Has Been

Song Meaning

The lyrics open with a speaker grappling with nostalgia and the shifting sands of relevance, questioning past trends like "hip or was It groovy." This quickly gives way to a jaded, almost dismissive tone, labeling much of it "yuk." There's a sense of detachment, as if observing life's absurdities from a distance. A core tension emerges between genuine creation and superficial conformity. The speaker observes children "building not with bricks / But with what they had been told was / Advantageous," suggesting a loss of authentic expression in favor of prescribed notions of value. This extends to a critique of societal priorities, where "common sense of course will not prevail" and people face jail for "fear of unemployment," highlighting a deeply flawed system where fundamental logic is inverted. One striking craft element is the repeated, subtly incorrect mathematical equations ("if 3 and 2 were multiplied they'd equal 6" and "if two and two were joined / By two they'd equal 6"). This isn't just a quirky detail; it powerfully underscores the lyrics' pervasive sense that things don't add up, that fundamental truths are distorted or miscalculated in the world the speaker observes. This subtle structural choice reinforces the pervasive feeling of illogic and disillusionment. These lyrics hit hard because they articulate a pervasive anxiety about being deemed obsolete or irrelevant—a "Has been." The speaker's observations, from the mimetic parrot that "listens close then follows suit" to the stark realization of "no stars. only your eyeballs," paint a picture of a world where genuine wonder is replaced by stark reality and unthinking judgment. The conversational, almost stream-of-consciousness delivery makes these critiques feel less like a lecture and more like a shared, weary sigh of recognition.