She's posting all the time, but the boards are down.
It's a burned out building.
He's spending all this time on his back.
Staring at the ceiling.
They spared themselves that way
I'm with that. I'm with them.
You aren't. You're alive, dammit.
Gnawing on the prey.
I think about you, some.
Where to put you?
All the backed up data for a raining time.
Insulate a fragile mind.
Capsulize a broken find.
Don't do this, man.
There's another one off behind.
Breaking down the door without warning.
She just ignores the time that the boards came down.
It's a numbed out feeling.
He just excepts that pain with a hate mantra.
A spiritual killing.
They just relax that way.
Crayon past line. Stay after school.
Crossword filled in non-photo blue
So they'll never find you.
Can't go through this now.
I'm leaving a message
Stapled on your head.

i get the same result
we get the same effect





Lyrics submitted by distro

Track duration: 03:43


Non Photo-Blue song meanings
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29 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment:[make a post:]

    "someone tells me what they think this song means...

    I heart it. "

    [wait a bit...]

    [make another post:]

    "I mean tell, someone TELL me what they think this song means"

    [no one replies for over a year.]

    [you forget about this thread.]

    [that's the meaning of this song.]
    Flag peaceoutsideon March 20, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:"all the backed up data for a raining time" makes me think of having a lot of knowledge but never actually putting it to use.
    the next two lines kind of go along with that.
    almost like saying that just becoming knowledgeable on a subject only gives a false sense of worth.

    idk just a thought..
    Flag kaylawardleon November 18, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:It sounds like he's talking about a couple that broke up & now they're both depressed & taking drugs as an escape

    "He's spending all this time on his back.
    Staring at the ceiling."
    "I think about you, some."
    "It's a numbed out feeling."
    "i get the same result
    we get the same effect"


    and everyone needs to calm down who cares if other people like this song? look how many comments it's gotten thus far.
    Flag brifaceon June 10, 2010   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:I think Cabres hit the nail on the head; the meaning of this song is wrapped up in its title. In the publishing world, non-photo blue is a color in which editors write notes to the printer because it doesn't show up on the finished product.

    However, I'm not convinced that "non-photo blue" in this song represents a failed relationship. I'm not even sure the "she" and "he" referred to are or ever were a couple. They may just be examples of people who distract themselves from painful realities they don't want to face by isolating themselves and wasting their lives on mind-numbing pursuits, "a spiritual killing." Maybe the band sees this as tantamount to a kind of suicide, reflected in the lyrics, "Don't do this, man./There's another one off behind,/Breaking down the door without warning," which calls to mind someone shouting through a locked door to a friend who's intent on harming himself. The singer identifies with these people ("I'm with that./I'm with them.") and their rage at the rest of the world that is "alive" without them but at the same time wants to save them from themselves.

    "Non-photo blue," I think, is a metaphor for how these people are living their lives. They've detached themselves from everyone and everything around them. They're purposely trying not to to be seen by others, not to leave their mark on the world: "Crossword filled in non-photo blue/So they'll never find you."

    What makes this song not just good but great is the ending: "I'm leaving a message/Stapled on your head./I get the same result./We get the same effect." Here's where you realize that the song is itself a note in non-photo blue, the singer's wake-up call to himself and those around him who have shut themselves off from life. The last two lines, with their parallel construction, reinforce that this isn't just a warning to two random people but to the singer himself and really all of us who close ourselves off. We too need to stop fading into the background, to live our lives in color, to leave our visible mark on the finished product so the world won't be the same as it was before we entered it.
    Flag LyricallyInclinedon April 17, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:This song is about how people should be nothing but exuberant for being granted the ability to merely breathe. It's rhetorically reaching out to all the people who dwell on negativity and muddle in their own misery. Think Jeffrey Lebowski. The narrator gnawing on his prey, looks at those wasting away their own good fortune as novelties, bequeathing those individuals the purpose of injecting color into his own life. He scoffs as he makes the most of his life.
    Flag JuliusFuckingCaesaron May 17, 2009   Link
  • +2
    General Comment:This was on The OC? Fuck, that's depressing.
    Flag Robbadobon March 08, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I always like the vibe I get from this song.

    I took it to be about these 2 people (guy and girl) who are separate, but are somehow connected. Either via a forum or something.

    The girl's posting all the time, the guy's lying there all the time. and they're just spending their lives thinking alone.

    and at the risk of over-interpreting... I've always thought the lines "crayon past line, stay after school" were very meaningful. I imagine a kid who colors outside the lines in school and is reprimanded for it, and forced to color inside the lines--and as a result he becomes like everyone else and is conformed to the rest of the kids who "color in the lines." But when we are older, those who "color outside the lines" are admired and become more significant because they are not like everyone else. I think it touches on that contradiction where we raise our kids to be the same, but then when they become adults we expect them to be different and better--we should have just let them color outside the lines and be themselves to begin with.

    I think that ties in to the guy and girl in the beginning still... as if they are the two kids who colored outside the lines and were forced to conform, and now because of that they don't really fit in with the rest of society and are similar in that they are different than everyone else but have never been allowed to be because it wasn't seen as the "right way" to do it.
    Flag alovelyfadeouton February 09, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I love this song. Always have, and I hope I always will. Also, it's "accepts" not "excepts." Though I doubt the person whom posted the lyrics will check on this and come back for corrections.

    Anywho, I have to pretty much agree with Hella Diesel. The song is about a failed relationship. The girl is trying to do things to keep herself busy so that she doesn't feel the pain of the failed relationship. But, that is also metaphorical for the fact that the 'posting all the time, but the boards came down" symbolizes their failed relationship. Posting, probably, meaning loving the man and stating such, and boards came down meaning that the relationship ended. Which brings more resolution into the line "it's a burned down building" by remarking that the relationship, like a burnt building, is destroyed and can't be "lived in" again.

    The man, on the other hand, is living inside of that lost and motionless void that some people tend to go into when their relationship of seemingly great importance ends. Him "accepting the pain with a hate mantra" is him not only cursing her and their relationship, but also cursing on the feeling of loving someone. That is why it's a "spiritual killing."

    The title suits this well if you really sit down and ponder on it, as non-photo blue ink tends to not show up in the final product. That allows folks to jot down notes regarding the photo and not having to worry about erasing anything. In a life standpoint, the relationship is the non-photo blue. Meaning that it happened, it's there, it left its points for you to note on, but in the end, it will be pretty much meaningless and unseen/uncared for. That helps out to understand the chorus of this song. As it's not solely sung to the male, but the female too. It's telling of don't beat yourself up and/or tear yourself down on something that will end up being disregarded later on like the shoes you had when you were 4 years old. "We get the same effect" is that they both are bummed out over it being over. They both have the same "result" in the end. And, instead of dwelling on it, just take it in stride and continue to move forward.

    Hope I helped someone nod in agreement to this.
    Flag Cabreson December 17, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:i think its about 2 people who dont ever get to find eachother because theyre just at home wasting away
    Flag crackaddicton April 15, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I have an idea of what it is, but I can't put it into the correct words.
    Something along the lines of two people, one who absorbs herself into the 'boards' to forget about something, and the other who instead of trying to forget, just lies there and dwells in thought and the memory of whatever happend.

    Anyway, this is an amazing song. Whenever i'm feeling crappy or its raining this song fits my mood exactly.
    Flag elis3xxon February 21, 2008   Link

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