Underworld - Stagger Lyrics






orange in the mouth again. straighten. wearing stonewashed denim again.
straighten. carrying something wrapped in plastic. straighten.
curled on the blue velveteen again. straighten. straighten.
siteless yellow highrise. bethnal green. straighten.
corner tubeless dark and wet. straighten. ten tons slowly then again.
straighten. with its glass eyes a blue formica halo.
stainless steel between the fingers. straighten. pissed and leaning ponytail.
licking colonel sanders fingers. the naming of killer boy.
everythings going west nothings going east. straighten.
there's no need to be so uptight. straighten. make up for all their messes.
i could listen to you all day. what a laugh. cut me i bleed like you. ha ha.
the naming of killer boy. cover your teeth. i love you. dont bite me yet.
i believe in you. i found you shopping in europa on wardour street.
not phoning packwidth. guilty as sin. straighten.
scratches on paper. pissed in a tube hole. straighten.
smelling of deep-fried beans and whispering your name.
tube hole wind in my face. thunder in gentle distance. reactor. reactor.
do you mind. straighten. this is a random feature. random feature.
this is a random feature. naming of killer boy.
wired up.





Other Lyrics by Artist

Rand Lyrics

Last Posts

Underworld Stagger Comments
  1. P.... R....

    Second Toughest in the infants = the greatest opening of an album. the greatest ending to an album. the greatest everything in between of any album.

  2. P.... R....

    What an incredible piece of music.

  3. N.... ....

    Very underrated song. Best on album

  4. S.... M....

    sounds like depeche mode

    S.... M....

    my thoughts exactly

  5. H.... M....

    Takes me back to my comedowns in the 90s.... "found you shopping in Europa".... nostalgic as fuck... damn... also now I realise it's got a very Radiohead vibe!

  6. M.... H....

    This is song about travelling on the London Underground and the snippets of sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touch sensations you get. Probably the best description of this you'll ever get. That's why it's genius. "The Naming of Killer Boy" is a random newspaper headline

    M.... H....

    He's also pissed, hence 'Stagger' and having to continually 'straighten' himself.

    M.... H....

    Love this very correct interpretation. I'm going to London for the first time in about a month, and I am making it a mission to spend part of my one night there walking around, listening to Underworld. After listening to Banstyle/Sappy's Curry at night, at the lighthouse in Berwick upon Tweed, and how magical that was, I cannot wait! 💙🎶👏

  7. s.... ....

    Corner, tubeless, dark and wet

    The soundtrack to having a mental breakdown in East London.

  8. T.... B....

    I found you shopping in europa...

  9. D.... H....

    For me their best album, very talented artists , Darren emmerson original techno dj

  10. T.... S....

    maybe the best album & maybe the best song
    orange in the mouth like stop sign pill

  11. M.... J....

    I remember as a teen having Tongue and this on repeat for hours... everything was going West, I guess.

  12. H.... P....

    "smelling the deep fried beans and whispering your name" ... How on Earth do these guys make nonsensical stuff like that seem such fantastic genius?

    H.... P....

    I wouldn't call it genius.. Just quick utterly random thoughts written down and then spouted out.. Like this:

    A lonely horse put a hoof upon a burning fish bowl.. Amusing afterlife, amusing afterlife. Centurian wasp wings grate upon my bluest skies.. No more lies.. Afterlife, afterlife.

    ..I typed that without stopping in 15 seconds. I'm fucked if i know what i was talking about

    H.... P....

    No offenc but that is wank, if you are going to try to demean someones art at least do it properly....

    H.... P....

    @/////////////////// Thank you! Like Mewt said, a lot of this comes from bits of overheard conversations, random observations, etc. I like how they kind of celebrate the more mundane aspects of life in a city like London. The wind from the tube blowing in your face, people eating fast food after a night of partying, "a moped started up, sounding like a chainsaw of tiny firecrackers", just amazing. This music is so good it doesn't necessarily need lyrics, but they went to the effort anyway and they seriously enhance these songs and give them so much depth! I can't even put a genre on Underworld as to me they're one of a kind!

