EUCLID ANALYSIS.
Part one -> Title and meaning
Part two -> You're already here!
Part three -> Line by line analysis part two
Part four -> Musical/intrumental notes
Part five -> The Night in Sleep Token
Part six -> Conclusion
“Just run it back, give me five whole minutes” → The song itself is five minutes and 13 seconds long, but Vessel only starts singing these lyrics at the 13-second mark. As the listener, you give him five whole minutes to say what he’s gotta say, but he still asks for more time. I see it as a representation of humanity. A set lifetime to do and say so many things, to change in so many ways, but it never seems to be enough.
A realisation, a revelation almost, develops across this song; change is inevitable, and that’s okay, and that having a set lifetime, having five whole minutes, is entirely what makes people human. What makes humanity.
“Thick tar on the inside burning” → This is a vivid description that can symbolise depression. Tar is a very viscous liquid that causes physical damage (rashes, headaches etc.) by merely touching it, plus, it’s very easy to get stuck in it; to let yourself be consumed by it, like depression. It’s used in literature as a metaphor to represent the feeling of being weighed down or emotionally trapped, afterall.
It could also be in reference to the visualisers for the whole album, which ends in a black liquid pouring out of the album art creatures.
“I’ve got a ghost in the hallway grinning” → This is both a callback to ‘The Apparition’, and a symbol for the past. Ghosts are relics of the past; haunting places and people they can’t let go of because they don’t know how, which means the Ghost in the hallway grinning can either be about Sleep, the people in Vessel’s past, or about Vessel himself.
Grinning is typically associated with joy, however, in this context, it adds a much more ominous feeling to the line. It implies that The Ghost is mocking Vessel with his past, finding amusement in his suffering at recalling what he wants to leave behind.
“And a heavy head that won't stop turning” → This describes how Vessel is burdened by his past that just won't leave him alone. He’s constantly kept awake by memories that taunt him, keeping him in a state of emotional turbulence.
“If my fate is a bad collision” → Callback to Granite and its foreboding theme of car crashes. ‘Bad collision’ suggests a sense of inevitability and a negative outcome. An argument in a car that goes a little bit too far and ends badly. However, what’s interesting is the comparison of fate with collisions; it illustrates the feeling of Vessel being caught up in circumstances beyond his control. His past, present and future are controlled (by Sleep) and he can do absolutely nothing about it.
“And if my mind is an open highway” → This line flows perfectly with the previous lyric. In contrast to the presented idea of fate as a collision, this line portrays Vessel’s mind as a vast, open space symbolised by a highway. Highways are typically associated with freedom, movement, and endless possibilities, but, matched with the previous line, the freedom becomes terrifying because of the way Vessel has spent his known life following fate. It becomes predestination versus free will. Divinity versus humanity. Lore-wise, it creates a perfect representation of Vessel as a vessel; a human holding a God inside his body and having to deal with it.
“Give me the twilight two-way vision” → Yet again, lyrically, duality is brought back. Twilight is the transition zone between day and night and it symbolizes mystery and threshold between opposing states. The choice of twilight over sunset or dawn, for example, suggests a desire for a moment of transition, change, as opposed to the stark clarity of daylight or the complete darkness of night. Vessel does not want the past, daylight, but he does not want his present either (night).
Further, The term ‘two-way vision’ introduces the idea of seeing life from two different perspectives, which could be about Vessel’s past and present self, Vessel and his partner, or Vessel and Sleep. The concept of this dual vision implies the recognition of the coexistence of opposites. It could also be in reference to Higher’s “‘Cause I look for scarlet and you look for ultraviolet”.
“Give me one last ride on a sunset sky lane” → The phrase ‘one last ride’ implies a sense of finality or a farewell, which links to the theory that Euclid is a eulogy above all things. Vessel is asking for one last good thing before he leaves– changes– for good. A change between day and night is yet again brought up here; sunsets bring the night, which “comes down like Heaven”; it’s the last few minutes of time Vessel has to himself before he has to devote the Holy hours of the night to Sleep. The end of the day is a time often associated with reflection, and contemplation and is one of the transitions from day to night, which is also right before twilight.
“Call me when you get the chance” → Can either interpreted as a message from Vessel to his partner, to Sleep or vice versa. The echo-y effect placed on the lyric makes it feel almost like a voicemail as well.
“I can feel the walls around me closing in” → With this lyric, the previous line can now be interpreted as a plea for help. A ‘Please help me, but only if I’m not an inconvenience. I know we are not what we were, but I need your comfort again’.
Further, walls built up around people are typically used as symbolism for boundaries; metaphorical walls put up around a person to stop them from getting hurt. Vessels’ walls are collapsing in on him because he’s changing and learning how to trust again (which is good), but it scares him enough for him to try and go back to the past. Go back to the ghost in the hallway grinning. Overall, it creates a very claustrophobic and visceral image.
“Just running forwards, a life like wires” → Wires, robots and algorithms are referenced a multitude of times throughout the whole album, which this lyric carries on. Despite it all, the vessel is running through the complicated mess of wires that is life. To quote Genius; ‘the path taken has been inevitable. The wires will continue to carry the circuit forward, and instances of life are inevitable, similar to how some view life as being ‘written in the stars’’. Which means, again, fate and predestination are being referenced.
“As I see the past on an empty ceiling” → Vessel’s memories continue to haunt him, no matter how far he runs from them. However, Vessel is still running despite it all. He’s accepting the limited amount of time he has as well as that whatever has happened is in the past now.
Plus, an empty ceiling quite literally suggests moving out and moving on; the bare ceiling which doesn’t have all the familiar stains on it reflects what once was like a mirror for him.
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