Genius Next Door

"Some said the local lake had been enchanted Others said it must have been the weather The neighbors were trying to keep it quiet But I swear that I could hear the laughter So they joke, and they nicknamed it "the porridge" Cause over night that lake had turned as thick as butter"

My interpretation of this song is that the lake is a metaphor for worldly problems, or more specifically:the problems that the youth faces today(drug/alcohol addiction? teen depression? violence? disease?risky behavior?), that society chooses to ignore and in doing so the problems accumulate thus turning the lake thick as butter. They continue to downplay its importance and take the problems lightly.

"But the local kids would still go swimming, drinking Saying that to them it doesn't matter"

The kids probably know these problems are harmful to them but still choose to play with it because like society,they also choose to downplay its importance, possibly for their own sanity since these are problems that they must face. Spektor seems to add "drinking" as a sidenote to possibly signify that the alcohol helps them to cope with these problems. Or maybe it is used as a metaphor to show that the teens are trying to force themselves to be apathetic/ignorant/blissfully unaware of the "porridge" and possibly forget that it is harmful to them.

"If you just hold in your breath 'Til you come back up in full Hold in your breath 'Til you've thought it through You fool"

I am not exactly sure how to interpret this just yet but I think it might be Spektor warning people that since it is too late to get rid of the "porridge" the best thing they can do is hold their breaths and dont try to jump into it and just think it through before you do something that will harm you.

"The genius next door was bussing tables Wiping clean the keptchup bottle labels Getting high and mumbling German fables Didn't care as long as he was able To strip his clothes off by the dumpsters At night while every one was sleeping And wade midway into that porridge Just him and the secret he was keeping"

The genius next door probably represents an innocent intelligent youth, a "neighbor" who no one would expect. His intelligence is wasted by "wiping clean the ketchup bottle labels." He is unfulfilled and the world fails to recognize his talents. He gets high and even in his lack of sobriety he is still able to recall literature further emphasizing his intelligence. His unfulfillment causes him to willingly make himself vulnerable to the "porridge" by stripping his clothes. His secret could be his misery, or whatever made him miserable. Another guess is that his depression caused him to get into heavy drugs and he went into the "porridge" every night, only this time he overdosed and died (or it could have been on purpose). So his secret may have been his drug addiction.

"Hold in your breath 'Til you thought it through You foolish child"

Spektor seems to be directing her warning to this genius, but this time it seems to be more of a chastisement. She elongates the word fool and then seems to add on "-ish child" as an afterthought and there appears to be anger/dissapointment in her voice. It is almost as if she is warning a group of people, trying not to point out anyone specific and then after a while she is overcome with so much anger/dissapointment that shes like "screw it, im talking about you foolish child" haha. She calls the genius a fool (paraodox) signifying that algthough he had a lot of intelligence he was not smart enough to avoid his fate of "drowning in the porridge." He did not think logically and he was childish, foolish, and immature in his actions.

"In the morning the film crews start arriving With donuts, coffee and reporters The kids were waking up, hung over The neighbors were starting up their cars The garbageman were emptying the dumpsters Atheists were praying full of sarcasm And the genius next door was sleeping Dreaming that the antidote is orgasm"

Here it seems as if no one cares about the death of a "neighbor" who was also a genius. The film crews are basically distracted by coffee and donuts, people are going about their daily lives, and the atheists use this as an opportuniy to mock faith, basically saying there is no God because he did not prevent the genius from "sleeping"(dying). About the antidote being an orgasm I might be stretching it a little but ill say it anyway: an orgasm, although there are other ways, is produced with another person. So maybe an orgasm is a metaphor for love and a human connection. The genius was alone and ignored in this song and if he was given some happiness and attention he would not have had to wade into the porridge. So maybe he wished the world were a little nicer to him or just nicer in general and not as apathetic and ignorant to all the problems that are right under their noses.

I probably could have explained all this a little better but I hope this at least makes a little bit of sense im kind of just rambling :p