The Knife won a Swedish Grammy award for best pop group of the year 2003, but they boycotted the ceremony by sending two representatives of another artist group dressed as gorillas with the number 50 written on their costumes, apparently as a protest against male dominance within the music industry. Their album Deep Cuts was also nominated for a Swedish Grammy as the best record of the year 2003, although that award went to The Cardigans. It was also in 2003 that the The Knife was featured as Artist of the Week at HitQuarters, which helped them gain greater attention in the worldwide music community.
The group became prominent in late 2005 when José González covered "Heartbeats" on his 2003 album, Veneer. The song was used by Sony in a commercial for Bravia television sets, and released as a single in early 2006. The group commented on this in a Dagens Nyheter article, claiming that Sony paid a large sum of money to use the song. In view of the group's left-wing views and non-commercial philosophy, they excused this transaction on the basis that the money was needed to establish their record company.
The Knife's song "We Share Our Mothers' Health" from their album Silent Shout was featured by the iTunes store as a free song of the week in late 2006. This song was also featured in the ABC series Ugly Betty, as well as an episode of CSI: NY.
In February 2005, the Knife performed their first ever live show at London's ICA, appearing with Rex the Dog and playing in front of a video created for the event by artist/film maker Andreas Nilsson. With this one live performance The Knife embarked on a major tour in 2006, and after selling out shows worldwide, a DVD of the tour was announced. The DVD was released in Sweden on November 8, 2006, and is titled Silent Shout: An Audio Visual Experience.
Silent Shout was named the best album of 2006 by Pitchfork Media.
At the Swedish Grammy awards in January 2007, The Knife won in all six categories they were nominated in: Composer of the Year, Music DVD of the Year, Producer of the Year, Pop Group of the Year, Album of the Year and Artist of the Year. Again, they did not attend the award ceremony.
In 2009 the duo wrote the opera Tomorrow, In a Year, celebrating 150 years since Darwin's Origin of Species was published.
In April 2013 they released the album Shaking The Habitual.
In 2014 Karin Dreijer revealed in a interview that the Knife were calling it quits for good. "When we finish the tour now in November we will close down, it’s our last tour," they said. "We don’t have any obligations to continue, it should only and always be for fun."
Ready to Lose
The Knife Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Thinking about losing
Sucking the marrow feeding a pain
Facing a consequence
The blood
The mine
Combined
Blood control
A hazy line
Rearranging
Of desires
Ready, ready to lose a privilege
Ready, ready to lose a privilege
Dysfunctional culture
Spin me away
Preserving a blood line
Fear of suffering, fear of loss
Sucked in your birthrights
The blood
The mine
The yours
Combined
Blood control
A hazy line
Rearranging
Of desires
Ready, ready to lose a privilege
An ongoing habit
A transfer of possessions
Ready, ready to lose a privilege
A final sequence
An end to succession
The Knife's song Ready to Lose speaks to the idea of privilege and intergenerational wealth. The first few lines of the song seem to depict a person who is contemplating their own desire to indulge in excess, and the potential consequences that come with it. The line "sucking the marrow feeding a pain" suggests that this person is recklessly pursuing pleasure, despite knowing that it could lead to a lot of pain in the end.
As the song progresses, the lyrics shift to focus on the idea of bloodline and inheritance. The lines “The blood, the mine, the yours, combined, blood control, a hazy line, rearranging of desires” suggest that family ties and shared bloodlines are entangled with the desire for wealth and status. There is a sense of unease in the lyrics, with the hazy line representing the blurred boundaries between what is civil and what is not. It seems that the desire for wealth and status is so strong and so linked to family ties that it clouds people's judgement.
The final lines of the song, "Ready, ready to lose a privilege, a final sequence, an end to succession" seem to suggest that the singer is ready to let go of their privilege and the notion of inherited wealth. There is an acknowledgement that wealth can bring suffering and pain, and perhaps it is time for people to break the cycle of privilege and create a more equitable world.
Line by Line Meaning
Thinking about a mouth that waters
Contemplating something desirable
Thinking about losing
Considering the act of giving something up
Sucking the marrow feeding a pain
Gaining satisfaction from something that causes suffering
Facing a consequence
Dealing with the result of an action
The blood
Family ties
The mine
Individual ownership
The yours
External ownership
Combined
Intermingled family and personal ties
Blood control
The power that comes with inheritance and family connections
A hazy line
Unclear boundaries between personal and family ownership
Rearranging
Adjusting or shifting
Of desires
Of wants and needs
Ready, ready to lose a privilege
Prepared to forfeit something of value
Dysfunctional culture
A problematic social environment
Spin me away
Removing oneself from a harmful situation
Preserving a blood line
Maintaining family ties and continuity
Fear of suffering, fear of loss
The anxiety and apprehension surrounding negative experiences
Sucked in your birthrights
Being pulled into familial obligations and responsibilities
An ongoing habit
A pattern of action that endures over time
A transfer of possessions
The act of giving away property or assets
A final sequence
The ultimate outcome or conclusion
An end to succession
The conclusion of an inheritance cycle
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Karin Elizabeth Dreijer Andersson, Olof Bjorn Dreijer
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@22Ein
Every night when I finish my minimum wage paying job and walk home I stroll down this one particular street called "millionaires row" and belt this out every time. Get home to my cramped dark apartment and feel grateful to have anything at all.
@acesneights1130
Criminally underrated.
@XIPHIASCDXX
It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything...
@juliangrant8358
Their best album. Best duo ever?
@Rroragi
Perfect end for the album!
@sebhma
the perfect 2013 morph of from off to on and one hit. im dancing on the tables.
@mnmlstellar
fantastic <3
@joemccarthy3197
Beginning kind of reminds me of Ennio Morricone's theme song for The Thing and that's perfect to me!
@reingp
Yes, it reminds me of it too, funny to find a comment saying the same.
Btw, I love the movie, the theme and this song.
@thejuices8820
Points were made!