"The Wombats - Let's Dance To Joy Division" song interpretation

We are looking at this Wombats song to come up with a treatment for a music video. The lyrics have many deep and hidden meaning to look at and interpret which could lead to obvious choices in mise-en-scene, location, costume etc, in the video itself.

I'm back in Liverpool,
And everything seems the same,
But I worked something out last night,
That changed this little boys brain,
A small piece of advice,
That took twenty-two years in the make,
And I will break it for you now,
Please learn from my mistakes,

From this verse we see that the character has returned (as far as we can tell) home to Liverpool after being away and has decided that everything seems just how he left it. However the line "that changed this little boys brain" suggest the transition from boy to man, the character having grown on their travels and become a more mature and wiser person. The line "that took 22 years in the make" suggests its an epiphany he has been searching for all his life. The end of the verse "And I will break it for you now, please learn from my mistakes" hints to us that the chorus of the song will be passing on this advice to us. So overall this verse sums up the theme of the song quite distinctly and simply, showing a journey of personal growth and learning a new revelation which he wants to share with us.

Let's dance to joy division,
And celebrate the irony,
Everything is going wrong,
But we're so happy,
Let's dance to joy division,
And raise our glass to the ceiling,
'Cos this could all go so wrong,
But we're so happy,
Yeah we're so happy.

The chorus of the song is not only lyrically ironic but musically ironic (irony being a main theme in the song). The music is jolly and happy while he's talking about the irony of "dancing to joy division". Joy Division were a late 70s band who's lead vocalist Ian Curtis committed suicide. He suffered from depression and would often have fits on stage. This shows the irony of the Wombats song. The line "but we're so happy" refers to the fact they're all dancing to depressing and sad music and forgetting their problems ('cos this could all go so wrong). The singer is not suggesting that life is brilliant or perfect, but rather that you should be happy and get on with life as it's the only solution to the sadness that life regrettably brings.

So if you're ever feeling down,
Grab your purse and take a taxi,
To the darker side of town,
That's where we'll be,
And we will wait for you and lead you through the dancefloor,
Up to the DJ booth,
You know what to ask for,
You know what to ask for.

This verse is simply an expansion of the themes already put into place, that sadness can be overcome by being happy and dancing your troubles away. There is no more hidden meanings other than the slight reference back to Joy Division with "Up to the DJ booth, you know what to ask for," saying that if they want to rid themselves of their sadness that they should ask the DJ to put on Joy Division to dance to.

The second chorus has one difference in which the first line states "Go ask for Joy Division," rather than "let's dance" so that it carries on the narrative from the verse and links the song together.

So let the love tear us apart,
I've found the cure for a broken heart,

This is the first time in the song we hear about the singers own personal problem that he has had to overcome. It becomes obvious that this is a love song in disguise, talking about how the best way to get over a girl is to dance it off and stay happy because life will carry on regardless, which I see as the general theme of the song.

We can see from looking deeper into the lyrics that the song is not actually particularly joyful which is ironic due to the upbeat lively feel of the music. The song instead chooses to portray an important life lesson in the form of a happy sounding song, with quite deep and meaningful lyrics.