Miles Away/The Truth Is

Lyrics

Dave's Take

"[Martin's] very particular about his song titles. At the last minute he'll change the title and he worries I think if there's another song with the same name. I imagine him Googling it. For instance 'Miles Away/The Truth Is' on this album was just 'Miles Away.' Then Martin said, 'You know there's a Madonna song called 'Miles Away?'' So it was changed."¹

My Take

This is a synthesizer-heavy song with some interesting sounds, including a heavily-synthesized electric guitar, it appears. I once read a review somewhere that described one of the sounds as something like "a robot being punched," and ever since reading that, I can't un-hear it now. I'll need to find that review again. Other than the synths, this song has kind of a 1960s hard rock style to it, and Dave's voice sounds disgusted, as if he's mocking someone. He could be making fun of his former self, as he is wont to do- the person that was not "all there" because of the drugs and overall self-centeredness, or he could be making fun of someone whom he felt distant from. I did also wonder at the title as there always has to be an interesting story behind having two titles with a slash (/) in between. But it just turned out that "Miles Away" is a very common song title so they just needed a way to distinguish this one. Though to be fair, "The Truth Is" seems to be another very common title, as well! Anyway, who is barking like a dog near the end? Is that Dave? Because that's...funny.

Music Video

There is no music video for this song.

References

1. "Songs of faith and commotion", The Guardian (March 20, 2009)