"No Surprises" was released as the third and final single from the group's 1997 album OK Computer. It was accompanied by a music video that featured a single shot of singer Thom Yorke's head in...
A heart that's full up like a landfill
A job that slowly kills you
Bruises that won't heal
You look so tired-unhappy
Bring down the government
They don't, they don't speak for us
I'll take a quiet life
A handshake of carbon monoxide
With no alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
Silent, silent
This is my final fit
My final bellyache
With no alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises please
Such a pretty house
And such a pretty garden
No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises please
A job that slowly kills you
Bruises that won't heal
You look so tired-unhappy
Bring down the government
They don't, they don't speak for us
I'll take a quiet life
A handshake of carbon monoxide
With no alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
Silent, silent
This is my final fit
My final bellyache
With no alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises please
Such a pretty house
And such a pretty garden
No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises please
Lyrics submitted by piesupreme, edited by Yazardshir
Track duration: 03:49
"No Surprises" as written by Thomas Yorke, Edward John O'brien, Colin Charles Greenwood, Jonathan Richard Guy Greenwood, Philip Selway
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I'd like to share with you an interpretation which unfortunately doesn't belong to me, originally written in spanish, let's see how good i'm at translating it.
Interpretation:
"We are born embedded within a social structure already assembled, whose axis is a system of objects around us, it seduces us withits goodness completely perishable. It's so distressing to realize that our very unique and finite existence is being aimed towards achieving goals so superficial such us living easily and comfortably. Does it really worth getting our life expectancy higher than ever if our steps in this world is determined by consumist intracendence?
Eagerness to carry on a quietly life without surprises in a pretty house with a pretty garden is the fair reward this social, political and economic organization called capitalism reward us for our perfect behaviour? for being so obedient and disciplined people?. Each morning of each day, an army of workers gain streets to put at work a huge and anonymous machinery that seems to be runned by a non visible head. (because the key is to be unseen)
The ideas verted in No Surprises widely exceed the politics of any particular country and reflex and perfectly describes the way societies behave. It's a picture of every day life."
Argie88
This song is incredibly beautiful and its heartbreaking when he says "what a pretty house and what a pretty garden" you just know he's noticing it because he's chosen to leave it.
-"A heart that's full up like a landfill", I believe means unexpressed feelings (held in by this socially conformative life)
-"A job that slowly kills you" A job where everything is so scheduled and unsurprising that it takes the remaining shreds of excitement away in his new life, slowly taking away what makes it a "life"
-"Bruises that won't heal" Perhaps the narrator was hurt in ways before their adult life, but isn't willing to show that (they seem to be saying that these "visible" bruises aren't going away, a problem) because that would distance themself from their friends and "ruin" their life.
-"You look so tired, unhappy" This person, realising the hell of this life of no surprises, is now looking at their personality, thinking they have become something so different from what they were originally
"Bring down the government, they don't speak for us" This was one of the many slogans that youth in the 1990's would be hearing, and Yorke probably included this as something of a reflection on the life of an adult, living in this time, who has a life of boredom.
-"I'll take a quiet life, a handshake, some carbon monoxide" The person, I think, attempts to go back to his original way of believing that this life is perfect with the first phrase. With the second, "a handshake", he refers, I believe to deception. There a lot of images of handshakes in the OK COMPUTER album, which Yorke chose as symbols due to the way they are intended to show trust and truthfulness, but a person can easily "go behind" a handshake. The line, in this song, refers to the way he deceives people into thinking he sees the type of life they all share as perfect, like them, despite him having seen the hell it really is. He gives up hope in the last line, "some carbon monoxide", and contemplates suicide.
"No alarms and no surprises x3, Silent" In the chorus, he is either committing or imagining a death through carbon monoxide poisoning, which would supposedly be slow and peaceful. Considering that, he sees the irony in that he is trying to escape the life of no surprises, but this method of suicide is a perfect symbol of the way that the life itself is slowly killing him.
-"This is my final fit, my final bellyache" This may refer to the earlier line "bruises that won't heal", he has experienced "fits" and "bellyaches", possibly metaphors for the feelings of sadness, and these will both be felt physically in his death.
-"No alarms and no surprises x3, Please" The narrator he also realises that his death will bring no alarms and no surprises ever, so perhaps being dead would be no different to the way he lives (this also goes well with the line "a job that slowly kills you")
-The instrumental solo is a build-up to the climax, and I belief is symbolic of him dying.
-"Such a pretty house, and such a pretty garden" He sees his life flash before his eyes, and thinks about the life of no surprises, about how it may have seemed attractive and "pretty" at first, but it's really all meaningless.
-"No alarms and no surprises x3, please" Having seen his entire life, the narrator now begins to die, and the song ends with an empty, mystical feeling, showing his death.
But for me This is IT! Thank you
He's tired of life so he go to a peaceful place (death, actually I think he means heaven - because of the beautiful house and garden), and the music just like describing the joy and the relief of accepting that you did your part in the world. So emotional (it's waking feelings), great song!