The Sea Is a Good Place to Think of the Future
Los Campesinos! Lyrics

I grabbed hold of her wrist and my hand closed from tip to tip
I held her wrist tightly as I tried to convince her to stop her extreme diet.

I said, you've taken the diet too far, you've got to let it slip
I expressed worry that her diet has become too extreme and she should relax it.

But she's not eating again, she's not eating again
She continues to deprive herself of food.

I ask her to speak French and then I need her to translate
I ask her to speak in a fancy way, but then require her to explain it in simpler terms.

I get the feeling she makes the meaning more significant
I sense that she is adding greater importance to what she says than is necessary.

She was always far too pretty for me
I never felt good enough for her because of her beauty.

To believe in a single word she said, believe a word she said
I had a hard time trusting anything she said due to her beauty.

At fourteen her mother died in a routine operation
Her mother passed away during a basic surgery when she was a teenager.

From allergic reaction to a general anesthetic
The cause of her mother's death was an allergic reaction to anesthesia.

Spent the rest of her teens experimenting with prescriptions
She spent the remainder of her teenage years trying different medications, hoping to understand more than the doctors.

In a futile attempt to know more than the doctors
She wanted to gain a greater understanding of medicine than the professionals she encountered.

She said, one day to leave her
She spoke of a desire to be left alone.

Sand up to her shoulders waiting for the tide
She imagined herself standing in the ocean with the waves moving past her shoulders.

To drag her to the ocean, to another sea's shore
She hoped to be carried away by the current to a new part of the ocean.

This thing hurts like hell but what did you expect
Her current pain was to be expected given the circumstances.

And all you can hear is the sound of your own heart
In the midst of the ocean, all you can hear is the rhythm of your own heartbeat.

And all you can feel is your lungs flood and the blood course
As you stand in the sea, you can feel your lungs and blood reacting to the waves around you.

But oh I can see five hundred years dead set ahead of me
The future is clear to me for the next five centuries.

Five hundred behind, a thousand years in perfect symmetry
The past fifty decades align perfectly with the next millennium.

Best known left wrist right finger through all the southern states
Her fame is widespread across the southern United States.

On every video games machine they call her triple A
She is considered the top-ranked player on every gaming console.

There were racists on the radio trying to give up smoking
On the radio, bigots were discussing quitting smoking.

The chat show host, he joked
The talk show host made a jest.

You have to wait for the government program
Receiving help from the government requires a great deal of waiting.

You talk about your politics
You speak about your political beliefs.

And I wonder if you could be one of them
I contemplate whether or not you align with a certain political group.

But you could never kiss a Tory boy
You could never be romantically involved with a conservative man.

Without wanting to cut off your tongue again
The idea of kissing someone on the political right sickens you.

A good place to look to the future is
A seashore is an ideal location for considering what is to come.

When you are sat at the sea
Sitting next to the ocean provides an advantageous setting for introspection.

With the salt up to your ankles
Having the water reach your ankles adds to the meditative experience.

And a view of the end of the pier
Looking out at the farthest point of the pier enhances the atmosphere.

You may look down at your model's feet
You glance towards the feet of a nearby figurine.

And wish that you'd just float away
You hope to just float away with the waves.

And the weather here is overcast
The current climate is clouded and dark.

And the sea is the same shade of gray
The ocean shares the same dreary hue as the sky above.

So the landscape before you looks just like the edge of the world
The view in front of you appears to be where the earth ends.

But to the left side and the right side
Surrounding the area are attractions for a mini-golf course.

Either way is a crazy golf course
No matter which side you look, there is a miniature golf course present.

The sea is a good place to think of the future
The ocean provides an environment appropriate for considering what is to come.

A thousand years no getting rid of me
I will be present for the next millennium.

A thousand years in perfect symmetry
The next thousand years will align perfectly with the last millennium.