Album: Chutes Too Narrow (2003)

Charted: 73

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• An address to the golden door
  I was strumming on a stone again
  Pulling teeth from the pimps of gore
  When hatched a tragic opera in my mind
  And it told of a new design
  In which every soul is duty bound
  To uphold all the statutes of boredom
  Therein lies the fatal flaw of the red age
  
  'Cause it was nothing like we'd ever dreamt
  Our lust for life had gone away with the rent we hated
  'Cause it made no money
  Nobody saved no one's life this time
  
  So we burned all our uniforms
  And let nature take its course again
  And the big ones just eat all the little ones
  That sends us back to the drawing board
  
  In our darkest hours
  We have all asked for some
  Angel to come
  Sprinkle his dust all around
  But all our crying voices, they can't turn it around
  You've had some crazy conversations of your own
  
  We've got rules and maps and guns in our backs
  But we still can't just behave ourselves
  Even if to save our own lives
  So says I
  We are a brutal kind, whoa
  
  'Cause this is nothing like we'd ever dreamt
  Tell Sir Thomas More we've got another failed attempt
  'Cause if it makes them money
  They might just give you life this time Writer/s: James Mercer
  Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 10

• Lilly from Chicago, IlThe band performed this song in an episode of Gilmore Girls called "Girls in Bikinis, Boys Doing the Twist".
• Bernard from Auckland, New Zealand"So Say's i,"
• Nate from Kirkland, WaThis song, at its core, is about human nature. We are a brutal kind. It seems to be contrasting different forms of government to show the flaw in mankind.
  
  "The fatal flaw of the red age." I think refers to the 20th century failed experiment of communism.
  
  "and the big ones just eat all the little ones" I think refers to capitalism.
  
  "That sent us back to the drawing board." eludes to revolution as an experiment. (French revolution, American revolution, Russian, Chinese, etc...)
  
  Sir Thomas More wanted utopia which revolutionaries promise. (Everything would be alright if we could just overthrow and fix our government). The real problem is that people are flawed.
• Trey from Kalamazoo, MtThe Shins are the greatest band of our time. That doesn't mean they're the best though, just for the 21st century.
• Allison from A Little Ol' Town In, MiI usually don't listen to modern stuff but this is an awesome song. I can hear some almost Pink Floyd-ish stuff in the shins. Definitly an underrated band
• Craig from Madison, WiSpecifically, More was a Catholic statesman, not just a Christian. Not to be nit-picky but it was important enough to him to cause his execution/martyrdom. He had a run in with Henry VIII about the whole concept of the Church of England in general. The King, of course, won the debate with the old Big-Axe Rebuttal. In 1935 he was made a saint. What all this has to do with the song, I do not know.
• Cameron from Langhorne, PaIn the lyrics included with the CD, it is Sir Thomas More not Moore. Sir Thomas More was the author of "Utopia", a book about an ideal form of government. This makes sense given the music video on the Sub Pop Records website for the Shins, which features penguins that alternate between Communist and Capitalist societies, and also considering the lyrics "Our lust for life had gone away with the rent we hated", "Tell Sir Thomas Moore we've got another failed attempt" etc.
• Scooter from Philadelphia, PaWow great song, the way they sing conversation of your own, can't get it out of my head.
• Spencer from Rhode IslandAwesome song. At their concert I went to this was the song they played as their encore.
• Annie from New York, NyI made a mistake above, he was a CHRISTIAN humanist, not italian. sorry about that.

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