This past month, I've found myself enjoying Goldfrapp more and more. Allison's smooth, milky vocals mixed with Gregory's lush electronic beats have made the duo's music truly unique and unforgettable. Being a zealous fan of vinyl, ive recently purchased the group's freshman album Felt Mountain, a beautiful cinematic work of art. One such song, Utopia, is notable for its deep lyrics and nostalogic soundscape.
Below are lyrics for Utopia:
It’s a strange day
No colours or shapes
No sound in my head
I forget who I am
When I’m with you
There’s no reason
There’s no sense
I’m not supposed to feel
I forget who I am
I forget
Fascist baby
Utopia, utopia
My dog needs new ears
Make his eyes see forever
Make him live like me
Again and again
I’m wired to the world
That’s how I know everything
I’m super brain
That’s how they made me
And here's a user's take on the song's meaning, courtesy of SongMeanings, which I think sums up the irony of the song very clearly:
"What a beautiful but to me, sinister song. It may well be about genetic engineering, etc, but from the first, I've always imagined another interpretation....
I imagine that this song is being sung by a woman, who, for whatever reason, was kidnapped long ago as a child, taken to a laboratory along with other children and experimented upon. The scientists' work concerned fusing a human's brain into a transglobal network (internet) that taps into all connected systems be they computer, telecommunications, surveilance or otherwise. To handle and disseminate this mass of information, the human brain was chosen as the interface between the network and the enduser (the scientists and whoever they are working for - I imagine some Big Brother (fascist) type state organisation). They were successful in making her part of the system. However, in order to cut out distractions and limit insight into what she was, she has been made to lose most of her sense of self and been told/modified to believe that she is not supposed to feel or sense anything outside the world of her intended function, thus this vagueness over what she sees, feels and remembers (as indicated by the lyrics in the first part of the song). Her function is to propogate Utopia through her job as the Fascist's eyes and ears to the world. However, there is one aspect from her previous life that they have failed to erradicate and that was her love for her childhood pet dog. She remembers the joy, love and togetherness of their relationship and so she speaks of her desire to bring that into her present, for her not to be alone but have again in some sense, that companionship and love she remembers, eternally. Perhaps the saddest lines are the last ones, where she indicates that she does actually know what she is and what was done to her. I get such a feeling of resignation and powerlessness from those lines.
As I listen to the song, I visualise her, the screen filled with her sleeping face, as if dreaming. Then as the song progresses, the camera pans out and by the latter part of the song, you see that she is in fact immobile, in a perspex box, wires trailing from her head and machinery all around her manned by scientists as they continue their work, oblivious of her thoughts and feelings.
It is ironic to me how the song sings of Utopia yet the for the subject and for the world, living in a fascist, Big Brother-type state it is in fact a Distopia......."
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