Annotations for Explorers

Lyric: I don’t belong here
Annotation:
After seeing the damage that capitalists have done to the planet and to humanity in general, Bellamy concedes that he is out of place on this planet as he could never do what these people do.

Lyric: Running around in circles, feeling caged by endless rules
Annotation:
The feeling of being forced to listen to mindless commands is a representation of the work force in today’s society, completing the same tasks for no reward with no way out

Lyric: There’s none left for you or for me
Annotation:
The petrol – ‘black gold’ is being hogged and the resources are draining up, leaving nothing for the proletarian masses.

Lyric: Fuse Helium-3, our last hope
Annotation:
Nuclear fusion (that would use Helium-3), is one of the few clean sources of energy that could allow humanity not to drain the world of its resources, though it’s still a work in progress. Helium-3 is also Muse’s record label.

Lyric: A world lush in bloom, with rivers running wild
 They’ll be rerouted South
 With none left for you or for me
Annotation:
All the world’s natural resources are being consumed by industry and eventually there will be none left for us or our children to enjoy.

Lyric: And hear the
 Engines roar and save our crops from drought
Annotation:
Drought probably refers to the effects of global warming and the engines refer to all industrial machinery in the world.

Lyric: Who will win? ’Cause I concede
Annotation:
“Who” in this case probably refers to either the countries or corporations who are responsible for grabbing up all the land and resources in the world. He is asking who will win because there is no “winning” this game (a point made in another Muse song,  United States of Eurasia (+Collateral Damage)). He is willfully removing himself from the contest (conceding) because his soul doesn’t belong in a world like this.

Lyric: Once I hoped to seek the new and unknown
 This planet’s overrun
 There’s nothing left for you or for me
Annotation:
The world is overpopulated and thus there exists no “unknown” places to discover. This verse refers to colonisation. Every country has already had its resources exploited to the edge. Therefore, “there’s nothing left for you or for me”. The ‘new and unknown’ may also refer in terms of time to the next-chapter. Due to humanity’s destructive tendencies (in ways mentioned above), we forfeit our future and thus, our ability to ‘explore’ it. Moreover, as there are no more unknown places to discover, the name of the song “Explorers” is what people can’t be anymore. As this song talks about longing for what the world should be, it can also be assumed that the title itself is also being longed for.

Lyric: Shh, go to sleep
Annotation:
Because the song is a lullaby written for his son, he tells him to “go to sleep” at the end. This could also have been thrown in there because dreams are the only place your soul can truly be freed from this world.

Lyric: Free me, free me
 Free me from this world
Annotation:
Bellamy wants to be “freed” from this world of industrialization, capitalism, and consumerism, which is destroying the planet. His suggestion of freedom may also be death. His reference to the soul might prove this, as a common belief is that the soul is “freed” upon death. His soul being “imprisoned” implies that he thinks of life as nothing more than a restraint, especially in the corrupted and destroyed society that he lives in.

Lyric: But when the black gold’s in doubt
Annotation:
‘Black gold’ stands for petroleum. The phrase ‘in doubt’ strongly implies that the industrial goods (such as oil) have become rare or disappeared entirely. Oil, being a nonrenewable resource, would logically disappear. Bellamy presents the idea that over-industrialization could end a utopian world (or at least the closest we will ever have been to one).

Lyric: We can
 Walk through the fields and feeling nature’s glow
 But all the land is owned
 There’s none left for you or for me
Annotation:
This song is a lullaby written for his son Bingham. Bellamy is concerned about the planet and the effect that modern industrial society is having on it. In this lyric he is talking about how all land in the world is owned by someone, whether it be a government, corporation, or individual, and that there’s none left for the Bingham or anyone else for that matter.

