The android’s conundrum

I really enjoy the new song by The Shins, “Australia,” but the lyrics make me feel a little dumb:

Time to put the earphones on…
No!

La la la la
La la la la
Laaaaaaa
La la la la

(Born to multiply) Born to multiply
Born to gaze into night skies
All you want’s one more Saturday
Well look here until then
They’re gonna buy your nice time
So keep your wick in the air and your feet in the fetters
‘Till the day you come in doing cartwheels
We all pull out by ourselves
And your shape on the dance floor
Will have me thinking such filth and gouge my eyes

You’d be damned to be one of us girl
Faced with a dodo’s conundrum
I felt like I could just fly
But nothing happend every time I tried

Wooo, ooooh!

A dual-tone under wall
Selfish fool and hoped he’d save us all
Never dreamt of such sterile hands

You keep ’em folded in your lap
And raise them up to beg for scraps
You know he’s holding you down
With the tips of his fingers just the same

But you’ll be pulled from the ocean
But just a minute too late
Or changed by a potion
You’ll find a handsome young mate for you to love

You’ll be damned to pining through the windowpanes you know
You’ll trade your life for any ordinary Joe
Will do and I will grow old
Your nightmares only need a year or two to unfold

Been alone since you were twenty-one
You haven’t laughed since January
You try and think of this as so much fun
But we know it to be quite contrary

La la la la la la la

Dare to be one of us girl
Faced with the android’s conundrum
I felt like I should just cry
But nothing happens every time I take one on the chin
Your humor in your coat you don’t know how long I’ve been
Watching the lantern dim starved of oxygen
So give me your hand and let’s jump out the window

“Faced with the android’s conundrum?” Say what? Someone help me out here, please.

6 Comments »

1. androids don’t have feelings (see ‘Data’)

   Comment by f. chong rutherford — March 6, 2007 @ 19:47

2. So, dare to be someone without feelings? Crazy wussy modern rockers!

   Comment by Beau — March 6, 2007 @ 22:23

3. The singer is saying that he wants to cry, but he can’t because he’s numb. He’s probably numb over something awful that’s happening to the girl in the song. The girl is either hooking up with another guy (the one with the surgeon’s hands) or is dying. She’s probably dying.

   And most rockers are pretty wussy when they sing about girls.

   Comment by f. chong rutherfod — March 7, 2007 @ 4:37

4. If it makes you feel any better Beau, I also couldn’t think of anything obvious. I immediately thought of Radiohead’s paranoid android and how androids can’t reproduce (yet)… But neither of those tangents helped me.

   Comment by Cam S — March 7, 2007 @ 19:52

5. I haven’t yet found the connection with ‘Australia’ yet either. Which is disappointing. If there are androids involved, I want to know where on the continent they’re hiding, and if they’re attempting to reproduce or not.

   Comment by Craig HS — March 17, 2007 @ 1:37

6. It’s a song about being inneffectual (comparisons to a flightless bird, being pulled from the ocean, being held down by the tips of his fingers…etc.). The song brings in Australia..by the “handsome young mate for you to love (g’day mate)”
   The subject of this song is about almost being there..but never quite getting it right. About being held back, by things sometimes within our control..and sometimes outside of our control. The android cannot reproduce or be totally human, and the dodo cannot fly…and eventually is driven to extinction because of the yummyness of it’s meat.
   So in the end…to jump out the window may seem the most rational decision to make..considering the hopelessness.

   Comment by Joan — August 25, 2007 @ 23:18

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