The Postal Service – We Will Become Silhouettes

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Send "We Will Become Silhouettes" Ringtone to Cell

I've got a cupboard with cans of food
Filtered water, and pictures of you
And I'm not coming out until this is all over
And I'm looking through the glass
Where the light bends at the cracks
And I'm screaming at the top of my lungs
Pretending the echoes belong to someone
Someone I used to know

And we become silhouettes
When our bodies finally go

I wanted to walk though the empty streets
And feel something constant under my feet
But all the news reports recommended that I stay indoors
Because the air outside will make
Our cells divide at an alarming rate
Until our shells simply cannot hold
All our insides in, and that's when we'll explode
(And it won't be a pretty sight)

And we'll become silhouettes
When our bodies finally go

Send "We Will Become Silhouettes" Ringtone to Cell


Lyrics submitted by rjbucs28

Track duration: 05:01


We Will Become Silhouettes song meanings
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106 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment:The lyrics say When our bodies go ..... bah bah bah.

    bang maybe?

    I don't think it's a metaphor for a relationship. I think it was written to sound like a soulful love song until you actually listened to the words.

    Paul Weller did something very similar with My Ever Changing Moods.
    Flag watevaon April 28, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Great song great album. I just bought the new remastered version. Yes to me this song is about the aftermath of an atomic bomb. The album artwork does suggest something dark, and it also resembles the mood of the album too.
    Flag Genesisfanon April 28, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:This sounds like it's about being stuck in Nuclear Warfare or hiding out from an Atomic bomb to me as well.... "cans of food and filtered water" reminds me of how you cannot eat or drink anything unless it is completely safe, and this food is all stored as if in a bunker. "And we will become silhouettes when our bodies finally go" reminds me of how in Hiroshima when the bomb went off, despite people burning to ashes, their silhouettes were left against the walls they stood in front of. "But all the news reports recommended that I stay indoors" also sounds like the Gov telling people to stay in their bunkers after the bomb. "Because the air outside will make our cells divide at an alarming rate" also reminds me of how radiation splits our cells and cause cancer... and the lines following that reminds me of people getting radiation sickness and dying in gruesome ways.
    Flag avataraeraon September 04, 2011   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:There is no doubt in my mind that this song is about a fight with a girlfriend/significant other. This bomb shelter is a metaphor for hiding from someone he is mad at. He plans to be stubborn and not go make up with them, hence all the extra supplies but it is still the only thing he can think about, the 'pictures of you'. Also when you get angry sometimes you just have to scream, and in this state it can seem like you are almost a different person, taken over by rage hence the 'someone i used to know' either that or he is pretending to play a fight out with the other person pretending that the echos of his voice is the other person yelling back. Then he talks about how he wants to leave and 'feel something constant' under his feet. This means he wants everything back to normal, he wants it all to end, but he knows that the fight is still going on, 'the news report....'. When he is talking about the air out doors he is talking about the atmosphere of a fight, and these angry atmospheres are almost dangerous because they make you just want to explode at the world, which is the next part of the song. And then he says "And it wont be a pretty sight'. The word choice here definitely reaffirms to me that it is not a bombing because it so casual. It's not going to be pretty once they are yelling and screaming at each other.
    Flag neogirl0623on February 09, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Wow, I didn't know these guys were so popular, well at least on songmeanings they are. I've known about them for some time but just recently downloaded their album. A lot of their songs on this site have more than 100 comments.
    Flag Franny96on October 03, 2010   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:About the end of the world via nuclear attack, I think. Good song.
    Flag xmakesherflyxon September 13, 2010   Link
  • 0
    My Opinion:I think it is extremely romantic that, after cans of food and filtered water, "pictures of you" are third on the top of his essential survival items
    list.
    Flag piroteknixon November 02, 2009   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:I interpreted this song as someone who cares for someone..
    and in their "emergency" cupboard, their is a picture of this person they care about because the person in the picture has died..
    and they are never really gone because their is always something there to remind them in a way..
    like a silhouette?

    even if you think i'm wrong i think that's the meaning it's taken for me.
    Flag oicunowon July 20, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:i dont think this is about a breakup. i just think this is just someone living in a fallout shelter or his basement mourning a loved one who died in the nuclear attack.
    and as for the metaphor idea, i think the lyrics are too descriptive of a nuclear attack to be a metaphor. like the line "because the air outside will make/ our cells divide at an alarming rate"; the air outside still has radiation which will cause cancer. it's a bit too specific to be a metaphor i think.
    Flag awesomeness0ensuedon July 04, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:"And we become silhouettes
    When our bodies finally go"

    what is a shadow but a reflection of our body-

    and so to say we become silhouettes when we die, wouldn't that be saying we become memories of who we were and used to be? idk just a though.. that part really stands out in my mind.
    Flag KidAzeroon June 22, 2009   Link

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