At Your Funeral
Saves the Day Lyrics

Saves the Day's "At Your Funeral" is a melancholic song with lyrics that communicate an intense sadness and resentment towards someone who has chosen a self-destructive path. The song begins with a statement that it will become the anthem of the singer's "underground", which could mean the community of people who also feel lost or disconnected from mainstream society or possibly the innermost, darker part of the singer's self. The verses that follow paint a picture of a person, who is lost in addiction and can't escape it. The imagery of someone getting high in the backroom while the singer is considering whether they'd be able to escape a flood is powerful because it suggests that regardless of external circumstances, the person is trapped in their self-destructive behavior.

The chorus, which repeats twice in the song, sets up the theme of the funeral requiem. The singer mourns the loss of the person they once knew and the inevitable end that awaits them. The second verse is notable for its vivid imagery. The singer says they would offer their hand to help this person, but they know that it is futile, almost as if their friend has already drowned in the addiction. The singer imagines the aftermath of their friend's death, where they are consumed by their own mourning and become a symbol of the feast that celebrates the end, the pig with an apple in its mouth.

The song ultimately speaks to the deep sorrow that comes with losing someone to addiction and how powerless it can make those left behind. The repeated lines in the chorus emphasize the sense of inevitable loss and the acknowledgement that the singer will have to mourn this person they care about deeply. The song ends with a final statement of the singer's inability to act, underscoring the sense that addiction causes its victims to be unreachable.