What does Citizen Erased mean?

Muse: Citizen Erased Meaning

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Album cover for Citizen Erased album cover

Citizen Erased Lyrics

Break me in,
Teach us to cheat
And to lie, cover up
What shouldn't be shared?
All the truth unwinding
Scraping away
At my mind
Please stop asking me to describe him

For one moment
I wish you'd hold your stage
With no feelings at...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    Sep 14th 2007 !⃝

    I've always felt that some parts of it have to do with growing up and becoming less innocent. The "break me in, teach us to cheat, to lie and cover up" might be about how people learn to lie as they get older and the "open minded, I'm sure I used to be so free" is about looking back and wondering where your childhood open-mindedness and freedom have gone. In the end the "erase all the memories, they'll only bring us pain" is about forgetting that you were ever innocent and free. The title might be about the person you were then disappearing (being "erased").

  2. anonymous
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    Jun 21st 2014 !⃝

    The first one is spot on. Exactly what I would of said. This songs about being broken in by society and losing your feeling of expression as you assimilate into culture with age. You look back and feel you lost your childhood years. Also this song is about the Death of Matt's Uncle. Cool song. Go Muse!!

  3. anonymous
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    Jul 15th 2012 !⃝

    how no body see it. Is about a lover, that the narrator must to forget.

  4. anonymous
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    Apr 13th 2011 !⃝

    I read somewhere a list of books read by matt, and I found a certain book about brainwashing...

    I think the song talks about a person that knows something, and he is going to be “erased”

    "Wash me away / clean your body of me / erase all your memories”

    I think its a literal meaning to these words...

  5. anonymous
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    Jan 22nd 2011 !⃝

    It's a song about being interrogated, and being part of a conspiracy. It's about going (basically) insane. "Clean your body of me, Erase all the memories" must mean that some form of resistance went on, and he/she in the song was executed or prosecuted. Another possible answer was that the person who resisted telling he/she's interrogator was chipped, and on file, and the chip was taken away, leaving the person without an identity. CITIZEN ERASED. You see the title?

  6. anonymous
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    May 1st 2009 !⃝

    I checked MuseWiki.org. It's an expression about what it's like to be questioned.

  7. anonymous
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    Mar 15th 2009 !⃝

    I never actually payed attention to the lyrics themselves, the sound of the instruments sound as though it's a grieving process. Like someone just found out someone close to them (possibly a family member) died. And first they are angry, then shocked, then angry like throwing stuff around, then they finally start getting calm and dealing with their mind and loss, then the end solo just fades out to them being okay with that fact of the death.

    That's my interpretation of the instruments anyways.

  8. anonymous
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    Mar 6th 2008 !⃝

    1984

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  9. MuseShoe25
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    Dec 4th 2007 !⃝

    I'm pretty sure this song is based on George Orwells book '1985'. I can't be asked to go through the lyrics but I think they make sense.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  10. anonymous
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    Oct 30th 2007 !⃝

    This song describes a relationship gone sour. If Bellamy wrote the lyrics referring to one of his own personal experiences, then he (or whoever the song's "narrator" is) was feeling cheated, offended, and lied to.
    The title suggests that the song's protagonist is wishing to be forgotten and is so angry with somebody that he no longer wants to know them.
    He is saying to erase him from their memory.
    The subject of the song is most likely someone who the speaker really treasured and can't bear to separate from.
    "Wash me away / clean your body of me / erase all your memories"


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