Sunday, March 8, 2015

My Breakdown of a Song

A favorite song of mine is "Map of the Problematique" by Muse.  The lyrics were written by the band's lead singer/guitarist Matthew Bellamy.  I like the way the song sounds and how the lyrics are sang.  For me, this song is about a man who is contemplating the things in life.  It seems there has been a traumatic event for the man and he is trying to figure things out.  This is my breakdown and what I think the lyrics mean:












Fear, and panic in the air
I want to be free
From desolation and despair




There is a loss of people and a loss of hope.  He is afraid and panicking that he will be the next one to go, possibly be another "loss".  He has this fear for being abandoned, and when he has this person to "be free from desolation and despair" he became desperate to keep that person by their side.

 
And I feel like everything I saw
Is being swept away
When I refuse to let you go

He refuses to let [her] go.  Letting someone special go is not that easy.  But, he knows that if he doesn't let go, he will lose her anyways.  It is a fight within himself.



I can't get it right since I met you
"I can't get it right" is that he can't find the right words to say. Everything is wrong in times like this for him. "Since I met you" - he feels that he didn't do or say the right things from the start. He's blaming himself.




Loneliness be over
When will this loneliness be over?

I find this one to sound just the way it is.  When he is pleading that the loneliness be over, he is pleading for an answer and for everything to end.  No matter what, he will always end up feeling lonely.  It will never be over.









Life will flash before my eyes
So scattered and lost
I want to touch the other side
He can see life "flash before his eyes", but it is not clear to him.  At a time like this for the man in the song, he really has to think about his life.  He starts to remember events in his life and remember old memories, perhaps the happier ones- compared to now. Touching the other side could mean finding out what's going to happen next.


And no one thinks they are to blame
Why can't we see
That when we bleed we bleed the same?

This is my favorite part of the song; I find it most powerful.  This is true not for just this song, but for the whole world.  Many people cannot take the blame for themselves and admit to their own faults- "no one thinks they are to blame".  As for "when we bleed we bleed the same", that is him saying everyone is the same in one way or another.  Yet, no one can see it and he asks "why".




 
In the end, he seems to come to a conclusion: nothing he says or does makes any difference.

 

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