The bass line dinks around just like the bored kids in the song.

Over it is an ominous four-chord strum.

You're not sure how, but by the end, a full complement of astutely layered instruments have soared overhead. You could've sworn you were alone a second ago, now you're under their watch.

The singing is a husky intonation in the verses, a soul-echoing warble in the chorus. It is as unique as the personality of this singer, who stirs my love. His oddness, his gutsy challenge, makes me his friend.

You may not notice, but the lyrics are a rarely attempted brand of poetic sci-fi, depicting a militarized future world of inter-suburb warfare. As with the best terrestrial sci-fi, so much is alien, and yet there are normal things - here, these bored suburban kids whose childhoods are recognizable even as they mature into something incomprehensible.

There are few songs with truly good lyrics. Most are mush. Songwriters face a challenge of fixed meter in what they write, and most are more musician than wordsmith. It's like asking an opera singer to give an emotive acting performance. It's forgiven.

But then this song quiets down in the middle for one last verse, and there comes a series of lines with such weight, such timing, such a shocking closing phrase with its personal, maybe even religious undertones:

"So can you understand
Why I want a daughter while I'm still young?
I want to hold her hand
And show her some beauty before this damage is done
But if it's too much to ask, if it's too much to ask
Then send me a son"