I Was Better Off: Alex: I didn’t like my college experience. I was growing inside, becoming more than I was, but I couldn’t express it. So much was going through my head, but I simply couldn’t verbalize it. "I Was Better Off" is about not being able to express myself and being trapped in a place day after day, then trying to talk about it and having my mouth not work.

So I Fall Again: Alex: The story is about a guy who’s going to propose to this girl. He goes up to his attic to get his grandmother’s engagement ring. The wood begins to buckle, and as he falls through the floor, he realizes the girl doesn’t have the same feelings for him. "So I fall in and out of love again."

Recently Distressed: Jacques: The lyrics were written as a letter from a superhero to the mom of a kid he couldn’t save in time. I wrote them the day I found out Christopher Reeve was paralyzed.

Can’t Take It: Alex: [Guitarist] Darren [Robinson] brought this music in without lyrics. I started singing to it, about how we were unknown while all this stuff was happening with other bands. There were all these ill feelings. We were losing faith in ourselves, and everyone was talking about how happy Hanson was. I finally came to the conclusion that there’s nothing wrong with being sad.

The Local Black and Red: Jason: Sometimes, you like a girl who has f***ed up, and you feel bad for her. You want to help. I wanted the lyrics to be full of images, like a poem. The second verse is specifically about this girl. I loved going to her house, and I was infatuated with every part of her body. But I liked her more than she liked me. So out came this classic high school song about how things were ending. Alex: I imagined falling asleep with headphones on, thinking how cool it would be if there was a bar with cool bands playing, a bar called The Local Black and Red.

Don’t Get Down: Jason: I wrote the lyrics on my 16th birthday. I didn’t want to see anyone ? I was depressed. I finished them on [bassist-singer] Sam [Farrar’s] birthday a couple days later. I was outside, sitting on Sam’s car, staring at the moon. I thought about sitting on a lawn chair on the moon and watching the world explode and not really caring.

Dying of Silence: Alex: In high school, I had this crush on a girl for at least a year. And after school, I couldn’t think of anything to say. She silenced me. Normally that doesn’t happen. I never did say anything to her.

Down in a Second: Alex: This is part of the "So I Fall Again" story. It was going to be a trilogy. It’s about trying to fit with the "in" crowd but not feeling any happier when you do. The "down" part is depression, not falling down. The second verse is about a crowd that doesn’t really care about you, their shallowness. The song describes how I left my old friends for a quick gain in popularity.

Lisa: Jacques: "Lisa" is set at a high school. It’s about a guy confessing his feelings to a girl. It was slightly inspired by the TV show "The Wonder Years." The chorus is his reaction to her reaction, because she rejected him.

Rest Easy: Jacques: This song is about pretending you’re asleep so you don’t get eaten alive by a monster. It’s also about people ? parents ? telling you everything will work out fine when you know it won’t.

Sleep Machine: Jacques: A lot of people think this is a cheesy love song. But it’s actually about my love/hate relationship with my television. For a while, I couldn’t fall asleep unless the TV was on.