Song Meaning

These lyrics paint a curious picture of an apartment with a secret life, deliberately ignored by its inhabitants. The repeated refrain, "What our apartment does / When we're not around does not concern us," establishes a willful denial. It's a subtle, unsettling tension between the obvious and the unacknowledged. The central figure, "the horrible aesthete," adds a layer of complex self-perception. Despite her appreciation for beauty, she "hates her ugly feet," creating an internal conflict. Yet, in a surprising twist, she "invites everyone to see" them, suggesting a defiant vulnerability or a desperate need for acceptance that clashes with her self-loathing. The most striking craft element is the vivid personification of the apartment's objects when the aesthete is absent. Her "clock enforces its conceit," her "mirror checks out other things," and her "books they chat so expertly." This creates a whimsical yet slightly eerie sense that the space truly comes alive, finding its own order and "ease" only when its owner is gone. The progression from "Illuminate the obvious" to "Simulate" and finally "Eliminate the obvious" highlights a growing suppression of this hidden reality. The apartment's brief freedom, where "things get all together neat," ends abruptly "At the clicking of the key." The lyrics effectively make us wonder what truths we choose to ignore in our own lives and spaces, and what happens when we're not looking.