Better Than This Lyrics
Is this what you meant?
Is this what you dreamed of?
When you were making your plans
Shaking the dirt off?
Do you feel like
You and I belong?
(Oh, ah, oh)
Just keep your eyes on the road
And nothing can go wrong
[Chorus]
You could do so much
Better than this
You could do so much
Better than this
[Verse 2]
I've been checking my sums
Oh where did the time go?
Holding my photograph
Up to the window
Through the paper
And refracted sun
(Oh, ah, oh)
I can see all the things
I wish that I'd done
You can hang your hopes on the medicine
You can put your faith in the phone-in
You can tell yourself you're doing your best
You could do so much better than this
[Bridge]
Get a grip on yourself
Get a grip on yourself
Could have been something
But you're too late
And you weren't invited anyway
[Chorus 3]
'Cause the photographs
Show the wrong man
'Cause there is no soap star
Holding your hand
You don't see yourself
In the freeze-frame
Must be someone else
Using your name
And everyone will be the same
And everyone will glow
And everywhere, you'll see your name
In every shop window
It's better than this
You could do so much better than this
You could do so much better than this
You could do so much better than this
About
It’s clear that Keane have been listening to a lot of 80s pop. The intro to handclappy Better Than This is from Bowie’s Ashes To Ashes.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
Tim said in an interview:
I think we had at least the melody of the song and the chords and everything, but it really didn’t have a groove or anything like that. When I was doing the demo, I just thought oh, rather than having another kind of indie rock and roll sort of rhythm, that I’ll try something a bit more bouncy, and you know, add that groove, then I was playing a sort of funky guitar and then I got out one of my old synthesizers that I actually never play – I bought in a junk shop in Toronto, I think. So I was just playing around with it and came up with this sound, and it’s the sound you hear in the riff. I thought “Wow, that’s pretty great,” and went off to bed because it was the middle of the night by then. And then I woke up the next morning I thought, “Ah, you slipped a little Bowie in there!” By the time you have that creative impulse, and something is kind of organically called a song, that stuff is the kind of magic you have to go with, I think. The synth has a hint of “Ashes to Ashes” but I think the song, even if you take away that riff, the song I think, is one of the best I’ve written.
- 1.Spiralling
- 3.Better Than This
- 11.Love Is the End
- 12.My Shadow
- 13.Time to Go