Panda Bears lyrics have all seemed like cryptic alchemical formulas to me. He is consistently taking something lowly like trash, then alluding to something more precious. I've seen it in numerous past songs, but it is also all over this EP. Part of the math for example:
You're an effigy
And a wrapper in a plastic bag
We're all dieties
Washed up in a sewage freebird
Where was I
A flowered shrine
A cussing bum
A crystal shine
In a pool of scum
A dream so real
That your vision's gone
An animal
A mineral
A vegetable
An abacus
Part of the Sophia myth of the gnostics, is that you have to look for her in the dung heap. That the divine is constantly right before your eyes in the unlikeliest places as the trash and waste. This was a huge theme in the ideas of the alchemist, turning shit into gold. Like the scene from holy mountain where the guy turns his own shit into gold. Also the animal, mineral vegetable part is on this old alchemical illustration I came across in a book I have,
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pqwP11L0Cgo/ ... %2529.jpeg
Nod to the folks touches on these ideas as well:
Nod to the folks
Keeping us close
Up to the gods
Evens and odds
Refining ore
Anyone's joke
Wriggling to be
Free from the yoke
Here we have mention of parents (parental conditioning), mention of gods, refining ore (turning shit to gold), and then struggling to break from the the yoke (struggling to break outside of parental conditionings or just wordy conditionings all together or human condition).
Hid from the light
In a garbage can
Another reference to finding divinity within the trash. There are also more references in this song.
Take a chance
And try to
Break away
Another reference of trying to break free in sunset. Also the lyrics to lying in the grass really allude to these ideas. Here are some lyrics I pulled from lying in the grass:
There’s a way through fogs as long as there’s a light to discover (it)
It’s a gut that fears all things unknown
and a link within the brain you know
Not a shame to say the instincts there
but a virtue to deny the bait
Know the cause and move to gauze and deftly
tratar o sangue (clean up the blood)
In the law there’s room to move
as there’s a need to uncover it
As a choker sucks, let’s sift through the muck and lift this dingy veil
same old tale
Get mixed in this crippling fixture
Try and approach the hidden mixtures
Get mixed in this crippling fixture
Try and approach the hidden picture it
For a misplaced stash, let’s search through the trash and right this ignorant lurch
wicked urge
Like a twisted stick, let’s dig through the sick and find a level space
Lots of ideas about moving past the minds instincts or conditionings, also finding light through fog and illusion/ hidden picture/ hidden mixtures, digging through the trash/ sick. These are all blatant alchemical ideas. Also I remember Noah talking about PBMGR and the grim reaper as the concept of an agent of change, transmutation and not literal death. The whole concept of that album plays out like that, going through life struggles, going through a mental break down, and being reborn into clarity through tragedy. Also take pills can be seen through this same lens. It's a song about him realizing he doesn't need to be on anti-depressants anymore, that he is stronger without them, he's stronger if he faces his mind, and learns how to transmute the pain himself.
I guess what I'm trying to say with all of this, is that his lyrics are often very cryptic and can often seem random or nonsensical, or allude to so many different things. However, with some understanding of alchemical or mythological symbolism, the lyrics start to make sense and take on meaning. I remember also reading that Noah majored in religion, which leads me to believe that, though he may not be dogmatically religious, the symbolism of myth and religion mean something very personal to him. Anyway, would love to discuss this more!
