::Firsties Week:: The Shins - Sleeping Lessons

"Sleeping Lessons" is the opener to the Shins third album Wincing the Night Away. This one made the cut mainly because I love James Mercer's lyrics and have a man-crush on him. The album seems to have an insomnia-fueled, nocturnal, dreamlike feel to it, and what better way to start it off with this song.

It doesn't explode like the Lips' song... at first anyway. It kind of lulls you into the album with fuzzy arpeggios and odd noises. As your eyelids begin to droop slowly down, the song slowly begins to build up subtly and then unleashes a barrage of banging electric guitars, feedback and drums. It reminds me of falling asleep and entering the land of dreams where anything is possible and you can ride on unicorns made of Toblerones that shoot fireworks out of their nostrils. What? No one else has that dream?

Go without,
Till the need seeps in
You low animal,
Collect your novel petals for the stem.

And glow.
Glow.
Melt and flow.
Eviscerate your fragile frame.
And spill it out on ragged floor.
A thousand different versions of yourself.

And if the old guards still offend,
They got nothing left on which you depend.
So enlist every ounce
Of your bright blood.
And off with their heads.

Jump from the hook.
You're not obliged to swallow anything you despise.
See, those unrepenting buzzards want your life,
And they got no right.
As sure as you have eyes,
They got no right.

Just put yourself in my new shoes.
And see that I do all I do.
Because the old guard still offends.
(Their pudgy hearts and slimy hands)
They got nothing left on which we depend.
So enlist every ounce
Of your bright blood.
And off with their heads.

Jump from the hook.
You're not obliged to swallow anything you despise,
That you despise.