LogFAQs > #956444110

94. The Flaming Lips Do You Realize?? (2002)
from the album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zYOKFjpm9s

Key lyrics:
Do you realize
That you have the most beautiful face?

There are a handful of songs that simply roll over my emotions every time I listen. Do You Realize?? is a prime example, a song that begins as a loving address only for the narrator to become overwhelmed by our place in the universe and the fleeting passage of time. There are plenty of love songs and plenty of existential songs about death, but Do You Realize?? manages the impossible task of covering both grounds at once. The curvature of the song is essential to its message; by opening and closing with the same line, The Flaming Lips make a grand statement. At first, there is a suggestion of insignificance how can anyone think about love when everything is ultimately so meaningless? But right at the end, love is given as the answer to make all these big ideas bearable.

Do You Realize?? starts loud, almost celebratory. For the first several lines, Wayne Coyne really plays up the love song aspects. The transition into deathly topics does not occur as a bomb drop but instead a shuddered whisper. At its highest moment, Coyne says nothing beyond the title words cannot capture the heightened state of pondering everything at once. As he then repeats his deathly pondering, many of the instruments grow quiet, leaving us floating with his words. What ultimately blows me away is the flurry of emotions this sends me. Even in the times when it has reduced me to a sobbing mess, there has always been a sense of hope underlining it all.

---

My top 100 games (with write-ups): https://foolfantastic.com/top-100-video-games-project/