Reviews for No Surprises Lyrics

Its an absolutely,beautiful,song.Sometimes i can listen to it and it makes me happy,other times it can be kind of depressing,but thats the thing with music,it all depends on your mood and feeling at the time of listening.

House began a detox program at Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital to get the vicodin out of his system in an attempt to control his hallucinations. Before he was moved to another ward , he had a severe treatment , causing him pain . That's why it says " get me outta here " because the first episode from season 6 starts with this song , showing House in pain , trying to get out .

todo texto lírico es polisémico, y lo entretenido de cualquier intento interpretativo se supedita a la multiplicación de sentidos que genera la canción. si, la posibilidad de la historia de un suicidio es válida, creo, a sí como otras...que se evidencian en un clima de infinita desesperación, locura, frustración. ni siquiera ésta genial canción de radiohead es melancólica, es brutalmente descriptiva de un viaje existencial sin proyecto. una joya pop.

I'll refrain from arguing further, but one thing to take into consideration is that there's a wikipedia page about this song in which the meaning of the song is discussed, and nothing is said about suicide.

Its totally about suicide IMO.

The first part is him talking about his job, and how he can't stand just toiling away. Then when he says "bring down the government" he is talking to someone else. Either someone specific, or whoever will listen. Its kind of a "last wish" type plea. Sort of like if you were gonna off yourself, and you asked "stay happy". Thats what hes saying there.

Handshake of or "some" carbon-monoxide, thats how hes gonna do it. With no alarms and no surprises - its a pretty clean way to commit suicide. Theres not gonna be a gun shot, theres not gonna be a mess to clean up afterwords...And maybe even "no surprises" because when he finally does it, nobody is going to be surprised. The person in the song is someone that just lives "a quiet life"...it'll make the paper, people will say "what a shame", but there will be "no surprises".

His final fit, his final bellyache...obvious.

I imagine "such a pretty house, pretty garden" would be a last thought when committing suicide.

The last part "get me outta here" could be that last few seconds of panic, the whole "what if I made a mistake!" mentality...then in the last line, it doesn't say "get me outta here", so, I assume, it was too late to have that last second of panic. He died.

Again, its all a matter of interpretation.

I agree. I don't think it's much of a disdain, but maybe him pointing out the futility of it. It's like a mathematician working on a problem he can't solve. Obviously, he's passionate about his work, which at the moment, is frustrating because he can't seem to arrive at a suitable answer. He's employed every method and procedure he can think of, but still, nothing. I think that analogy works fairly well...And yeah, I think that the song transcends conformity/noncomformity. It encompasses the life of the drug addict, the artist, and the slacker as much as it does the stay at home mom and her 9-5 husband. I think all people look for answers, for ways to improve the monotony of life, and all people, wind up finding nothing. As far as the great wall of China stuff...I don't understand the relevance but that's fuckin funny. And the Niagara Falls thing, I'm pretty sure I said that exact thing to someone last week. The point is, I think you're right (the person who posted) about 'life having only the meaning you give it'. But with that said, if you give it no meaning, then that's precisely what it is: Meaningless. So what's the point of bothering in the first place? Which, I think, is what he's saying.

In response to the previous review, I don't think Yorke betrays any disdain for the "common life," or that it's even fair to say that he's tacitly criticizing the "dull conformist." If you ask me--and this is an interpretation that I believe is in line with his personal philosophy--he is painting a picture of the tragic conundrum of life in a modern capitalist society, wherein an individual has plenty of material wealth but is drowning under the weight of his own spiritual void. Conformist or non-conformist, I'd wager that nearly all of us living in such a world feel that way at one point or another, and that's what makes this song great; Yorke's insight isn't limited to the "conformist." That is a ridiculous distinction. Besides, almost everyone "conforms" in one way or another.

its not about suicide!!! "a handshake, some carbon monoxide" is the correct lyric. Its an ironic song about the simple life that many choose, it has nothing to do with suicide.

please correct the lyrics.

You get the sense with Yorke that he has great insight into the pitfalls of a common life, even disdain for it. Take this song, add it to Yorke's solo "Analyse" and his duet with Bjork "I've Seen It All" and you get this impression very clearly. The dull conformist who is afraid to follow an original path that would involve risk and "surprises." The average person who strives for success for decades then reaches a point where they realize "you've traveled far; what have you found?" And the cocooned person who responds to the questions: "Have you seen Niagara Falls?" With "I've seen water. It's water. That's all." "Have you seen the Great Wall of China?" "All walls are great if the roof doesn't fall."
Where is Yorke’s insight into the mid-life slacker who has traveled the world without ever buying a home or forming a career? What about the hugely successful artist, sneering at all the “ant people” while getting lost in drugs, trying to feel alive and engaged all the time? I would love to hear a song of his that shows the same insight into the plight of the non-conformist.
In the end I think you will find, that no matter what path you take, life only has the meaning you give it.

