Lyrics:Untitled Song 2 [Version (a)]:
If I should blow it
Chances I'm losin'
What we are doin' to ourselves?
We're building up the problem
Curtains are fallin'
Suddenly I'm crawlin' from the ash
What should I do if I can't see my way out?
Then you'll run around again
When we wake up to ourselves
What's left of ourselves
Before we have to face
The cruelest days are almost over now
Walkin' when you have no sense of direction
What's the sense of spinnin' around again?
Round and round and round and round
Round and round and round and round
Round and round and round and round
Again
So to go back to guessing
Seems so depressing
It's not a blessing or a curse
Bitter as an ocean
Going through the motions
Drowning in the barrel full of lies
What should I do
If I can't see my way out?
Then you'll run around again
When we wake up to ourselves
What's left of ourselves
Before we have to face
The cruelest days are coming to an end
Why bend when you can't believe what they told you?
'Cause it sounded good and made you feel so sick
Sick enough to think we were mistaken
Sick enough to think we were mistaken
The Song:"Untitled Song 2" (its official title) was only ever made available when it streamed on beck.com in 2005.
It is a cool song, with good momentum, churning guitar, dramatic singing. It is a shame we don't have it in better sound quality.
The song is built around an idea frequently explored in Beck's lyrics: losing one's self and the toll that can take. "What should I do if I can't see my way out?" You've lost all sense of direction, and it is a struggle.
The song does move forward out of the darkness, but recognizes this can be just as harrowing as being lost. Noting that "it's not a blessing or a curse" to be going through those motions, there can be some hope after the disorientation of having lost oneself, when you wake up, stop spinning, and finally have to face yourself. This can be just as cruel as being lost.
I do flipflop here: the lyrics seem to be somewhat superficially expressing something, an implied depth I cannot quite fill in. So I can't decide if I'm reading too much into it (no surprise, that) or if the shell is supposed to be hollow, or what. That said, the writing/rhyming is superb and feels quite natural.