Suburbia
West End Girls Lyrics

Lost in the high street, where the dogs run
Feeling aimless and directionless in the busy central area of town where people act like animals

Roaming suburban boys
Adolescent males wandering around their dull, homogeneous part of town with nothing better to do

Mother's got her hairdo to be done
Adults in suburban life are preoccupied with frivolities and superficial appearances

She says they're too old for toys
Parents believe their children have outgrown simple pleasures like toys and should focus on more practical things

Stood by the bus stop with a felt pen
Vandalizing public property with a crude writing instrument in a mundane and uneventful setting

In this suburban hell
Describing the bleak monotony and lack of excitement in the dull township

And in the distance a police car
Law enforcement is seen as a far-off, aloof authority figure in suburbia

To break the suburban spell
The arrival of the police car is seen as a way to interrupt and bring to an end to the suffocating and inescapable lifestyle of suburban life

Let's take a ride
A call to action and a proposal of escaping the suffocating living conditions of suburban life

And run with the dogs tonight
Suggests the idea of breaking with convention and embracing wildness and spontaneity

In suburbia
The environment where these people feel stuck and disengaged

You can't hide
There's no true escape and nowhere to run from the mundane and inescapable suburban lifestyle

Break the window by the town hall
Committing acts of vandalism and destruction against the buildings that represent the governing forces that control their unfulfilling lives

Listen! A siren screams
The sound of police sirens is a jarring and unwelcome noise, representing the authority that keeps them in place and under surveillance

There in the distance like a roll call
The police car brings to mind an assembly of authority figures, officers being called to deal with the citizens of the mundane town

Of all the suburban dreams
Expressing the homogeny and predictability of the suburban lifestyle with little room for self-discovery or individualism

I only wanted something else to do but hang around
Wishing for something that breaks the monotony of their dull lives

It's on the front page of the papers
Indicates an incident in the mundane suburban community that is featured in the daily news

This is their hour of need
A sarcastic jab suggesting the suburban community is overdramatic about their issues

Where's a policeman when you need one
The lack of police presence and intervention in the daily lives of the suburban citizens

To blame the colour TV?
Shifting blame to a modern invention to avoid taking responsibility for their own mundane lives