Dad: :::from other room::: “Are you OK in there?”

4) I was assuming “lights go down at the end of the scene” meant being out past the kind of curfew that would for sure be enforced in a dystopian state. For the rest of it, I like what you wrote there!

6) A new theory I’ve been fine-tuning since writing this was that Major Minus actually bugged Xyloto somehow (remember “One eye on the road and one on you” — could it be that Major Minus is looking through one of Xyloto’s eyes to spy on the Lost Boys? He has access to her in their home). So my theory on this track is that it stands for “Major Minus Is Xyloto,” and it’s the moment when he bugs her — probably without her knowledge.

7) See above mini-theory!

11) Love that.

13 & 14) I’ll be perfectly honest — I was trying to keep the bulk of the story in my head when I was working on this, until I could go write it down, so the interpretation towards the end is sketchier than the beginning, and far less lyric-by-lyric. I’m wide open to other interpretations, but I do think the result at the conclusion is that they’re together (all of the references to “we” and “us”) and that they’ve escaped (“up with the birds,” — remember, acoustic sounds & nature here are contrasted with heavily produced urban dystopianism — “good things are coming our way”).

One or two things which I picked up after reading your analysis which weren’t clear to me beforehand.

4. Charlie Brown. One of the most important phases of the album, when M and X initially meet

“I saw the lights go down at the end of the scene
I saw the lights go down and standing in front of me

In my scarecrow dreams
When they smashed my heart into smithereens
Be a bright red rose come bursting the concrete
Be the cartoon heart

Light a fire, light a spark
Light a fire, a flame in my heart”

I still can’t work out what the ‘end of the scene’ is, maybe it is some sort of initiation into this underground group, and once he see’s his Cartoon Heart signature, next to her Bright Red Rose (or Vice Versa, whichever is which), this is the moment when he falls for her.

6. M.M.I.X – This is going to be a massive turning point in the story, it’s the moment when the relationship begins to go sour as in the next song we get the lyric “Ypu can hurt, hurt me bad, but I’ll still raise my flag”. I can’t wait to find our what MMIX actually stands for (Mylo something something Xyloto?)

7. Peter Pan reference – This surely has something to do with the ‘tracker’ which Hook pits in the croc? Surely, given the context of the rest of the song.

11. Up in Flames – the last line ‘Can we pour some water on?’ i.e. ‘is there any hope for us?’ ‘Can we give it another go and put out these flames?’

13 & 14. I’m still not convinced of any of the suggestion put forward, something just doesn’t add up. They seem to be apart, but together, he’s starting again but he’s saying words which suggest he’s alone ‘send me up’ and ‘I’m up with the birds’. Then at the end he reverts back to plural ‘Good things are coming our way’.

I don’t think that they get out of the Underground at the same time, or even if they’re both alive when they do get out of it. But then with CM saying that it has a happy ending, argh I don’t know. Can’t wait to find out in the comic though :-)

Thanks for your clearing this album up a lot for me though, hope I can spark a train of thought for you to develop your ideas further.

Lew x

Beijing 2008 stands out in my mind as a proud and visible cultural identity that Sochi could have taken a cue from. Because if a city & country are going to host a game, they should be playing host, and welcoming you into their culture … not merely opening the door and holding up a computer screen.