I think Matthew Santos' "Daughter of the Sun" is a great supplement to Yorke's viewpoint. "Is this how you'd like to live your story?... Your life is just as you take it, what you make it, and nothing more." It addresses the emptiness many people find themselves in at some point, but goes beyond that to present a way out.

As a middle class person, this song oozed disillusionment and futility to me. Driving around suburbia, looking at the homogeniety of it all (Such a pretty house and such a pretty garden, I saw the source of the disillusioned, resigned tone. Its so bland, so generic, and ultimately unfulfilling.
Perhaps Yorke is looking towards the trends developing in the Western world: The 'urban sprawl culture' in which a life is characterised by a brick and tile home, a double garage and a 1/6th acre block of land in suburbia.
Furthermore, I can't help but sense a deep melancholy, associated with a lack of identity and cohesion. The line (Bring down the government) is in such a resigned tone, as if to suggest the helplessness of an alienated public and the inability of a faceless individual to change the monotony and negative effects of a capitalist regime.
Probably one of the greatest songs I've come across, bar none.

I just think the song is about living life in general. No matter what you're doing, it all kinda just becomes repetitive habit that really doesn't mean anything. Whether you're trying to 'make a difference' or if you're just wasting away. What I landfill line is that we all fill up our hearts with these ingenuous, wasted, and cliche emotions. With trash basically. The next few parts..a little more ambiguous. If I had to guess, it's him singing from the perspective of someone who is struggling with being an active participant in society (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), or by just becoming comfortably numb to his surroundings. It seems like he opts for the numb choice, (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, Silence, silence). So basically what I think he's saying is he just can't stand it anymore, he's tired of caring about trash and things that ultimately don't matter, while the song itself is basically his renunciation of it. What I imagine is a person just getting so fed up and just throwing up their hands and saying 'you know what, this bothers me so much, and there's really nothing I can do about it, so I just can't care anymore or else I'm fucked',(This is my final fit, my final bellyanchuet). I dunno. It makes sense to me...As for the rest, I think it's kinda self explanatory sooooooooooo stop.

I do believe this song is about suicide. At first, it's talking about all of life's troubles: a heart full of worthless things, a typical 9 to 5 job, being screwed over by the government, etc...

Then he talks about putting an end to all of it; "a handshake of carbon monoxide" could mean suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning which would be achieved by running a car's engine and redirecting the exhaust back inside the car.

After he kills himself, there will be "no alarms and no surprises." This, to me, means no more alarm clocks (or no alarming events), no more negative surprises of any kind, and he will finally be surrounded by his much sought after "silence."
"This is my final fit, my final bellyache" signifies the end of his life.

"Such a pretty house and such a pretty garden" describes the ideal way of living according to society. I feel it is what he has been working his whole life to achieve, but in the end he realizes it's just a false sense of happiness. The way his life must be to achieve this false happiness is so destructive and depressing that he, in turn, destroys himself. Kind of ironic, as with most things in society.

The music played reminds me of a serene dream, or right before you fall asleep. I believe it is very fitting for the song, because it also reminds me of drifting off into eternal sleep / death.

Overall, this is possibly my favorite Radiohead song. It's so beautiful in every way possible, even if the truth behind it can be ugly. Radiohead knows exactly how to put feelings and thoughts into words / music that can be so extremely relatable, it's almost frightening.

wow this song really hits my head i love its feeling of madness and hate of how everyday its the same GAY SHIT WITH SOME STUPID SURPRISES. sucks being 16 tomorrow i go 2 fuckin school life sucks!

L O N G L I V E R A D I O H E A D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This song caused me to re-evaluate my life. I had been in a job for 13 years which I subsequently left and did my social work training. That was 5 years ago, now I work in a frontline social work team for children, I'm happy and fulfilled. Every day is full of surprises and I almost always go home feeling like I have made a positive difference.

I don't really listen to the song anymore, I doesn't have the same cache that it did, but I think that's a good thing.

I agree with one of the posters. Interpretation is subjective and that it is up to the individual

I sort of agree with other posters, though. I find it ironic how the heart fills like a landfill, b/c when I think of a heart, I think of something that should be filled with spiritual things and not the material things that go into a landfill (i.e. filling the hole in your heart with material crap)

I somehow think of that pre-packaged case of school supplies that the school hands out. Those always annoyed me b/c they were crap quality, ugly, and average. I would have rather gone out and bought my own.
Love the song and that is the main point.