The Writing's on the Wall

This song is about a troubled relationship in which the two parties see things in different ways. The writing is indeed on the wall for the pair.

"The writing on the wall" is an expression that suggests a portent of doom or misfortune. It originates from the Old Testament Book of Daniel Chapter 5, where during a banquet hosted by King Belshazzar, a mysterious hand appeared and wrote on the palace wall the words, "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin". Daniel interpreted this message as the imminent end for the Babylonian kingdom. Belshazzar was slain that night and the Persians sacked the capital city.

The song's music video features the band romping through a series of optical illusions. Everything you see is actually a trick of the eye. The set took nearly three weeks to construct in a cavernous Brooklyn lot and the single long shot over 50 attempts to get right. The connection with the song becomes clear during the bridge, when a camera decrypts a message that reads, "I think I understand you, but I don't." "It was important to me that we didn't add a layer of meaning that's not already there," explained frontman and co-director Damian Kulash to Rolling Stone. "We wanted to be able to have messages in there, but I didn't want them going throughout the entire song in way that would make you feel like you were reading the whole time."