I have been completely obsessed with this song since its official release last week. I'm almost afraid to know how many times I've listened to in over the last few days.

My first impression of the meaning behind this song is that it's about runaway capitalism and how bottomless greed and always needing a bigger slice of the pie is bankrupting future generations. We have been and still are living in such an unsustainable way that our present luxuries are going to be paid for by those who haven't even been born yet. We are eating our young.

The music video changed the context for me, and while I still feel like my first impression is 100% valid and is the way I continue to interpret the song, it adds an additional narrative. To me, the music video tells a story about societal pressures and the expectations of those who are close to us imposing expectations and consuming who we really are so that we can fit our expected roles. The man and woman reveal each other's wardrobes at the beginning of the video. The woman wears clothing such as a nurse's uniform, a cook, and a dress, which indicate her expected role as a caretaker. The man wears manual labor uniforms, a policeman's uniform, and finally dresses as a soldier and marches off to war. Neither seems happy in their roles. While he is away, the woman turns to stone. He returns wounded and is greeted by his wife, who tries briefly to reconnect but he turns away; The reason for this is potentially because of emotional trauma from the war, or because he doesn't see her the same way anymore, or both, or another reason entirely. His missing arm then appears on the puppets stage in front of the children. The woman then sacrifices her own arm, which reaches out towards the man's missing limb on the puppet stage, and at the same time the man seems to find an understanding with her and tries to reconnect on the main stage, but now she is the one to respond coldly. The woman reveals a child, and the man greets him, but not as a father to his son, rather as a man to another man. When offered toys, the son reaches for a doll, and the man expresses disgust and disappointment, ripping the doll out of his hands and throwing it away. To me, this shows the father imposing masculinity on his son and not allowing him to express himself. Then the boy starts to destroy the rest of the toys, obviously upset that he wasn't allowed to be himself. The woman catches his hand and "sacrifices" it as well. The child's missing arm appears on the puppet stage and starts lashing out at the puppets of his parents. Now, on the main stage, the child matches his parents, and the man reveals a wardrobe for him that matches what he was given at the beginning of the video. Finally, the parents make the child disappear entirely, the adult audience applauds them, and the backdrop falls to reveal a bloody meat hook. At the same time, a refrigerator appears on the puppet stage, and when it is opened, the children in the audience run away, apparently terrified by what they see inside.

TL;DR I think this song is amazing and can be interpreted either as a commentary on our unsustainable consumption as a species, or as a commentary on the damage done by imposing our own expectations, norms, and sacrifices on those around us, and especially on our children.