ah, i was shocked when i first heard evil urges and highly suspicious, but the rest of the new album is great. especially this song and librarian.
and this song is obviously about sex.

In the fourth line, instead of "caressed" he sings, "Since someone CHALLENGED me."

Great song... good attempt on the pre-album release lyrics. Should pry revise them after buying the album tho.

it's so easy to lose yourself in this album. especially in this song. i love at the end they bring the listener out of their trance with a deep, slow, monotonous tone. like being gently awoken from a pleasant dream.

to me at least this song is possibly about pornography/masturbation. when i tried to analyze the lyrics i first broke down the chorus "ooooh this feeling is wonderful / don't you ever turn it off"

the "feeling" most likely is sexual and at first a vibrator or something came to mind with the "turn it off" line, but since jim james is male after all, it could mean something else, like pornography. the disco-style drum pattern and the dramatic climaxing sound on the chorus also hints at some sort of sexual undertones.

this is further reinforced in the 2nd verse when he says "I can see it, by the way you smile" (possibly referring to the pornographic actress) and "I see myself in you" (whether imagining himself being the male porn star or literally imagining himself "inside of her")

he also says "I am with it / Ooh man I am wired" which could imply the human urge for sex but also "wired" could represent a subtle reference to the internet/technology.

instead of "feeling high on wine" it should be "feelings...why? oh my human needs" which could also imply the protagonist's need for sexual gratification

also before i ever looked up lyrics for this song instead of "ooo my lord" i heard "blew my load, blew my load and i don't even know why"

now don't get me wrong i realize this sounds twisted and perverted but it should not be a surprise to anybody familiarw tih MMJ's earlier material where these sexual/masturbation references tend to pop up from time to time, such as on "It Beats 4 U" and "Into the Woods"

Great song, great album. The bass line and beat are soo relaxing

Touch me I'm going to scream part 1 is about the emotions you have when first falling for someone and this one is about the emotions after breaking up with them and not being able to just "turn off" your feelings for them. They compliment each other because they are like the buns of the sandwich and all the other songs are the meat (they start the album with Part 1 and finish it with part 2)

1 Reply

biles1234,
i think you may be stretching context to suit what you believe. i don't think some hint of sexuality is wrong but i don't feel your evidence supports masturbation or pornography as effectively as it would a primal urge/feeling/emotion. the "seeing you smile" analysis concerns me as well, i don't really follow where a porn star comes in from the narrator's observation and musings upon a simple smile. (wouldn't a porn star come across cheaper?)

I could very well be wrong...probably am. I do some trouble fitting in my theory within the context of the first verse. However, "Don't you ever turn it off" was the line that made me infer that he might be referring to something non-human.

Superficially, the "smile" of course could refer to a simple smile, but could in a creepy sense refer to the protagonist's sexual fantasy ("i'm smilin' too")....and although "I see myself in you" could very well the innocent words of somebody seeing their reflection through the eyes of a loved one, it could also interpreted as sexual.

I took the song to be a sort of inner struggle of protagonist, possibly an addiction to pornography. He seems to recognize and regret it ("I don't even know why", "Don't you ever turn it off", "I am with it, "I am wired") but yet cannot control and resist the very primal urges ("Feeling high on my human needs") that you referred to ("Oohhhh this feeling is wonderful"). The fact that the song is dark and Jim's voice is almost remorseful, especially in that second verse seems to the contradict the cheery/lovey-dubeyness of the superficial interpretation of the lyrics.

I definitely exaggerated the context and got a little carried away, but hey Jim James is single (as far as I know), seemed kinda lonely (according to the Spin interview)....he has made allusions to masturbation before and he has a penchant for writing cryptic lyrics. Remember, the album is called EVIL URGES. Sexual gratification is certainly an urge that humans possess and there are people out there who view masturbation as objectionable.

I don't know you.....maybe you don't want to believe that that's what the song is about, but hey unless Jim tells us nobody will ever know. However, I don't think that my "hypothesis" is that unreasonable.

I think the song is about falling in love.

The first verse is about being comfortable being single. He says that "If you touch me, I just think I'll scream, because it's been so long since someone challanged me and made me think about the way things are, made me think about the way they could be." (Lyrics from the album sleeve)
He's saying basically that he wouldn't know how to handle it.

Someone once said to me that the first reason for attraction to anyone is seeing yourself in them. For some reason, I think Jim James agrees with this, as he says it in Parts I & II. He asks himself "Feeling... why?" He's asking himself why we feel, then he says "I can see it... all by the way you smile. I'm smiling too! I see myself in you. I am with it! Oh man, I am wired! Oh my lord - yeah, now I really know why."
He's saying that in looking into this person's smile, he sees the reason for human emotion. That is fucking beautiful. Personally, I've never had that feeling, but I can almost understand it because of James's incredible lyrics.

The end of the song in noteworthy as well. He lets you get comfortable with that bass/keys groove. You get comfortable with it (like being single) and then you hear the screams (someone touched you), because remember, if someone touched you, you'd probably just scream.

i LOVE this song. its amazing. i love the black cab presents where jim james and co sang while driving. was just amazed.

i love all of jim james's work, and think evil urges (and the switch and havoc fans getting pissed) was a great move by jim. love the motown influences he credits.

Also, the first verse is wrong. It is "challenged me" not caressed.