Mr. Brightside

This was The Killers' first ever recorded song for their 2002 demo. The song was composed by guitarist Dave Keuning and the lyrics written by Brandon Flowers. It was re-recorded and released as a single in 2004. Despite its upbeat feel, the song deals with issues of infidelity, paranoia and jealousy. This is due to Brandon Flowers' heartache when his ex-girlfriend cheated on him while they were together.

https://genius.com/The-killers-mr-brightside-lyrics


[Verse 1]
I'm coming out of my cage

>> This line could be interpreted two ways: He is finally freeing himself from the emotional restraint of his relationship to his ex.
>> He’s finally letting himself become more comfortable with her and it feels right for him.


and I've been doing just fine

>> The narrator (Brandon Flowers), claims that while he’s been without the girl in question (his ex), he’s been at peace.
>> Worth noting that this second “just fine” is sung in a more short, snappy tone, probably contradicting the message through the intonation.


Gotta, gotta be down because I want it all

>> Brandon wants true love. He wants that kind of love that you can only see in movies. “Gotta be down” suggests that he is willing to do things that he usually would not do to get this love.
>> Rather than “willing to do things,” I think “gotta be down” means he is willing to accept things he normally wouldn’t in a lover. E.g. he wouldn’t love to date a smoker, but is willing to accept that because he’s desperate for love. A play on asking someone if they’re “down” to do something.


It started out with a kiss, how did it end up like this?
It was only a kiss, it was only a kiss

>> Brandon’s obsession with this girl has escalated from an originally hedonistic act that had no deeper meaning. He stresses that ‘it was only a kiss’ and should be nothing more, but unfortunately, it is.
>> This ambiguously references the start and now end of his relationship, and also his emotional demise/obsession in suspecting his lover is cheating on him. He may have seen her kiss someone.
>> Alternatively, the girl’s relationship with the other man may’ve started innocently enough under his nose-with a kiss.


Now I'm falling asleep

>>This could mean many things:
>> • He is unaware of the events unfolding around him and the girl’s promiscuity.
>> • He’s in the present ruminating. The narrative goes into the past looking at/ remembering the heartbreak.
>> • He becomes comfortable in the relationship and isn’t putting in as much as effort as he should. He is taking it for granted that he is the only man she wants.
>> • He’s wondering what she’s doing now, while for the first time in a while he lies in bed at home alone.
>> • He is literally falling asleep, and she is sneaking out to meet her illicit lover.
>> • He is alone at his apartment, having a lonely evening while she is at her lover’s house cheating on him.
>> • He literally fell asleep while thinking about her and is now imagining the events of the pre-chorus. https://i.imgur.com/DVTEJuu.jpg


and she's calling a cab

>> He’s imagining his lover calling a cab, out somewhere at the end of the night without him. This could also possibly be her finally making the decision to leave/cheat on him.


While he's having a smoke and she's taking a drag
Now they're going to bed

>> The girl has accompanied another man in smoking a cigarette, representing her sinfulness. This act then leads to the bedroom. https://i.imgur.com/pRpcpE3.jpg
>> “Taking a drag” implies she’s sharing his cigarette, which isn’t something typically done by strangers.


and my stomach is sick

>> He’s jealous and it’s making him feel sick that this girl is out there with another man. Sometimes when you have negative feelings as sadness, pain or in this case jealousy, you can physically ache.


And it's all in my head,

>> The forthcoming description is all in his imagination. He has no evidence, but through writing the song, he’s showing how love can cloud our judgments and reason.
>> Seeing the kiss it was one thing but now his mind is torturing him by thinking that it wasnt just a kiss and all the time that she cheated on him and he is talking to himself saying that from now on he got to grow up and think, probably leading to Smile Like You Mean It



but she's touching his

[Pre-Chorus]
Chest now, he takes off her dress now

>> The narrator is letting his imagination run wild about his lover and her male friend hooking up. There is also a clever implied rhyme in this line with the cadence of the lines implying that “sick” should rhyme with the first line of the Pre-Chorus. After a pause the word is “chest”. But we all know the part of the male anatomy that rhymes with “sick”…The anticipated rhyme substituted for another, more PG, word emphasizes how painful it is for the narrator imaging what is going on between his girl and his male competitor.
>> The song has stuck to the same rhyme scheme through this intro i.e. this, kiss; cab, drag; sick, (and the hinted at word: dick). There is only a slight barely noticeable pause, but the break in the rhyme scheme gives away the omission.


Let me go
I just can't look, it's killing me
And taking control

>> He wants to seperate his emotions from this girl/ situation. He pleads with his love ‘Let me go’. The scenes before him are taking over his life and he is unable to carry on like this.


