Noise Noise

Song Meaning

The lyrics paint a picture of someone feeling unseen and unheard, pushing back against external judgment with a defiant "What's it to you?" The narrator starts by describing themselves as "a face in the wall," then "crawling out of the ground," suggesting a emergence from obscurity or a state of being overlooked. This initial vulnerability shifts to a more confrontational stance, particularly in contrast to how others "cry / Like a leaf in the fall," while the narrator claims to "cry in the sky." This sets up a core tension between passive suffering and an active, perhaps even cosmic, expression of pain. The central conflict seems to stem from the "noise noise" that others create or impose, which the narrator likens to "a plaque on the wall" and later "mud on the wall." This "noise" represents external pressures, judgments, or perhaps the destructive actions of others, particularly the "boys" who "drown" and "play war like marines." The narrator feels this "noise" intrusively, yet maintains a distance, implying a resilience or a different way of processing their experiences, even as they acknowledge a shared human tendency towards "ghost time" and uncertainty. A striking element is the recurring imagery of walls and the contrast between falling and rising. The narrator moves from being "in the wall" to "out of the ground," and later describes things "going down" like a "screw in the wall." This juxtaposition of being stuck or falling versus breaking free or rising suggests a struggle for agency. The repeated question "What's it to you?" acts as a shield, deflecting intrusive scrutiny and asserting personal boundaries against the pervasive "noise." Ultimately, the effectiveness of these lyrics lies in their raw, almost visceral portrayal of feeling alienated and defiant. The simple, repeated question, coupled with stark, sometimes unsettling imagery like "boys drown" and "ghost time," creates a potent emotional landscape. It's the sound of someone asserting their right to feel and exist, even amidst a chaotic and judgmental world, finding their own way to "cry in the sky" against the insistent "noise noise."