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I missed the good part, then I realised
I started lookin' and the bubble burst
I started lookin' for excuses Coldplay – Warning Sign
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What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
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“Hysteria” is the eighth track and third single of Absolution and is preceded by a 40-second interlude on the album. The song is one of Muse’s most famous and popular due to the awesome bass line played by Chris Wolstenholme. The subject of matter is the desperation of wanting something or someone you can’t have.
Fun fact: In ye olden days, “hysteria” was actually a diagnosable psychological condition unique to women caused by sexual dysfunction (i.e. dudes not pleasing their women in bed). It’s thanks to this condition that the vibrator was invented – physicians could now stimulate their patients' genitalia mechanically instead of manually, thus reducing some of the impropriety.
These days, we know to give our girls head – at least, most of us do.
The old-timey medical definition of hysteria also implicated the presence of the womb and the moon as possible causes, which explains the cover of the single. Interestingly, the association of the moon with manic behavior is the origin of the word “lunatic”, ie, a lunar tic.
Chris Wolstenholme’s bass line from this track was voted the best of all time in a poll run by MusicRadar. Rush’s instrumental “YYZ"came a very close second, followed by two entries from Queen, "Another One Bites The Dust” and “Under Pressure.” Music Radar said of the winner: “Chris Wolstenholme certainly takes centre-stage with his intricate processed riff driving the singalong and providing a fat bedrock for Matt Bellamy’s guitar histrionics.”
And cleanse away our sins
And we'll pray that there's no God
To punish us and make a fuss Muse – Fury
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This is probably the most powerful chorus that Matt Bellamy has ever written for a song. At face value you could simply claim that Matt Bellamy is dismissing the idea of God or any sort of higher power. But a closer analysis reveals a far more depressing idea. Bellamy previously stated that he believes the real reason people pray and subscribe to religion is to find some sort of “forgiveness” for our earthly crimes. He goes one step further here by saying that instead of praying for God (or another power) to forgive us, we should be praying that such beings don’t exist at all. After all, who can truly say who is good and who is evil? We only have an esoteric idea of how we’re supposed to act on this earth. What happens if we die and find out everything we believed is wrong? That despite a lifetime of good deeds we are still punished in the afterlife (if one exists even exists)? Oblivion, the complete cessation of our existence, seems more preferable than to face the wrath of a judgmental deity.
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“Burn the candle at both ends” means to stay awake late into the night and still be awake come sunrise. Bellamy uses this expression to describe people who are plugged into a religion at all hours and, by following it blindly, believe that it gives them some semblance of happiness.
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While “self loving” might seem like a masturbation reference, it’s a criticism of the effectiveness or relevance of prayer. Bellamy contends that praying to a higher power, whether on behalf of ourselves or others, is basically an empty exercise to make ourselves feel better about our faults and failings. We pretend that there’s something on the other end listening to us, something that can make everything right in the end, to fix our imagined “sins.”
What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
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What is this?
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All that we fought for
Homes, places we've grown
All of us are done for Coldplay – Don't Panic
What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
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What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
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