Something Good

On their soundcloud, Alt-J said:

"Something Good is a song that documents the death of a matador.

This gruesome event acts as an analogy for the slow mending of a broken heart through fun distractions.

The death of the matador represents the end of the crush."

I think it is describing a successful recovery from drug addiction. Whatever that 'something good' was was a motivator for the person. It helps him to forget about the nagging, incessant siren song of the drug(s) that most recovered users has to face for the rest of their lives.

The matador, like the user, plays a risky game (blood sport) that they ultimately love. The roar of the crowd, like the thrill of the high, is part of the draw for the matador. Once the user is fully clean, his matador side of him is 'dragged from view'

Of course all song meanings are relevant to each listener in different ways...but to me, it does sound like a song about ending an addiction. To heroin probably (get high, hit the floor... ie. nod out). The blood sport is shooting up, the matador is the user. It takes something good to take your mind away from an addiction..because it consumes the mind.

I don't see why drugs have to mentioned as part of the meaning, just because the words "get high" are part of it.

My interpritation of the song is that of someone looking for something or someone to help them get over a tragic event of their life. Such as the death of a loved one, end of a relationship or perhaps something very improtant to them being taken away.

A more in depth analysis

"blood sport" could refer to the feelings that the aformentioned tragic event has rid them of, for example they felt exhileratd while playing with their father.

The line "now that I am clean" (now that the tragic event has passed the feelings of happieness, exitement and exhilleration are no more)

But it's what we get out of a song that matters, it could just be one word in the right note that gives a song it's meaning, but this is just my interpritation of the song as I heard it at 3am.

The crowd= chaotic world with no moral purposes The Matador= a person who has becomed someone else beside what he really is due to the crowds roar( in simple way, when you do something in need of attention). The Bull= Innocence Conclusion= Matador bows at The Crowd at expense of The (poor thing) Bull. You may look appreciated superficially but it leaves a MARK into your inner self. You cannot runaway of your "inside" conflicts, maybe you will forget for a short period but you will carry them with you forever. So what good camed out of this whole sensless "sport"?

What if the other person, I would assume a girl, is the bull. I think this song is about a guy, that acts like a matador, and everybody knows it. As always happens, the bull is the victim, but not this time because the matador felt in love. Therefore the matador is dead, and now that he's clean from the show he used to be part of, he needs to find something good to forget about her.

I think the song is most definitely about heroin addiction and recovery. The different take I have on it is the matador represents the drug, and the addict is actually the bull. The lyrics are from the perspective of a bull who is playing a far more dangerous game than the matador, and takes each match as far as the estocada, before he defeats the matador to fight another day. Hence the significance of the bleats along side and even before the roars..

This is super messy and more of a loose interpretation: "Matador, estocada, you're my blood sport" and "Get high, hit the floor before you go" leads me to believe that the Matador is a metaphor for the unstable love or relationship the narrator had with another person- this would also be comparing that relationship to a dangerous game with the "high before you hit the floor" being the rush of being in love before the inevitable heartbreak.

Because the crowd generally cheers for the matador to win and the bull (the narrator) is more a victim, "Forty-eight thousand seats bleats and roars for my memories of you" the crowd would be the effort and determination to keep that relationship alive and the bleats which I assume come from the bull would be the strain the relationship has put on him.

"Now that I'm fully clean the matador is no more and is dragged from view" makes me believe that the relationship failed with the "clean" relating the the high of being in love I mentioned earlier.

The narrator is the bull, but killing the Matador is not really a victory because it was only done for his survival. The main line "Something good, oh something good tonight will make me forget about you for now" is more the narrator trying to find distraction in the aftermath of losing that love.

My favourite song on the album. In my mind it's a pretty self-explanatory song about wanting to take something to erase the memory of a lover who hurt him but who he can't let go of.

The whole album is money.

Specifically, I think the song is about love, but it really can be about any instance where a person tries to deal with loss, by trying to find a replacement, rather than simply eliminate or manage the degree of need.

The song begins where it leaves off. The two lines are almost identical, signifying the strategy and process of trying to forget a previous lover by quickly taking on and running towards another, when it is love which seemingly injured or almost injured him in the first place. Dude is probably a sex addict as evidenced by the irrational nature of the song. But, then again, maybe he simply likes knowing lots of people. Maybe he has abandonment issues and is addicted to connecting with people and yearns for a sense of connection.

This represents the gamble and the sport in it all: the "bloodsport". They get high(sex/connect/submit), then get down(withdrawal for that feeling), the "crowd"(his conscious) screams(for more), and he move is forced to move on(don't know why we do this, we just do).