[Chorus]
Jealousy, turning saints into the sea
Swimming through sick lullabies, choking on your alibis

>> The main topic of the song: Jealousy.
>> An analogy of water is used. Saints (those with an exceptional level of holiness) can even be turned into the sea through jealousy. The sea here is ‘sick lullabies’ (evil songs) that someone has to go through to find reason.
>> Jealousy can make someone assume terrible things about an innocent person; in this case, it’s possible that his lover hasn’t been unfaithful, but he imagines she has slept with someone new.
>> “Sick lullabies” — his mind is occupied with these emotionally wrenching scenes
>> “Choking on your words” is an idiom to mean someone is unable to express something clearly; this could indicate the lover is unable to tell him where she has been, which is what makes him suspect that she’s cheating. He could also be unable to swallow/believe her alibis at no fault on her part.
>> Put another way, an alibi is an excuse or defense for (someone), especially by providing an account of their whereabouts at the time of an alleged act.
“Chocking on your alibis” is her trying to explain her whereabouts and making up some lie but choking with her words
>> Alternatively:
>> Brandon Flowers was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormon church. In 1830, Church founder Joseph Smith proclaimed that apostles should be sent from the United States to England. At the time, trans-Atlantic ocean voyages were still perilous, and sailors could be tossed overboard in a storm.
>> The analogy here is that jealousy is the storm that knocks saints (members of the LDS church) into the sea. In this context, “turning” should be understood as having one of its secondary meanings, “overturning or tossing,” rather than “conversion”.
>> The analogy of personal struggle being akin to being caught in a storm on the sea is seen in Hymn 105 of the LDS Church, “Master the Tempest is Raging”:
>>>> Master, the tempest is raging!
>>>> The billows are tossing high!
>>>> The sky is overshadowed with blackness.
>>>> No shelter or help is nigh.
>>>> …The depths of my sad heart are troubled.
>>>> Oh, waken and save, I pray!
>>>> Torrents of sin and of anguish
>>>> Sweep o'er my sinking soul,
>>>> And I perish! I perish! dear Master.
>>>> Oh, hasten and take control!
>>>> The winds and the waves shall obey thy will:
>>>> Peace, be still.
>>>> Whether the wrath of the storm-tossed sea
>>>> Or demons or men or whatever it be,
>>>> No waters can swallow the ship where lies
>>>> The Master of ocean and earth and skies.
>> “Sick lullabies” may refer to the jealous man’s twisting of the hymns sung to him as a child. Instead of taking comfort in the message of salvation, he is lost in the earlier part of the hymn in which no shelter or help is near. He swims through these tumultuous emotional waters, choking on the excuses his lover has given for her supposed infidelity. Jealousy can make someone assume terrible things about an innocent person; in this case, it’s possible that his lover hasn’t been unfaithful, but that he is only imagining that she has slept with someone new.


But it's just the price I pay,

>> Everyone pays a price for their actions, even if they are good actions. Brandon’s jealousy weighing heavy on his mind is the price he pays for pining after this girl and thinking about her in the sense he is.
>> But she was actually his girlfriend, so it wasn’t just a girl he was infatuated with, they were in a relationship


destiny is calling me

>> He accepts that the relationship wasn’t meant to last and realises that he has to move on with his life. He isn’t in denial or unconsolable about his relationship falling apart. He is pulling himself together and focusing on the silver lining; that she wasn’t the one or his destiny and that now he knows that he is able to advance in his life and push forward to who and what he is meant to be.
>> This sentence also absolves himself from the blame of the relationship falling apart; wrongly or rightly (although the song positions us to think rightly). Mentioning “jealousy, turning saints into the sea” a few lines before also lies in the same vein. These two lines together show that the circumstances (her cheating) would make any man feel jealous and therefore, rather than the deterioration of the relationship stemming from a personal flaw of the protagonist, it stems from the inherent human reaction to the circumstances presented.


Open up my eager eyes, 'cause I'm Mr. Brightside

>> “Mr Brightside” is being used ironically to name himself because he is assuming the worst of his lover.
>> He is “Mr Brightside” because he always looks on the bright side of things. But someone (“destiny”, probably himself looking into the future) is telling to open his “eager” (doesn’t want to believe the truth) eyes to the fact that he is being cheated on.
>> Calling himself Mr.Brightside is alluding more to him knowing she is cheating (hence, open up my eager eyes). In other words, I do not believe it is an empty suspicion, as stated above. He is able to look at the dismissal of his relationship as destiny, and an opportunity to advance as a person. I agree the irony in calling himself Mr.Brightside when he is assuming the worst (when he has only seen a kiss) is probable as well, but it should be noted that he is actually looking at the bright side of the end of his relationship with a girl. So though it is ironic that he calls himself Mr.Brightside when he is assuming the furthest extent of cheating, he is in actuality Mr.Brightside because he can understand that this relationship has run its course (destiny is calling me).


[Instrumental]

[Verse 2]
I'm coming out of my cage and I've been doing just fine
Gotta, gotta be down because I want it all
It started out with a kiss, how did it end up like this?
It was only a kiss, it was only a kiss
Now I'm falling asleep and she's calling a cab
While he's having a smoke and she's taking a drag
Now they're going to bed and my stomach is sick
And it's all in my head, but she's touching his

[Pre-Chorus]
Chest now, he takes off her dress now
Let me go
'Cause I just can't look, it's killing me
And taking control

[Chorus]
Jealousy, turning saints into the sea
Swimming through sick lullabies, choking on your alibis
But it's just the price I pay, destiny is calling me
Open up my eager eyes, 'cause I'm Mr. Brightside

[Outro]
I never
I never
I never
I never

>> This verse is about regrets. In the beginning of the song the woman leaves off in a cab to meet another man with his cigarette. Flowers is saying that he was not to blame. It’s too late now for him to go back though, because she found someone else. It repeats itself to emphasize the point.
>> He never expected her to leave him this way