Interpol's frontman Paul Banks writes their lyrics, but rarely reveals their meanings. He did tell Flaunt in 2004 that this dreary tune was about "the art of nearly falling apart."
Who is the "Rosemary" Paul Banks is singing about? The song seems to be about losing one's self after a trauma, so it could be inspired by the final days of Fred and Rosemary West, a British serial killer couple. While awaiting trial, Fred committed suicide, leaving his wife to serve a life sentence in prison.
The band doesn't appear in the video: the main character is a puppet who we follow into a hospital after he gets in a car accident; he sings the song throughout the clip. The director, Charlie White, came up with the concept of the video. It took 17 hours to shoot on a soundstage and in a hospital operating room in Los Angeles. Paul Banks, told MTV in 2005 why he was so fond of the idea. "The treatment was so interesting," he said. "When we saw the images of the puppet early on, we were sold on the concept of this artificial thing interacting in a real-world environment."
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