My friends on West Coast USA and other seismic zones may be able to confirm this, but apparently "earthquake weather" is a real thing. Not real as in accurate, but an existing pseudoscientific belief shared by many in those regions. There is apparently this notion that a certain type of weather tends to precede earthquakes, either caused by the impeding event or some even have believed directly causing the event. I'd like to know any of your experiences with this concept. It's a bit of regional flavor that compels me.

Is this song about earthquake weather beyond the title? The lyrics are all over the place creating evocative motifs. Do they add up to a whole?

The first verse tends to focus on failings of modernity, and of people looking for a new way of life. The choruses seem to talk about maybe the afterlife being an illusion (and that consequently maybe the world we have is the only heaven we will get). The second verse does allude to the weather and the notion of something ominous coming. Is it an earthquake? Comparing it to a riptide that could rip "us" away suggests a general societal threat that traps us before we realize it. Hmm... What topic could unite the concepts of weather and general societal threat? It's a tricky one.

Lots of call outs to Beck's hometown of LA: Earthquakes, deserts, rip tides. Seeing the world in his backyard.

My single favorite line is the first: "Spaceships can't tame the jungle." Never, ever for get that, you modernists.

The music is just simply some of the coolest music Beck recorded. The ideas build this little ecosystem of sounds - is that sitar being pitch bent all over the place? It's the song's signature sound. Catchy small guitar phrases at key times, fun crowd background noise in the breakdown, funky little organ as a payoff. Excellent melodies. That drum beat is so simple, but man, at that pace, just slow enough to put some space between the quarter notes, every time that snare cracks it just satisfies.