djinni sequoia:
I think Trent is fascinated with that idea of the "trapdoor in the sun" -- the little vortex or portal or doorway that goes into somewhere else. (Like in "Only"... "it was a doorway, trying to seal itself shut, but I climbed through") I recognize this because, so am I. The doorway can be the one you fell through, landing you here where you don't belong; or it can be the one you're looking for, to get out. I used to say it was like being an exile with amnesia. Just a vague feeling that you're not where you are meant to be.

Anyway, this song has two parts obviously; the verses reflect the way the world has become since Trent's and my generation was born --- a very different place from what we were led to believe, and how it looked like it was going to turn out at first. It was supposed to be so cool. Instead, we got an oppressive, repressive hellish kind of bad-dream that is constricting us tighter and tighter with priveleges revoked, limits and restrictions, new prohibitions, and joys demolished to make way for greedheads and strip malls.

The refrain ("This is not my face, this is not my life... ") very simply and sadly expresses the way it feels to find yourself in an ugly, brutal construct with your beautiful future stolen from you. This is not how we were supposed to look and feel; this is not how we were supposed to be living.

For me, it really does feel like I'm in the wrong alternate reality or the mirror world or someplace else gone terribly wrong.

And I'd give anything--

added on: november 20, 2008

djinni sequoia:
Here's my take on this song... which I am strongly affected by incidentally... The verses and the chorus are two different threads, as indicated in part by the music. Each verse describes a different experience of the present; the chorus, though the same each time, is modified by its position in response to each verse. The first verse and chorus are about an outer experience of the present: the repressive, fear-driven world we have now in America is the furthest thing from the future as people of Trent's and my generation (Gen X) pictured it. Growing up in the 70's/80's, we have seen people being much kinder & more real than they are typically now. We have seen personal freedom being far more broad than it is now. I think we fully expected that these things would continue, and the world would get better & better. The New World Order took us all by surprise, but by the time it was obvious, it was already too late. The second verse and chorus are about an inner experience of the present: a corollary process happening to our individual bodies and minds. Getting older took most of us by surprise too I expect -- one minute we were 25 and having a blast, then we blinked, and now this! In addition, watching the theft and destruction of the awesome future we were counting on has made many of us angry and disillusioned. You can only fight so much, but you can't give up either. After awhile you end up in a kind of static spot between resignation and hope. That's my interpretation. Your results may vary.

added on: november 2, 2008