[Death Cab for Cutie] Why You'd Want to Live Here

1. 05 - Why You'd Want To Live Here.mp3

I'm in Los Angeles today
It smells like an airport runway
Jet fuel stenches in the cabin
And lights flickering at random

I'm in Los Angeles today
Garbage cans comprise the medians
Of freeways always creeping
Even when the population's sleeping

And I can't see why you'd want to live here

I'm in Los Angeles today
Asked a gas station employee
If he ever had trouble breathing
And he said, "It varies from season to season, kid"

It's where our best are on display
Motion picture actors' houses
Maps are never ever current
So save your film and 15 dollars

And I can't see why you'd want to live here
Billboards reach past the tallest buildings
"We are not perfect, but we sure try"
As UV rays degradate our youth with time

The vessel keeps pumping us through this entropic place
In the belly of the beast that is California
I drank from a faucet and I kept my receipts
For when they weigh me on my way out
(Here nothing is free)
The greyhounds keep coming, dumping locusts into the street
Until the gutters overflow and Los Angeles thinks
"I might explode someday soon"

It's a lovely summer's day
And I can almost see a skyline
Through a thickening shroud of egos
(Is this the city of angels or demons?)

Here the names are what remain
Stars encapsulate the gold lane
And they need constant cleaning
For when the tourists begin salivating

You can't swim in a town this shallow
You will most assuredly drown tomorrow