Muse: Megalomania Meaning

Megalomania Lyrics

Paradise comes at a price
That I am not prepared to pay
What were we built for?
Could someone tell me please

The good news is, she can't have babies
And won't accept gifts from me
What are they for?
They'll just grow up, and break the laws...

1. anonymous

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   Jan 4th 2012 !⃝

   Don't know why, but to me at least this song is about rejecting someone else's faith: be it a faith in materialism, or religion. Though I lean towards faith in God.
   
   "Paradise comes at a price
   That I am not prepared to pay"
   
   - using the word "paradise" instantly conjures religious themes. I understand this line to be about being unprepared to "buy into" the lies for the supposed Paradise which awaits at the other end.
   
   "What were we built for?
   Could someone tell me please"
   
   - this line, coupled with the organ chords immediately following make me think of a church. But the way it's put - "built for" - makes me think of robots. In other words Bellamy's comparing us to robots being produced on a factory line for some kind of purpose which none of us understands. It's a pretty classic question asked by religious, and atheistic people alike - why are we here? But the way he sings it, it's almost like he's fed up of all the answers he's getting - it's almost like he's saying 'you don't know either so stop giving me your BS'!
   
   "The good news is, she can't have babies
   And won't accept gifts from me"
   
   - one of the more creepy lines I have often wondered over (perhaps because of the slightly sneery/evil tone). On the one hand is he talking about a figurative woman who he cannot impregnate, or a holy woman who won't be able to perpetrate her "paradise" to the next generation through having her own children? OR is he comparing a woman in his life to some kind of "deity" - i.e. she can't be bought with his gifts or prayers (the insinuation here being that God can), and she can't have children (unlike God if you're Christian i.e. Jesus).
   
   "What are they for?
   They'll just grow up, and break the laws you've loved"
   
   - here he's expressley sneering at the futility of bringing up children and rearing them, when they just go and make the same mistakes again anyway! These laws could be religious, or not, depending on the interpretation. Or perhaps he's sneering at the way people bring their children up with these laws expecting them to believe in them, expecting them to obey without questioning, without coming to understand why they're there. You know, sneering at the fact that THEY feel rejected, when they've caused so much pain for their children by being so restrictive.
   
   "Take off your disguise
   I know that underneath it's me"
   
   - I like to think this is him saying, 'get off your high-horse, underneath we're all the same.' You take the label off of God and suddenly you realise you're looking at a reflection of mankind. The priest, disrobed is, in the end, only human.
   
   "Useless device, it won't suffice
   I want a new game to play"
   
   - if you take this away from the materialistic interpretation, to the more faith-based one the "useless device" could be his description of religion or even the concept of God. He's outgrown it, like a childish game, it bores him, he can see right through it. "it won't suffice". It doesn't soothe his soul.
   
   "When I am gone
   It won't be long, before I stab you in the dark"
   
   - if you see death as simply being darkness, nothingness, rather than Paradise, then perhaps this is the dark out of which he is "stabbing" at "you" i.e. stabbing at the idea of belief in God/religion/paradise. Or perhaps he's speaking of how once someone looses faith, it won't take long before you start attacking these ideas??
   
   "Paradise comes at a price
   That I am not prepared to pay
   What were we built for?
   Will someone tell me please
   
   "Take off your disguise
   I know that underneath it's me"
   
   - The repeat here changes one single word that just makes it more demanding and echoes the frustration with everyone's interpretations of what's right and what's wrong.
   
   Love the song, and well, that's what I make of it anyway. I think Bellamy's very good at capturing the complexity of emotions, and the tangled web of ideas which feed them. I guess that's why they're such fun to interpret!
2. anonymous

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   Sep 25th 2011 !⃝

   I think it talks about the decandence of our civilization.
   
   "Paradise comes at a price that i´m not prepared to pay" It speaks about the price that has costed modernity to everyone: dead, destruction and the lost of values. Yes we have comodities, rights and stuff but.. the price?
   
   
   "What were we built for?" It´s about the lost of what makes us humans, about the meaning of life
   
   "Useless device, It won´t sufice, i want a new game to play" It´s about consumism and how we work to earn money to spend it in all the crap we don´t even really need and how we feel that no matter how many stuff we have it´s never enough
   
   "When i am gone it won´t be long before i disturb you in the dark" The mistakes humans commited in the past will come for us and make us pay like global warming, the food crisis and the lack of water. When it all started nothing happened but after a few years..
   
   Well... It´s what i think :)

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