. just the titles alone makes it clear. Everyone regardless of what they say, knows their the center of the universe. no one can help but concentrate on their own shit. its the only thing that you can tell for certain. theirfore regarding you expierances thats fact for you.
everyone can easily equally fuck you over.
if everyone fucks you over you begin to see that as your universal truth with you at the center.
i believe thise first few songs as the singers journey into a darker place. hating everything hes surrounded by, wanting escape and something differnt. getting fed up with the life he has. Which leads to a realization...
perfect disguise
one of my favs
this one seems to refernce the significant other in the first couple of songs. (you cocked your head to shoot me down) and his growing indifferance to where hes at right now. (and i dont give a damn about you or this town no more)
if we want to abstract it, it doesnt have to be a loved one. just anything that lets you realize where youre at is bullshit and needs to make a change becuase it all sucks ass.
hence you desire to move
to another city maybe
tiny cities made of ashes.
i always pictured this as a song to played between moving. Its the singer leaving his old world behind to find a new place to make his home/reality. this song is just urge to move away (does anybody know a way that a body could get away) its also the beging where you stop caring about things (ive always given this album an existential edge) not just where your moving away from. this song leads into the idea of a city being a perfect place to get away
a city where your one of thousands. a nobody. no one cares, all alone.
a differnt city if you will.
crashing guitars signal a new life. and then plantive pleases for forgetting things and wanting to be by yourself. its one step removed from where the singer was at the begining. its new its scary things seem differnt (its the decon man standing upside down talking out of his pants.) the city represents a dseire for something new, something alien and unlike the originial setting/reality. a new lease on life if you will. it creates new energy (rust is the fire that our blood oxidies)
i dont know but ive been told you never die and youll never grow old
the cold part
fuck
this is it. this is where feelings go to die, where old emotions whither and stop. everything is distant and icy. antarctica is cold and far away from anyplace you could think off. this is the singer going away from the world as we know it. seperating himself and resigning himself to the hellish depths of his isolation. warmth can be considered people, the cold part is just him and no one but himself.
he is president of antartica, but he steps down?
why?
maybe even antartica isnt remote enough he hasnt gained the solace he needs. there must be somewhere further, even more remote and cold... like the moon (get where the name comes from?)
which leads to the next song, even the title screams what ive just pointed out. Alone down there.
this is where the album stops caring about cities and places and it takes that k hole trip into no mans land where you are truly alone and no one is there to help you out.
Alone down there,
only one to talk to is yourself (how do, how do you do, my name is you)
this is a battle with youre own mind. everything is echoed and distrubing. youre own death is mirrored in itself and everything is a relfection of you. and you scream to stop from being alone but your all by yourself. Isaac starts screaming at himself. i dont want you to be alone, down there to be alone. but the song never resolves this, instead ending appruptly. you are alone
the stars are projectors.
gaining insight into your own life. (show them how, theyll show you how, they run it into the ground)
this talks about a they that is never specifieced. but if we take the chrous, the stars are projectors, projecting our lives down onto this planet earth. then we see that its possible to take a look at your life. like a movie (everythings a double feature, everyone wants to be their own damn preacher).
this is taking a good long look at ones life.
if we take the begining story. someone faces something horrible. moves away from it, this is where they actually look at it. observe it and study it. only way to correct a a mistake is to study why and how it was made. In light of latter songs im going to assume this is isnt about the problem posed in the first song (abortion) but the singer himself. That the problem isnt the outside world, but the indside mind, more on this latter.
also a refernce to life and math. modest mouse likes to ask about the big questions but in a differnt manner. where do circles come from?
this could be asking where does life come from. is there a god. how is somthing unexplained by math and science (the circumfernce, and pie thing. its unsolved) existing as we speak.
We can take this as how can anything we see be real, or if it all exists. where do you come from, how does it all start. this song is exiestantial questioning at its most rockiest.
the structure of the song also helps communicate this point. the song itself is confused as hell. effects pedals swirling. guitars crunching. melodies popping and then dissapearing. acoustic, loud, soft, violens in there. its a mixed bag.
and then we come to wild pack of family dogs
it doesnt fit in with anything else ive written,
it deals with the same ideas; life, death, random chance, resignation
it seems like a side anecedote added to the larger story just to give some perspective. perhaps the dogs that eat his sister up for the same eye watching the world in the first song is the singer acknowledging that everything happens around him regardless of his perception. (the dogs act for their own rewards even if he doesnt see them, just as he acts for his own. but we can see how the two overlap and iven if you have your own ideas and goals other people ideas an goals can affect your own?)
paper thin walls
this seems to return to the city in the middle part of the albums...
or atleast with a differnt perspective.
this song pulls other people into the equation. (these walls are paper thin and everyone hears every little sound. everyones a vouyerust watching me watch them right now)
hmmm so everyone is involved in the shaping of the world ( i cant be blamed for nothing anymore)
perhaps this the singer starting to widen his view to other people as to why the world is fucked up. and realizing that everyone elses actions have an impact on his own... which means that if the world is as fucked up as he thinks. its all them. and hes perfect. (this could be denial on the part of the singer that is latter retracted.)
i came as a rat
the song starts with a line claiming he doesnt know what hes been told. but he knows what he is???? i dunno. this song also references god as something that dies and sticks to you. ive always taken this song as a kind of re-incarntation theme. everything dies and so do you , but youll come as other things but youll always have the former's mark on you. (old souls and what not)
or it could be that everything is interconnected which would mean the singer and his world are one in the same. which leads to the next two songs where the bad world isnt the surroundings but the singer himself projecting his feelings on everything he sees and experiances
we now come to my two favorite songs.
LIVES
my fav on this album.
im not sure if this is the same person in the first few songs. or an allknowing narrator.
but it seems to be. this is a persons hatred or atleast indiifernce to their own life. they think everyone is more interesting (a common MM theme)
but the line that hits me the most is
my hell comes from indside, comes from inside myself why fight this?
heres my view on the song and the album at large.
the singer/protaganist hates the world hes in. he tries to change his world, setting and himself. yet its all in vain. he cant alter his ideas. he comes to the conclusion that its him. the world isnt fucked up, its him, hes the hell and he brings it with him. kinda like in paradise lost how where ever lucifer goes he cares the wieght and pain of his fall with him and he strives to make paradise like his own hell. its a mental thing, get it. atleast thats what i get from it.
in this life like weeds.
everything grows or atleast according to how you look at it. i might see other people gorwin but i feel like im standing still. im the rock and everything else is the weeds. but where does the rock belong in a like like weeds.
fuck im running out of steam and im just quoting the lyrics.
i think im going to have to stop
please ignore the spelling errors.
ive gotten a lil bit too drunk during this whole thing. but thats what ive written and im sure ill check it tomorrow
and maybe sober i can write this better but ive....
fuck
what ever take what ive got and if you dont like it dont comment.
i dunno
i need sleep