    H.... P....

    @Tru Dis see, this is awesome

    H.... P....

    @Tru Dis But it's the way it works perfectly with the mood and melody and evocative atmosphere that makes it genius. Rick Smith is I reckon the absolute dark horse working in the background of all Underworld tracks. Both combined = genius.

  13. R.... M....

    Something about this song makes you want to hear it another time, again.

  14. D.... M....

    Beautiful,sinister track.Would love to use this in a grimy,dank British thriller/horror.Their quiet tunes are often the most powerful.Love it.

    D.... M....

    Watch the insane film "Morning Star" with this album as the soundtrack. Pretty amazing, I must say. By the time you get to Confusion the Waitress it seems like it was meant to be!

    D.... M....

    @Rachelectro DC-84 ooh interesting - do you start the CD immediately as the movie begins (after the production studio title cards) or do you wait 17 minutes into the movie (cd is 73 minutes, movie is 90 minutes - where do you leave the audio gap?)

    D.... M....

    @pabloplato I think we started it as the first scene comes on, in the aftermath of the battle. You can play around with it though, but I'm pretty sure we started it when the first scene appeared. Oh, and since STitI isn't quite long enough to last the whole movie, I highly, highly recommend Dubnobasswithmyheadman. Just pause it and put that album on. We picked that one at random to finish the movie and let's just say the ending of Morning Star + the second track on Dubnobass will blow your freaking mind!! 🌆😉

    D.... M....

    @Rachelectro DC-84 nice, always cool to find odd movie/album pairings. always weird to see what gets paired up (how'd you come up with that!?) but god bless ya for having done so, can't wait to check it out :)

    D.... M....

    @pabloplato You're welcome! Usually we will pick a movie and check out the description, and think of an artist or even a single album that would fit with it. One of our first pairings was Disney's Jungle Book (animated) with the album When I was Born for the 7th Time, by Cornershop. It was awesome, with the British-Indian connection in both band and movie. (Those old animated ones are a LOT of fun to put albums with!)

    Another superb one was LotR The Two Towers with Nightfall in Middle Earth by Blind Guardian. Too easy, hehe, but so good. Their Night at the Opera album was also stunning with the Nick Cage movie Outcast. We picked that record specifically because he is so over the top and theatrical, just like the album!

    Have fun with it and play around with different albums and genres. If you plan out your choices you will be freaked out by how well they work. Normally we wouldn't have thought to put Underworld with Morning Star, but my BF had already watched it and said it was super trippy and open to interpretation, so of course we're thinking "Underworld!". Let me know how it works out for you with any of your choices! Just talking about this makes me want to put some music with that ludicrous Bright movie! Maybe some AC/DC? 😏

  15. C.... ....

    This song makes me think of late rainy nights waiting in the pickup zone outside a Zellers for my brother to finish his shift.

  16. R.... A....

    Gran Tema de Karl Hyde, en su estado más zen

  17. n.... d....

    how perfect..

  18. f.... ....

    "There was this piece that we did called "Stagger": I remember vividly I was pissed off at the time and just didn't want to work, but Karl was like "Come on, why don't we plug in the keyboard and you play, and I'll sing." I think we did it in one take – it took all of 10 minutes – and it's one of my favourite things we've ever done." - Karl Hyde

    f.... ....

    Amazing. The whole thing is so disjointed yet fits together seamlessly, saying nothing with such urgency and pathos. Hard to believe they just did it in one go.

    f.... ....

    I think it may have been rick smith who said this

    f.... ....

    Makes it even more apparent the genius that Rick Smith is, playing this piece on one take. These aren't simple progressions, there's serious classical fidelity in his musical mind and I think no song of theres makes it more apparent than this one: though all the best Underworld tracks rely on his incredible sense for melody.

  19. D.... M....

    Dark,grimy,dangerous,a snapshot of big city nightlife.A highlight for Underworld for me,their quiet tunes are so powerful.