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Analyse Lyrics

A self-fulfilling prophecy of endless possibilty
You're born and raised across the street
In algebra, in algebra

The fences that you cannot climb
The sentences that do not rhyme
In all that you can ever change
The one you're looking for

It gets you down
It gets you down

There's no spark
No light in the dark

It gets you down
It gets you down
You travel far
What have you found
That there's no time
There's no time
To analyze
To think things through
To make sense

Like candles in the city
They never looked so pretty
Bad power cuts and blackouts
Sleeping like babies

It gets you down
It gets you down
You're just playing a part
You're just playing a part

You're playing a part
Playing a part
That there's no time
There's no time
To analyze
Analyze
Analyze
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Cover art for Analyse lyrics by Thom Yorke

This songs reminds me of one of the greek philosophers,, cant remember which one (either aristotle, plato or socrates) They said that the average person was too involved in their sporting events, jobs, social lives and families to ever give deep contemplative thought to the biggest questions in life,, what is ethics? what is the meaning of life? So what they do instead is abide the rules someone else wrote and play their part.

This song to me is about how as modern busy people, especially the urban dwelling people who "rolls in reams across the street" we don't take the time to analyse what we see because "there is not time". Sounds right to me.

Maybe to Thom a proper life is one where you don't act until you know for sure what you should do, what is right, what makes sense and he feels that too many people just do whats in front of them. Play a part. But for most people this isnt available,, graduate, work, buy, consume, die. Its expected of you to fit into society,, whether you understand why or not.

The existential dilemma (why am I here? what is my purpose?) is becomming quite common as people live lifes in which they feel less power over themselves. We rely upon electricity other people make, food other people make, gas and cars other people make, houses other people built. There's a sense of pride in doing things for yourself. What do you do for yourself in a city? You'd be lost without all the things other people do for you. I think this song is somewhat about being lost.

So I think its about the disconnection of people from thought. You have little time and lots to do, you don't get to analyse,, you have to move on to the next matter before the last one has made sense.

theres no time to analyse to think things thru to make sense

it gets you down

@slunkmonky your interpretation of these lyrics is entirely consistent with my own thoughts. It makes perfect sense.

Cover art for Analyse lyrics by Thom Yorke

i think the song's about life itself and how we get lost in life, how we fight with all our strength to take control but there is no control, things just happen and you just react, ultimately, you have no choice, no time to analyse and think things through, you just live the moment, take instantaneous decisions. In the end, the time you were given ends and you part with nothing but memories, no true answer, no true meaning...

"The unexamined life is not worth living."--Socrates' analogy about how busy people stroll through the streets of the city with only short term goals; working for money and becoming a slave of consumerism to feed the needs and standards of the system, without questioning and focusing any energy on how to explore themselves and look for long term goals of personal success/happiness, which results in a lack of meaning, value, and purpose in their lives; perfectly fits the meaning of this song.

Not Valid
Cover art for Analyse lyrics by Thom Yorke

I like your interpretation slunkmonky. But for some reason the line 'in rolling reams across the screen' reminds me of Thom's lyrics for "Videotape", and the idea of watching ones' life flash before ones' eyes... the imagery I get is of something going by very fast. It makes me think of how fast time seems to go by once we get older and we realize what little time we have left to live, and although we'd like to be able to grasp what our purpose in life is, and get rid of the obstacles in our way, we are only human... we have certain characteristics in our personality that have enabled us but also limit what we can do.

The part where he sings 'we're just playing a part' makes me think of two things: one, that we get so involved in the roles we've chosen to play in life that we forget who we really are. All of a sudden we realize certain things are not that important if they take away time from the things that do matter to us. Two, I think of the idea that each one of us is just a part of a greater whole..

Cover art for Analyse lyrics by Thom Yorke

i'm pretty sure it's 'all that you can never change', and i'm absolutely positive it's 'candles in the city'.

I agree because Thom yorke himself said that's what inspire him:

" 'Analyse' was inspired by a blackout in Oxford. Yorke 'used to live in central Oxford, on one of those historical streets, with all these houses built in the 1860s. I came home one night and for some reason, the street had a power cut. The houses were all dark, with candlelight in the windows, which is obviously how it would have been when they were built. It was beautiful.' "

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Cover art for Analyse lyrics by Thom Yorke

LIKE CANDLES IN THE CITY YOU'VE NEVER LOOKED SO PRETTY LIKE POWERCORDS IN BLACKOUTS SLEEPING LIKE BABIES

Cover art for Analyse lyrics by Thom Yorke

this song is nothing more than sadness. the worst thing is everything it says is absolutely true.

tell me. what is sadness? what is it?

is it because most of us sleep like babies, watching. all we can do??

living in the presence until we're gone again??

feels like reality is sacred...

Not Valid
Cover art for Analyse lyrics by Thom Yorke

This song is about trying to find a reason for existence or some sort of purpose in life. We travel the world to find the answer to why we exist yet we won't find anything because no one knows the answer to this question. I think the cows in the city sleeping like babies refers to the saying "ignorance is bliss" and the peace we might have if we didn't have the intelligence to worry about the question "why?" The moral of this song is that life is too short and we will die before we can truly analyze any reason for our existence. We are just playing a part in the world and after we die we our part on this world will end.

Cover art for Analyse lyrics by Thom Yorke

I love this song. I feel this song is about being let down by this worldly life. There's no point analyzing as it will only get us down. There's no time for digging deep in what and why things are happening in this world sometimes. We must try and live in the Present. No point analyzing the past or the future of this World. It is about Sadness and moving on individually from worldly desires. There's more to seek but everyone is so bsy being Consumed by this World. It is more like positive sadness.

Song Meaning
Cover art for Analyse lyrics by Thom Yorke

I think this song is pointing out the futility of "progress." The lyrics are actually wrong above. It doesn't say cows, but candles and not carts but blackouts. The people sleep like babies (no insomnia) only when forcibly deprived of the tools of "progress."

Civilization supposedly marches forward, with mathematical precision (alegbra), yet having come so far in the last hundred years in terms of modern conveniences built around electricity, have we found ourselves any happier?

It gets you down to think of how hard we work, just to find that we can never truly change "the one we're looking for," which is our satisfied selves. No matter what we do, we don't know how to find happiness. We only know how to pursue the accouterments that are supposed to offer happiness. But we play our part in the wheels of commerce, keeping the machine running. Thank God for blackouts.

Beautiful interpretation.

Not Valid

After reading your post and then going back to listen to the track about 100 times, I think you've hit the nail on the head.

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Cover art for Analyse lyrics by Thom Yorke

This is my favorite song on the cd. I love it. I think the song is speaking of how grand the universe is and how insignificant our existence is, yet in the same since our existence is personally so important because it’s all we have. We can’t spend too much time trying to solve questions without answers; we have to spend more time appreciating the simple pleasures and beauty.