Comments: 24

• Daniel from Indianapolis, InLove this song, and love Garden State.
• Paulo Pereira from Usa"for some reason people dont think that u like the band if u were introduced to the shins though garden state"
  
  Interesting. I heard this song via Pandora and it made me an instant Shins fan. I heard about Garden State from looking up info on this song. I think if I heard the song clip in that movie, I would probably have forgotten it.
• Janin from Manila, Philippinesfrom your post and from my perspective i think this song could be summed from the lyrics "i was happier then with no mindset" it was set in the late 90's where people were starting to, well for lack of a better term i guess, start their lives, i mean that as a generation it was the time of the young professionals where ideals had to be swallowed and money had to be raked in. "looking in on the good life i might be doomed never to find" idk,
• Anthony from Milford, Pajust go for a nice drive and listen to this song. come back and tell me how good you feel
• Joel from Mercer, NjThis is a good song. It is featured in the scene where Andrew first meets Sam at the doctor's office.
• Ryan from Grand Junction, CoI thought it was about on person telling someone else how perfect things would be if they DIDN'T start a relationship.
• Trey from Kalamazoo, MtThe Shins are right up there with Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, Pink floyd, and Rush (the greatest bands ever).
• Josh Deutchman from Pound Ridge, Nyit reminds me of the beatles' long, long, long. but faster and much more upbeat
• Annie from New York, Nygreat song. it really resonates with me, i've been through something almost exactly like this. see, this is how i see it, the song is about how relatiomships can change you for the worst. "gold teeth and a curse for this town were all in my mouth, only i dont know how they got out" this line shows that the singer's feelings towards his surroundings have changed like everyrthing else. "turn me back into the pet i was when we met, i was happier then with no mind set" this means that when they had met and even before that, he was a 'pet'(pet here meaning sweet and innocent). "and if you took to me like a gull taked to the wind, i'd have jumped from my tree and i'd have danced the the king of the eyesores and the rest of our lives would've faired well" this is one of those "should-a would-a could-a" moments. basically its saying that is she had seen their relationship as something liberating and carefree (much like a gull-a type of bird-takes to the wind), then he'd havebeen encuoraged to jump from his tree (the tree being a metaphor for disconnection from the world) and the relationship could have lasted. "new slang when you notice the stripes, the dirt in your fries" 'new sland is a metaphor for change, kinda like how as you move through different stages of life you begin to speak differently. 'stripes' and 'the dirt in you fries' are metaphors for all the bad or unlikable things about life that you dont see as a young innocent child. thus the line translates to: you grow older and change when you start to see the bad things in life. then the lyrics go on to say "never should have called, but my heads to the wall and im lonley" this is something i directly relate to. it happens when you know someone is no good for you and you know nothing good will come from contacting them, but you are so lonley and they are the one and only familliar face around so you call anyway. "all the bakers at dawn, they all cut thier thumbs and bleed into thier buns till they melt away" bakers with cut thumbs are useless, bloody buns are useless. this is a metaphor for feeling totally and utterly unwanted and not needed - bad relationships do that to you. "I'm looking in on the good life I might be doomed never to find. Without a trust or flaming fields am I too dumb to refine?" these lyrics are a little more abstract. its obvious the the 'good life he may be doomed never to find' is a life with love. the second pare,however, means that he has no one he trusts and he lust or fire in him. he is asking himself if he should refine, or lower his expectations of love and settle for something he knows he doesnt want just to have love.
  
  this isnt a love song, its a song about failed love.
  
  
• Tayylurr from Baltimore, Mdi see this song as being about a guy who was in love with a girl and when they were young they were carefree and oblivious to the harder parts of life, they had no mindset and he was her "pet". As for "a curse for this town", i assume the girl came to the town and he fell for her but later she's like a curse because when she leaves he feels alone and doesn't know what to do. When she leaves him and moves on, he's wishing she had stayed and "took to him like a gull takes to the wind" because then they could have lived happily. But after she's gone he starts to notice the less likable things in life, like "the dirt on your fries" and i guess new slang is like the phase in life where you leave your happy years and enter adulthood where you have to work and you see the problems and with life and suddenly nothing is sugar-coated anymore. Eventually he gets fed up and calls this girl he misses so much. And he realizes he shouldn't have but its too late and he's lonely. Calling her makes him realizes she's happy and he's "looking in on the good life" he is now "doomed never to find" and everything has become sort of hopeless the older he gets. He begins to curse everything like "the bakers at dawn". this song takes you through the life of someone who has basically went through life unsure of themself, like they fell behind and never caught up. It's so well written and very impressive. It's a love song pretty much, saying how this guy fell in love with a girl and after she left he never met another girl like her and thus lived the rest of his life thinking about her wishing they could have stayed together.
• Rob from 69town, CoThis song is about someone who tells a girl he loves his true feelings, and she doesn't love him back. Now, he doesn't feel as happy as he was when he was oblivious to this fact. "Turn me back into the pet I was when we met/I was happier then with no mind-set." No mind-set shows that he had no knowledge of this.
  
  "And if you'd 'a took to me like/A gull takes to the wind/Well I'd 'a jumped from my tree/And I'd 'a danced like the king of the eyesores/And the rest of our lives would 'a fared well." If she would have loved him back, they would have been happy for the rest of their lives.
  
  In my opinion, this is a beautiful song by an amazing band. It is easily one of the best songs that I have ever heard.
• Ash from Mooroopna, AustraliaYes, yes, we all know how freakin awresome the song is, but could someone share with us what it is all about? Is it just a collection of ramblings from the mind of James Mercer or is there some serious meaning behind this track
• Violet from Baltimore, MdI think Sam got it right in Garden State saying this song will change your life. It's true, this is a beautiful song and it's by an amazing band. By the way, if you haven't heard it yet, their new cd is awesome and you should deffinatly get a copy of it
• Alex from Bergen, NorwayThe Shins are amazing
• Danny from Sydney, AustraliaMost beautiful song ever written. Enough said.
• Jimi from Reno, NvOne of the very few bands of this decade that i can sincerely say i actually like. Great lyrics and the song is simplistic and capture the essence to me of our young society in a strange eerie way.
• Joel from Columbia, ScJames Mercer, great song writer. Nuff said!!!
• Grace from Melbourne, AustraliaThe Shins Are A Marvelous BAnd with Some Outstanding Lyrics!!!:)
• Violet from Baltimore, Mdthis is a pretty amazing song by a pretty amazing band
• Kayla from Cary, Ncman this song rocks..mostly because the lyrics are so random
• Steve from Salt Lake City, UtAshley?
  Here's a warm Care Bear,now off to bed you go my sweet!
  
  After all, "Caring Is Creepy" and the Shins do it all so tunefully,hope you catch them live.
• Ashley from Naples , Flband*
• Ashley from Naples , Flwho really cares how you're introduced to a bad? more to the point, who really care what other people think?
• Meh from Wc, Pagood song
  for some reason people dont think that u like the band if u were introduced to the shins though garden state

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