The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness Lyrics
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh
Ooh-ooh
[Verse 1]
Maybe I listen more than you think
And I can tell that somebody sold you
We said we'd never let anyone in
We said we'd only die of lonely secrets
[Chorus]
The system only dreams in total darkness
Why are you hidin' from me?
We're in a different kind of thing now
All night you're talkin' to God
[Verse 2]
I thought that this would all work out after a while
Now you're sayin' that I'm askin' for too much attention
Also no other faith is light enough for this place
We said we'd only die of lonely secrets
[Chorus]
The system only dreams in total darkness
Why are you hidin' from me?
We're in a different kind of thing now
All night you're talkin' to God
And I cannot explain it, oh
Any other, any other way
I cannot explain it, oh
Any other, any other way
[Guitar Solo]
[Chorus]
The system only dreams in total darkness
Why are you hidin' from me?
We're in a different kind of thing now
All night you're talkin' to God
[Post-Chorus]
And I cannot explain it, oh
Any other, any other way
I cannot explain it, oh
Any other, any other way
I cannot explain it, oh
Any other, any other way
I cannot explain it, oh
Any other, any other way
About
“The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness” is the first single from The National’s seventh album Sleep Well Beast. According to an interview with Pitchfork, the song is “an abstract portrait of a weird time we’re in.” On the subject of the song’s awkwardly long title:
“It kinda slipped past the editor,” jokes Berninger, a sense of relief audible in his voice.
This song features distinctly political overtones. Quoth Matt responding to Pitchfork’s Sam Sodomsky asking “Would you characterize this as a political album?”:
“Everybody knows we’re big liberals and I was a very outspoken Hillary supporter, and I still am. It’s impossible for us to separate the songs we’re writing from what’s going on in the world. In a sense, it probably is a political album. But it’s not a concept album or anything. There’s political content in almost every song we’ve ever written on some level. It colors everything. There was no intention that this was more political than before.”
The National are notable for their political activism. In November 2016 they performed a Get Out the Vote concert in Cincinnati.
The imagery of darkness and confusion sure seems extremely fitting for a song potentially written in the flood of written artistic expression following the election.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
That one, for me, is a hibernation—the dark before the dawn sort of thing. That one’s less about relationships than it is more of the strange way our world and our idea of identity mutates—sometimes overnight, as we’ve seen recently. It’s an abstract portrait of a weird time we’re in.
- 2.Day I Die
- 3.Walk It Back
- 4.The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness
- 5.Born to Beg
- 6.Turtleneck
- 7.Empire Line
- 9.Guilty Party
- 12.Sleep Well Beast